Good Cheese 2016-17

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2016-17

Making it, selling it, enjoying it

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Great British cheeseboards that anyone can enjoy – inside or outside the EU

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WHITE WOOD DAIRY | RISING STARS | IDIAZABAL | STREET FOOD ANN-MARIE DYAS | FIND A CHEESE SHOP | DRINKS MATCHING

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LE GRUYÈRE AOP

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BORN IN SWITZERLAND, 1115 A.D. And remains the only cheese that’s 100% Natural, 100% Traditional, 100% from Switzerland and 100% Le Gruyère AOP *AOP = PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) – must be traditionally and entirely prepared and produced within the region, thus acquiring the unique properties of Gruyère AOP cheese, to bear the name Le Gruyère AOP.

The uniquely smooth, savoury flavour you’ll find only in Le Gruyère AOP is a product of its upbringing – where the cows that supply the milk are grazed (only in the villages of Western Switzerland), the way the cheese is aged and cared for (slow-aged in the region’s cheese cellars and caves), and the recipe that’s remained, unchanged, for centuries (hand-made, in small batches). For a smooth and mild yet extremely satisfying taste, Le Gruyère Classic is aged 5 months minimum. Le Gruyère Reserve, which has been aged for 10 months or more, has a smooth but more robust flavour. Both varieties are great in recipes, or sliced as a snack. Either way, we’re sure you’ll enjoy the only cheese that can call itself Le Gruyère AOP.

Switzerland. Naturally.

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Castle of Gruyères

Born in Switzerland in 1115. www.gruyere.com

Cheeses from Switzerland. www.cheesesfromswitzerland.com

WELCOME

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what’s inside 25

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37 41 Counter culture

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News from the world of cheese.

Working with cheese

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Patrick McGuigan tracks down the new generation of cheesemakers, retailers, restaurateurs, graders and affineurs

Profile: The Cheese Society

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We meet online cheese shop pioneer Kate O’Meara

Brexit cheeseboards

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You don’t have to be part of the Union to enjoy Michael Lane’s selection of modern and classic British-born cheeses

Profile: White Wood Dairy

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Julie Cheyney, two-time recipient of the James Aldridge Trophy, gives Mick Whitworth the story behind St Jude and St Ceraditive cheese

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Interview: Ann-Marie Dyas

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hat has Brexit got to do with the price of cheese? Quite a lot, judging by what was happening to exchange rates as this annual edition of Good Cheese went to press, To say we are living in interesting times is an obvious understatement, not least for anyone bringing speciality cheeses into the UK from France, Italy or Spain. Just what the coming year will do to the price of some our favourite Continental varieties on British deli counters is anyone’s guess.

But every cloud has a silver lining, and if the Continent is indeed cut off next year, it means we Brits can all spend some time getting know our home-grown cheeses even better.

Turn to page 16 and you’ll see our suggestions for a few postBrexit cheeseboards, from classics to young upstarts and a modest little Celtic collection too.

All very tongue-in-cheek, of course. Given that our publisher, the Guild of Fine Food, has taken the World Cheese Awards to San Sebastián in Spain’s Basque region this year, we’re hardly turning our backs on Europe.

On page 37, World Cheese Awards founder Bob Farrand takes time out to visit artisan Idiazabal PDO producer Queseria La Leze and find out more about this less-well-known cousin of Manchego.

Turn the page and you’ll see the outcome of a shamelessly boozy morning I spent with our resident cheese buff Patrick McGuigan and the team from La Cave à Fromage in Hove, working out which of their huge selection of European cheeses can be paired with everything from smoked vodka to Manzanilla sherry.

(Spoiler alert: as far as I could see, nothing goes well with a wishywashy ‘pear cider’, although a real perry might have fared better).

And on page 31, Michael Lane visits the esteemed Ann-Marie Dyas, co-founder of The Fine Cheese Company, to get her views on interesting new ways to serve everything from pecorino to the buffalo milk Casatica.

We’ve got profiles of traditional cheese shops, the latest in cheesy street food, and an interview with Tunworth co-founder Julie Cheyney, who went solo in 2012 with White Wood Dairy and since then has twice won the artisan cheese sector’s biggest accolade, the James Aldridge Trophy for Britain’s best raw milk cheese.

Whether you’re making it, selling it or – most importantly – just enjoying good cheese , you should find plenty to get your teeth into in this year’s magazine.

MICK WHITWORTH Editorial Director Good Cheese and Fine Food Digest

After opening her first London store, The Fine Cheese Company’s co-founder offers some new ways to present cheese in the shop and on the plate

Street food

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From mac n cheese to poutine, we meet five businesses taking hot cheese dishes to markets and city streets

EDITORIAL editorial@gff.co.uk

GENERAL ENQUIRIES

Bob Farrand travels to the Basque Country to meet cheesemaker La Lezese 29

Editorial director Mick Whitworth Deputy editor: Michael Lane Art director: Mark Windsor Contributors: Patrick McGuigan, Isabelle Plasschaert, Bridget Cowan

Drinks and cheese matching

ADVERTISING advertise@gff.co.uk

Tel: 01747 825200 Fax: 01747 824065 info@gff.co.uk www.gff.co.uk

Published by the Guild of Fine Food Ltd

Guild of Fine Food, Guild House, 23b Kingsmead Business Park, Shaftesbury Road, Gillingham, Dorset SP8 5FB United Kingdom

Idiazabal 37 38

Sales director: Sally Coley Sales manager: Ruth Debnam Sales executive: Becky Stacey

Forget Stilton and Port: we join David Deaves and Alan Watson of La Cave à Fromage to find new ways to match cheese with beer, spirits and... tea?

Accompaniments and accessories

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Good Cheese is a sister magazine of Fine Food Digest.

FFD is published 11 times a year and is available on subscription for £45pa inclusive of post and packing.

Printed by: Monster Media Management, Dorset, UK

From chutneys to cheeseboards, our pick of the perfect partners for cheese

Recipe inspirations

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Three top chefs suggest new dishes for you to try

Where to buy good cheese Find your nearest stockist in this directory of shops

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Front cover image of Tunworth cheese: StockFood/Michael Paul

© The Guild of Fine Food Ltd 2016. Reproduction of whole or part of this magazine without the publisher’s prior permission is prohibited. The opinions expressed in articles and advertisements are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations.

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COUNTER CULTURE

What’s new in the world of speciality cheese • Two new names have joined Scotland’s line-up of artisan cheeses. Both produced in Comrie, Perthshire, by newcomer Strathearn Cheese Co. The Lady Mary is a lactic-set, bloomy-rinded cheese, matured for 10 days and then flavoured with locally foraged, dried wild garlic. “We also add a small line of Summer Harvest’s truffle-flavoured rapeseed oil,” says Pierre Leger, who set up the business with Drew Watson in March 2016.

Their second cheese is the eponymous Strathearn: a soft, young, rennet-set variety that is rind-washed every 48 hours in brine flavoured with a local single malt whisky, the Glenturret. www.strathearncheese.co.uk

Oxford Cheese Co’s College White, now with a layer of truffle butter

Truffles across the water

• Latteria di Grotta, a new cheese, from Italian producer Pezzetta, has one unmissable feature: an outer covering of hay.

According to Pezzetta’s Maurizio Contardo, the rustic covering serves as protection from the moisture of the 18th century cave (“grotto” in Italian) in which the cheese is matured.

“This is how the Latteria di Grotta acquires its fragrance and intense flavour and slightly crumbly texture,” he says.

Also new from Pezzetta is Blu Ramondol (inset below), a small blue cheese which is coated in grape pomace – a by-product of making the Friuli region’s Ramandolo wine.

The distinct flavour of the blue mould, combined with those of the “honey-like and fruity” Ramandolo create a balance of sweet and spicy flavours,” says Maurizio.

Pezzetta is based in north-eastern Italy, where it has been in business for nearly 90 years, and is represented in the UK by distributor L’Emporio Fine Foods. www.pezzetta.it www.lemporiofinefoods.com

• Leading Devon cheddar-maker Quickes will this year open a second milking parlour at its Home Farm near Exeter, enabling its long-established grassfed herd to be split in half.

The effective creation of two “farmlets”, each run by its own team, will mean more efficient milk production, less movement of feed, livestock and slurry, and better grassland management. www.quickes.co.uk

Fans of the truffle have always been able to sniff out a few cheeses containing their favourite fungus, mainly from France or Spain.

But the past year has seen cheesemakers as far apart as Oxfordshire and Michigan launching their own truffle-tinged specialities.

Britain’s own Oxford Cheese Co is making 350g and 1kg versions of its College White available with added truffle butter. “As the cheese matures it takes on the flavour of the truffle mix,” says founder Baron Robert Pouget. This is making it popular with top restaurateurs as well as foodie consumers, he says, adding: “The production process is very labourintensive, and this is reflected in the limited volume for sale.”

Another Brit now harnessing the potency of truffles is West Country cheddar maker Ford Farm.

For its new Truffler, it blends six-month-matured cheddar with two pungent ingredients. A black truffle & mushroom salsa provides texture and and colour, while an “earthy and heady” flavour comes from an aromatic black truffle oil.

And in the US, John and Anny Hoyt of artisan producer Leelanau Cheese have just created both a raclette and a ‘fromage blanc’ cheese spread, each flavoured with Italian black truffles. Samples of both varieties were being prepared for judging at the World Cheese Awards in San Sebastian as Good Cheese went to press.

“I don’t believe truffles have been used in raclette or fromage blanc before,” says Anne, who was born in northern France and met her American husband in the Swiss canton of Valais, where raclette originated.

“I was working as a shepherd in the alpage, and John was making cheese there,” she says, “but John always wanted to come back to Michigan.”

They set up Leelanau Cheese in 1995, making their Swiss-style cheeses with local milk, and in 2007 won Best In Show at the American Cheese Society competition in Vermont.

Nowadays, the couple produce 40,000lbs (18,000kg) of cheese a year. www.oxfordfinefood.com www.fordfarm.com www.leelanaucheese.com

Ford Farm has blended truffles into its six-month-old cheddar (left), while Leelanau Cheese in the US has added them to its Raclette (above)

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COUNTER CULTURE

• A household name in Italy, Nonno Nanni launched into UK shops this year with a range that includes lactosefree options. It is already available in nine Whole Foods Market stores.

Flagship products are the soft, cows’ milk Stracchino and the spreadable, slightly tartflavoured Robiola.

Sheep’s milk comes under spotlight at Sharpham Located close to the banks of the River Dart near Totnes, Devon, Sharpham has become well-known in specialist stores for its cows’ and goats’ milk cheeses, like the semihard Ticklemore Goat and the unpasteurised creamy cows’ milk, mould-ripened Elmhirst.

But the past year or so has seen head cheesemaker Debbie Mumford turning her attention to ewes’ milk cheeses, and particularly Washbourne.

This pasteurised, unpressed, washed-curd cheese is made with locally produced sheep’s milk, and Debbie and her team are also making a version with caraway.

Washbourne is already a gold winner at the International Cheese Awards, Taste of the West and British Cheese Awards – although, with milk supplies fairly limited, you won’t be seeing it in every shop in the country.

Sharpham’s cheese dairy sits alongside its winery, which produces award-winning still and sparking English wines from grapes grown in the estate’s 10 acre vineyard.

“We now average 100,000 bottles of wine and 60 tonnes of cheese each year,” says MD Mark Sharman. www.sharpham.com

www.quesosdelahuz.com

• Devon’s Holy Cow Organic has relaunched its four-strong line-up of luxury dairy products.

The range is led by its organic cottage cheese (RRP £1.85 for a 200g pot), but also includes a low-fat soft cheese (£1.99 for 150g) plus crème fraiche and clotted cream.

Milk for the range all comes from Holy Cow’s own organic farms in south Devon, and its cheeses are made nearby at what it says is the UK’s first carbonneutral dairy.

Delis and farm shops can buy Holy Cow products through distributor Rowcliffe.

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• Northumberlandia, the latest variety from Northumberland Cheese Co, is named after a vast land sculpture on the Blagdon Estate, 10 miles from Newcastle, which is also the cheesemaker’s base.

“Northumberlandia has a high level of acidity, which lends itself to a crumbly texture, and a complex finish,” says production manager Martin Atkinson.

“To diversify our offering, we wanted to experiment with maturation within a wax coat, and the result is a firm and creamy cheese, but with a slightly drier texture than some of our other farmhouse cheeses.”

The cheese’s namesake is a unique piece of public art set in 46 acres, with four miles of footpaths open to the public www.northumberlandcheese.co.uk

• Farmhouse cheddar maker Barber’s has re-launched its range of black waxed cheeses with new branding.

It follows a move to using the Barber’s name rather than that of its Somerset home, Maryland Farm, near Shepton Mallet.

The UK’s longest established family cheesemaker hopes that this makes the range easier for consumers to relate to other products, such as its flagship Barber’s 1833 Vintage Reserve Cheddar.

Barber’s is one of a handful of dairies still making cheddar on the farm and allowed to use the PDO accreditation, guaranteeing authentic cheddar from its original region.

The seventh-generation firm is also well-known for its unique collection of starter cultures indigenous to the Cheddar region, which give the really rich, rounded and flavours to its cheeses. www.barbers.co.uk

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stilton@colstonbassettdairy.com

www.nonnonanni.it/en

www.holycoworganic.co.uk

• Manchega sheep reared on the pastures of La Mancha in Spain are the source of a new artisan Manchego PDO from Quesos de la Huz, a family-run cheesemaker in Villamayor.

Made with raw ewes’ milk and aged for 9 to 12 months, Don Cayo mature artisan Manchego is a more specialised version of the well-established Don Cayo Manchego made with pasteurised milk, which has gained recognition at the World Cheese Awards and Great Taste awards.

Described as “a well-balanced cheese with high intensity and persistence”, the raw milk variety has a brown rind and a firm and compact yellow paste dotted unevenly with medium-sized eyes.

Its flavour is intense and deep, with the characteristic aroma and slight nuttiness you would expect of a mature Manchego.

Aimed at a “more discerning customer”, Don Cayo mature artisan Manchego is available in large wheels – roughly 3kg – and in 250g vac-packed wedges.

• Stilton-maker Colston Bassett has teamed up with a multicultural group of chefs to create Clash of Cultures, a booklet of new serving ideas for one the UK’s most traditional cheeses.

The chefs included Jeremy Pang, founder of the School of Wok, and Dipna Anand of Brilliant restaurant in Southall.

Their approach to cooking both with Colston Bassett’s Stilton and its Shropshire Blue delivered dishes such as Stilton & Mixed Mushroom Wontons, Crispy Braised Ox Cheek with Shropshire Blue and Colston Bassett Onion Bhajis.

If you’re interested in receiving the Clash of Cultures recipe booklet, email:

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COUNTER CULTURE certification for the nation Whether you’re a professional looking to up your game or just hoping to impress your guests at your next dinner party, you will soon be able to boost your cheese knowledge as the Acadmey of Cheese launches in 2017.

The scheme, which has secured backing from across the industry, is designed to create a clear progression for cheese professionals through four stages – Introduction, Professional, Expert and Master of Cheese – but will also be open to members of the general public.

The early stages will give all-comers the opportunity to indulge their passion for cheese, learning about the myriad styles of cheese as well as how to buy, serve and store it.

The development of content and structure is now in progress, with level one and level two courses due to launch in the first six months of 2017. This will be followed by level three and level four – the Master of Cheese – in 2018.

The list of patrons for the program cover a broad spectrum. Wholesalers Bradbury’s and Harvey & Brockless are on board as is marketing company Monkhouse Food & Drink and trade association the Guild of Fine Food.

“The Academy of Cheese will bring a much-needed respect and direction to cheese professionals and to those who want to take their enjoyment of cheese to a different level,” said Guild MD John Farrand. “Through the knowledge and contacts of those involved, a resource will exist that will inspire, educate and contribute to higher quality cheese being sold and enjoyed.”

Fine cheese retailers Paxton & Whitfield and Turnbulls Deli are both patrons along with Tesco.

Cheesemakers Cropwell Bishop, Quicke’s, Stichelton, Cornish Yarg maker Lynher Dairies and Lincolnshire Poacher are also supporters, as are larger producers Bridgehead Foods and Wyke Farms.

• After the launch of Pezzetta’s Italian cave-aged Latteria de Grotta (see p5), here’s another new southern European cheese presented in a wrapping of hay.

Hailing from Galicia in Spain, Marianne is a raw cows’ milk cheese, aged for three months in a nest of hay. This lends the rind a natural floral scent, according to Germán Garcia of producer Cortes de Muar, while the paste has soft toffee and nut notes.

As Good Cheese went to press, Cortes de Muar was in “advanced talks” with London-based importer and retailer Brindisa to bring Marianne to the UK market.

Cortes de Muar is a secondgeneration family business that has been making artisan cheeses for 20 years. www.cortesdemuar.com www.brindisa.com

www.academyofcheese.org

• Californian cheesemaker Bellwether Farms may not feature in British delis yet, but it’s got an eye on exports after a “terrific year” for the firm and its owners, the Callahan family.

A producer of award-winning sheep’s and cows’ milk cheeses for three decades, it launched its first mixed milk cheese, Blackstone, in 2016 and immediately picked up best-in-class at the American Cheese Society awards.

The 3.75lb wheels are a blend of local sheep’s and Jersey cows’ milk with studded with black peppercorns.

Blackstone’s dark rind comes from a mix of crushed black pepper, oil, rosemary and vegetable ashes, which is handrubbed onto each cheese during a six- to eight-week ageing process at the Sonoma dairy.

While Bellwether’s yogurts, ricotta and crème fraiche might not travel too far, it has several other pasteurised, aged cheeses using milk from Jerseys grazed on coastal Sonoma grass. “They would be such a hit over the pond,” a Bellwether Farms spokeswoman tells us. www.bellwetherfarms.com

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• A “duo pack” of Black Bomber mature cheddar and Ruby Mist cheddar with port & brandy is among several updated gift packs from Snowdonia Cheese Co. There is also a “trio” boxed set of the waxed cheese specialist’s three bestsellers: Black Bomber, Green Thunder (mature cheddar with garlic & herbs) and Red Devil (Red Leicester with a hit of hot chilli).

Both are also available as deluxe packs, with a natural Welsh slate board. www.snowdoniacheese.co.uk

• Three years after founding Hamm Tun Fine Foods with a view to putting Northamptonshire on the speciality cheese map, owner Gary Bradshaw has moved to bigger premises on a local dairy farm and begun looking for new outlets.

“It was surprising to learn that, while we’re famous in Northampton for shoes, The Saints, The Cobblers, Silverstone and Carlsberg brewery, there was no whiff of a Northamptonshire cheese,” Gary says.

He launched Hamm Tun with the hard, crumbly Cobblers Nibble, which has been picked up by local delis and restaurants.

This was followed by Northamponshire Blue, a soft, creamy cheese that won a silver at 2016’s Melton cheese festival.

The cheese was originally made in a small industrial unit in the heart of Northampton, but Gary says: “This quickly became too small, and the 3am starts, five times a week, started to take their toll.

“So after a long chat with Newlands Farm, who we were purchasing our milk from and who’ve supported us from the beginning, we decided to move production on to the farm.”

He adds: “Milk is now piped straight into the vat after being pasteurised – so no more 4am starts!” sales@hammtunfinefoods.co.uk

• Plenty of Brits have swapped high-pressure careers for the joys and challenges of small-scale rural food production. Rubén Valbuena (above) is an example of the same back-to-the-country phenomenon – this time in Spain.

Rubén had worked for the United Nations in several countries before his artisan cheese business, Cantagrullas, was born in 2010.

It was a “very personal project”, he says, to move his family away from big cities and back to the countryside.

He worked alongside French farmhouse cheesemakers before returning to Spain and starting to craft cheese with the milk of his sister’s Castellana ewes.

Soon, he says, some “pretty particular and special” cheeses started to emerge: soft varieties, natural rinds and even his own Spanish twist on English cheddar.

“It’s the same recipe, the same process – but with milk from sheep,” he says adding: “At around 40kg, it’s also the biggest cheese made in Spain.”

All are made with raw milk. “Previously, it was almost impossible to find young cheeses made with raw milk in Spain,” Rubén says. The convention was that unpasteurised cheeses should be aged for at least two months. “I was making cheeses aged for seven days.”

So different were these newcomers that Cantagrullas set a new benchmark in fine dining, with Rubén becoming known as ‘’the cheesemaker of the chefs’’.

“We have also been a reference point for other new cheesemakers who, like me, wanted to get back to their roots in countryside,” he adds. www.granjacantagrullas.com

Available direct from THE OXFORD BLUE CHEESE COMPANY LTD 01844 338055 www.oxfordfinefood.com Or From: Harvey & Brockless Limited 020 7819 6000, Anthony Rowcliffe 01892 838999, Carron Lodge 01995 640352, Hamish Johnston 01394 388127, Paxton & Whitfield 01451 823460, Fromage to Age 02476515628, Cheltenham Cheese 01242 529921, Leopard Dairy 01747 811188, New Wave Seafoods 01285 715160, Barry Gibbon 01235 812974, Abbey Cheese 01525 853040, Wellocks 0844 499 3444, West Horsley Dairy 01483 725000

working with cheese David Jowett (25)

Cheesemaker and co-owner, King Stone Dairy, Oxfordshire.

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art of a new wave of young producers taking British cheese in exciting new directions, David Jowett has won several awards for his washed rind Reblochon-style Rollright, including Supreme Champion at the Artisan Cheese Awards in Melton Mowbray this year.

What makes this remarkable is that Rollright was only launched a year ago and David is just 25 years old. He’s packed a lot into those years, training as a chef in Stratford-upon-Avon, before working at Berkswell-maker Ram Hall and gaining a Dairy Diploma at the School of Artisan Food.

His first cheese business was ultimately unsuccessful – “I learned a lot from my mistakes, so in hindsight it was a good experience” – but two years making cheese at Gorsehill Abbey in the Cotswolds helped prepare him for his current venture, teaming up with farm manager Antony Curnow to launch King Stone.

“A lot of my interest in cheese goes back to watching TV programmes like River Cottage and Rick Stein’s Food Heroes,” he says. “A whole generation of people grew up watching them, so the renaissance of farmhouse cheese might be a shock to older generations, but it’s not for younger people – it’s always been there for us.”

Lionel Heap

A lot of my interest in cheese goes back to watching TV programmes like River Cottage and Rick Stein’s Food Heroes

www.bristol247.com

With the pioneers of British cheese now ripening to maturity, where are the role models for the next generation? PATRICK McGUIGAN profiles some of today’s bright young things.

Young guns Rosie Morgan (28) Owner, Bristol Cheesemonger

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t’s hard to believe of a foodie hotspot like Bristol, but when Caerphilly producer Trethowan’s closed its shop in St Nicholas Market two years ago the city no longer had a specialist cheesemonger.

Thankfully that is no longer the case, after Rosie Morgan opened her shop earlier this year, bringing dairy deliverance to Bristol cheese fanatics.

Originally from Tavistock, where she worked at her local cheese shop as a Saturday girl, Morgan did a PR degree and worked as a barista in a hip Bristol coffee shop, but found herself missing the cheese life.

“I craved to get back into it, so I started selling cheese at local markets and it took off from there,” she says.

Her new shop opened in June and sells 50-80 mainly West Country cheeses, plus wine on tap and locally sourced crackers and chutneys.

Many of the cheeses are collected by Morgan herself on visits to farms, such as Westcombe and White Lake. “It’s wonderful to see the animals in the field and speak to the herd manager about how the pasture is affecting the milk,” she says.

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I started selling at local markets and it took off from there

working with cheese Fay Birchenough (30)

Market stall holder and owner, Big Wheel Cheese, London

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It’s not about the money, it’s about the love of cheese

Dan Bliss (27)

Affineur, Paxton & Whitfield, London

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here’s more to Paxton & Whitfield’s iconic shop on Jermyn Street than an imposing cheese counter. Underneath the shop are two cellars where Dan Bliss practises the dark arts of ‘affinage’, otherwise known as cheese maturing.

“I’m known in the shop as the cheese whisperer,” she says. “My job involves getting the best out of our cheeses by brushing, washing and

I’m known in the shop as the cheese whisperer turning them, and by adjusting the humidity and temperature.

“With our French goats’ cheese, I like to have different age profiles on the counter, so the Sellessur-Cher could be young and fluffy, but I’ll age the St Maure on straw for longer so it’s drier and more intense.”

Bliss first fell for cheese on family holidays to France followed by a Saturday job at the Cheese Society in Lincoln. She went on to study French and Spanish at university, a qualification that is handy when she visits Paxtons’ suppliers in France.

“One day I can be having an in-depth conversation with a cheesemaker or washing an Epoisses, the next I’ll be watching a YouTube video on moulds or tweeting about a new cheese.

“I love the fact that cheese is always changing. In wine you work in vintages, year by year, but with cheese it’s day by day.”

Duncan and Amy Findlater (32 & 33) Owners, Smith & Gertrude wine and cheese bar, Edinburgh

Once you’ve eaten a proper brie there is no going back to a supermarket cheese

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heeseboards in restaurants are often tired affairs, stretching not much further than a generic blue, cheddar and brie. Not so at Smith & Gertrude in Edinburgh, a bar that takes its cheese just as seriously as its wine.

Set up last year by a husband-and-wife team, the bar serves 15 artisan varieties supplied by award-winning cheesemonger George Mewes.

“We got into wine and food in Melbourne when we lived there, and saw that a restaurant or bar doesn’t need a menu with 50 items on it – it could focus on one or two things and do them really well,” says Duncan Findlater, adding that the cheese bars of New York were also an inspiration.

There’s a strong British ontingent, including Montgomery’s cheddar and Dorstone, plus Continentals such as Taleggio and Comté.

Customers can make their own selection or order cheese ‘flights’ matched to wines, as well as hot dishes like baked Vacherin.

“People are more adventurous and knowledgeable about cheese than ever before,” says Findlater. “Once you’ve eaten a proper brie there is no going back to a supermarket cheese wrapped in plastic.”

eeping warm and checking weather forecasts are twin obsessions of Fay Birchenough, who runs cheese stalls at several London markets, including Chiswick, Maltby and Broadway.

“How much you make really depends on the weather,” she says. “If it rains it might be nothing and the next week £300. But it’s not about the money, it’s about the love of cheese.”

The textile design graduate from Halifax set up on her own after a stint at a deli in Dulwich Village.

“I ran a few local markets for them and really fell in love with the atmosphere and people,” she says.

Her stalls sell around 15 British cheeses – including Colston Bassett Stilton, Ribblesdale Goat Gouda and Lancashire Bombs – many of which Birchenough sources directly from the cheesemakers “I do a cheese run when I go up to Halifax, visiting the farms myself,” she says. “It means I get the best stock but also that I really understand where the cheese is from.

“In London, people aren’t really connected with the countryside. My customers love to hear the stories behind the cheese.”

It has been drummed into me that cheese is a living product Bev Whitfield (26)

Cheese grader, Lake District Creamery

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lock cheddar sold in the supermarkets might be made in huge quantities by large creameries, but it’s still a natural product affected by factors such as what the cows have been eating.

“It has been drummed into me that cheese is a living product,” says Bev Whitfield, who grades cheddar, Red Leicester and Double Gloucester at three First Milk creameries in Cumbria, Pembrokeshire and Argyll.

It’s her job to test the cheese as it matures to ensure it meets the right quality standards and work out which can be aged for longer. This is still done in the old fashioned way, with Whitfield taking a plug of cheese from 20kg blocks with a tool called a cheese iron, before looking, sniffing, squeezing and tasting to see if it is up to scratch.

“Cheddar for maturing should be firm and fairly close textured, with a balance of acid, which is sufficient to drive the flavour without attacking the body,” she says, adding she is still learning from more experienced colleagues every day.

“It is impossible to pick up the skills without exposure to a lot of cheese.”

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A PROMOTIONAL FEATURE FOR COMTé

Comté: A cheese for For more than ten Comté, mushroom & nut centuries, villagers of the pâté en croute Jura Massif in Eastern A wonderful main course to serve at Christmas – the tang of the Comté France have lovingly and the sweetness of the chestnut crafted Comté, a unique purée are beautifully complemented by the earthy flavours of the nuts and and delicious cheese. mushrooms.

Each croute serves 4 people, so you can This stunning mountain cook one now and freeze the other for a later date, or even halve the qualities to region is home to over just feed 4 people if you wish.

3,000 family farms Ingredients dedicated to producing Serves 8 the highest quality Pâté en croute 2 x 320g packs all-butter puff pastry of raw milk from the sheets unsalted butter Montbéliarde and French 30g 1 large onion, finely chopped stick celery, finely chopped Simmental cow breeds, 1250g mushrooms, chopped quite small 1 large clove garlic, crushed which feed on natural 120g walnuts, chopped quite small grass and harvested hay. 360g cashew nuts, chopped quite

C

omté’s methods of production are still based on the original cooperative approach and artisan traditions that it was founded on. Every single day of the year, the cheese is crafted in 153 small village cheese dairies known as fruitières. Often situated in the heart of the village, each fruitière continues to receive milk from the dedicated dairy farms situated within an 8-mile radius to guarantee its absolute freshness.

Today, Comté is not only loved by millions of people in France, but all over world, including countless celebrity chefs and top restaurants. With its array of delicious flavours, varying depending on how long the cheese has been aged for, the weather and the time of year (affecting what the cows are eating), Comté is a perfect addition to many mouth-watering seasonal dishes, giving each dish a naturally unique flavour.

And while it’s a superb cheese to take pride of place on the Christmas cheeseboard, the rich flavours are perfect for cooking over the festive period.

For more information, please go to: http://www.comtecheese.co.uk/ Twitter: @comte_cheese Facebook: Comte Cheese UK Instagram: ComteCheeseUK

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small 240g unsweetened chestnut puree 150g Comté, cubed (aged for 18 or 24 months) 2 tablespoons brandy ½ teaspoon paprika 1 teaspoon thyme leaves, chopped 2 free range eggs, lightly beaten 1 egg, beaten, to glaze Sauce 250g mushrooms, sliced 30g butter 300ml full fat soured cream (full fat is key as half fat will split when heated)

Method 1. Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium-to-low heat and gently fry the onion, mushrooms and celery for about 10 minutes until soft, but not brown. Remove from the heat, stir in all other ingredients, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste and mix well. Leave to cool.

2. Heat oven to 200˚C (180˚C fan).

3. Lay the pastry sheet out flat.

4. Form the mixture into two sausage shapes a bit shorter than the length of the pastry, then roll the pastry around the filling (like a large sausage roll), cut off any excess overlap and brush the edges with beaten egg and press to seal the pastry. Glaze the surface of the pastry with the beaten egg – excess pastry can be used to decorate, i.e. cut out leaf shapes or stars to stick on with more beaten egg.

5. Line two baking sheets with nonstick parchment or silicone and carefully transfer the croutes and bake for 30 minutes until dark golden brown (you can freeze them at this point; defrost completely before baking).

6. Meanwhile, make the sauce: melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat and fry the mushrooms, turn the heat down very low, stir in the soured cream, season with salt and black pepper and serve straight away.

Recipe © Laura Pope

A PROMOTIONAL FEATURE FOR COMTé

r all seasons!

Potato & Jerusalem artichoke gratin with truffles & Comté A delicious side dish or main (think macaroni cheese – you could even add bits of bacon), the truffle is a luxurious (and optional) addition that brings out the deep nutty flavour of the Comté and the earthiness of the root vegetables.

Ingredients Serves 6 to 8 as a side dish 1 large clove garlic

Butter, for greasing the dish 500ml full fat milk (or semi-skimmed) 1 teaspoon salt Plenty of black pepper, ground nutmeg and a pinch of cayenne 450g floury potatoes (as opposed to waxy ones), peeled and sliced as thinly as possible (a mandolin or food processor would be ideal) 450g Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and sliced as above 150g Comté, sliced (a fruity Comté, such as 12 or 16-months, would work well here, to compliment the delicate flavour of the artichokes) Truffle, grated, or truffle oil to taste – optional

Method 1. P reheat oven to 190˚C (170˚C fan).

2. C ut the garlic in half and rub the inside of an oven-proof dish (about 20x20cm), then crush the garlic and put in a large saucepan. After a few minutes, when the garlic-rubbed dish has dried, butter the dish well.

3. Add all the ingredients, except the Comté, to the saucepan and bring to a boil. Stirring continuously, to prevent the potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes sticking, simmer for a minute or two until the liquid thickens perceptibly,

then remove from the heat. Stir in half of the Comté and the truffle or truffle oil, if using.

4. Pile into the dish or tin and push the potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes down into the liquid so they are not sticking out. Lay over the remaining Comté on top.

5. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour in the middle of the oven until the top is dark golden and the potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes completely tender when poked with a knife (the thinner you sliced them, the quicker they will cook).

Recipe © Laura Pope

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PROFILE: THE CHEESE SOCIETY

AHEAD OF THE CURVE When Kate O’Meara set up her internet cheese shop, the web was still in its infancy. Since then the business has grown into a bricks-and-mortar operation and is considered a retailing exemplar, both on the ground and online. PATRICK McGUIGAN visits The Cheese Society.

O

pening a conventional cheese shop in 1997, when the British food revolution was still in its infancy, would have been a brave move. But Kate O’Meara went even further out on a limb with what must have been one of the first ever online speciality food businesses in the country. At a time when Ocado was not even a pipe dream, The Cheese Society was already trading from an industrial estate in Lincoln.

“It was basically a tin shack with a dial-up connection, which was horrible to use, but I could see the possibilities,” says O’Meara, who had previously run a deli in the city, called Comestibles, for 10 years.

“The idea was that it would be my retirement business. I’d work Monday to Thursday, sending out good cheese to people who couldn’t get it from the supermarkets. But then locals started hearing about me and they would come to the unit and want to buy direct.”

The number of people who came knocking at the door in search of cheese rapidly increased to until O’Meara decided to go back to bricks-and-mortar retailing, opening a cheese shop and café just off The Strait with space at the back for her burgeoning online business to grow.

“I sold my house to buy the property and moved into the flat above it,” she says. “A lot of people thought I was crazy, but I had that much faith in what I was doing that I decided to put my money where my mouth was.”

As the business approaches its 20th anniversary, O’Meara’s conviction has paid off. The Cheese Society’s website is a much slicker affair than the old dial-up days, selling everything from monthly

subscriptions, hampers and wedding cheese cakes to knives, crackers and chutneys. But the shop has also evolved, with the company investing around £40,000 in a complete refurb earlier this year, which helped it take the runner-up spot in the prestigious Le Gruyère AOP Cheese Counter of the Year 2016 competition.

The way the Cheese Society has grown reflects how British food trends have developed over the past two decades. People want the convenience of online retailing, but they also like the personal contact and knowledge that comes with visiting a specialist shop.

“If they want self-service they can go to a supermarket, but they want more than that, they want an experience,” explains O’Meara, who has recently been joined in the business by her daughter Lucie.

The shop certainly gives visitors that. The beautiful counter is heaving with around 120 British and Continental cheeses, from best sellers Lincolnshire Poacher and Gorgonzola Dolce to more obscure creations such as Pavé Cobble (a soft sheep’s milk cheese from Somerset) and Aarewasser (a nutty Swiss cheese).

There’s also a small café serving cheese-centric dishes, including double baked soufflé and Stilton ice

cream, plus lots of clever offers and deals. The Cheese Express basket is filled with ready-wrapped wedges (three for £5; seven for £10) or you can buy a picnic pack of cheeses, which come in a branded cool bag.

Key to the whole experience is superb customer service. Slices of cheese are liberally distributed to customers across the counter, but not before O’Meara or one of her team have chatted to them about what they’re looking for and what they like. “Listening to what people want makes all the difference,” she says.

“A lot of people don’t listen in shops.

You always have to remember that it’s about what the customer wants and not what you want. People are much more knowledgeable about cheese these days. They don’t just accept what they’re given.”

It’s not only the customers that have changed since The Cheese Society first started. The range and quality of cheese that is now available has also improved dramatically, says

O’Meara, with a huge increase in the number of British cheeses.

“We’re seeing more young producers setting up making British versions of Continental cheeses,” she says. “Baron Bigod, which is made with raw milk in Suffolk, is just about as good as any French Brie de Meaux.”

Keeping on top of the everchanging world of cheese takes a lot of time and research. O’Meara is constantly scouring magazines, books and the internet for new cheeses and trends, but that is half the fun, she says. “I love the fact that cheese is different all the time. If you are selling a tin of beans, it’s just a case of flogging it. But with cheese you’ve got everything else that goes into it – when it was made, who it was made by and how it was made.

“There are so many different variables that you’re never going to be on top of it. It’s a challenge – and I like a challenge.” www.thecheesesociety.co.uk

The Cheese Society’s counter holds some 120 different varieties

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BREXIT BOARDS Just because we’re planning to leave our European cousins doesn’t mean that the UK won’t be able to assemble a mean cheeseboard.

MICHAEL LANE presents three selections to ease your separation anxiety.

Lincolnshire Poacher Lincolnshire Hard. Cows’ milk. Unpasteurised. www.lincolnshirepoachercheese.com

BERKSWELL

West Midlands Hard. Ewes’ milk. Unpasteurised.

Ragstone

Herefordshire Soft. Goats’ milk. Unpasteurised.

www.berkswellcheese.com

www.nealsyardcreamery.co.uk

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MODERN BRITISH CLASSICS

CHEESEBOARDS

Tunworth

Hampshire Camembert-style. Cows’ milk. Pasteurised. www.hampshirecheeses.co.uk

STINKING BISHOP

Gloucestershire Washed rind. Pasteurised.

Cows’ milk. www.charlesmartell.com

Beenleigh Blue

Devon Blue. Ewes’ milk. Pasteurised. www.ticklemorecheese.co.uk

Good Cheese would like to thank the following for their help with sourcing cheese:

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Savoury biscuits are our speciality.

Our range includes multi award-winning Water Biscuits and Oatcakes that are perfect for the cheeseboard.

Tel: 01851 702733 www.stagbakeries.co.uk sales@stagbakeries.co.uk 18

goodcheese 2016-17

CHEESEBOARDS

Rollright

Oxfordshire Washed rind. Cows’ milk.

Pasteurised. www.rollrightcheese.com

Rachel

St Thom

Somerset Semi-soft. Goats’ milk.

Unpasteurised.

Worcestershire Soft. Goats’ milk. Unpasteurised.

www.whitelake.co.uk

Beauvale

Nottinghamshire Blue. Pasteurised. Cows’ milk. www.cropwellbishopstilton.com

Baron Bigod

Suffolk Brie-style. Cows’ milk. Unpasteurised. www.fenfarmdairy.co.uk

Cornish Kern

Cornwall Semi-hard. Cows’ milk. Pasteurised. www.lynherdairies.co.uk

NEW BRITISH CHEESES

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Soft Fresh Italian Cheese Fresh to the UK One of Italy’s premium, soft, fresh cheese specialists, is now available here.

The success of the family run business at home is down to their commitment to creating authentic, delicious cheese.

Enjoy the incredible versatility of traditional Italian favourites Stracchino, Robiola, Caprino & Squaquerello.

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Love Wensleydale Cheese… make sure it’s from Yorkshire!

Not all cheeses bearing the Wensleydale name are actually produced in Yorkshire! By stocking Yorkshire Wensleydale your customers can be assured that they are buying an authentic product, traditionally handcrafted with integrity in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.

Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese is now protected

www.wensleydale.co.uk @WdaleCreamery @wensleydale_creamery

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facebook.com/ wensleydalecreamery BLOG

wensleydale.co.uk/blog

CHEESEBOARDS Ballyoak

Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland Smoked soft. Cows’ milk. Pasteurised. www.fivemiletowncheese.com

Black Bomber

Denbighshire, Wales Cheddar. Cows’ milk.

Pasteurised. www.snowdoniacheese.co.uk

Strathdon Blue

Ross-shire, Scotland.

Blue. Cows’ milk. Unpasteurised. www.hf-cheeses.com

Golden Cenarth

Carmarthenshire, Wales Washed rind. Cows’ milk. Pasteurised. www.cawscenarth.co.uk

Young buck

Co Down, Northern Ireland Blue. Cows’ milk.

Unpasteurised. www.mfcheese.com

Isle of Mull

Argyll, Scotland Cheddar-style. Cows’ milk.

Unpasteurised. www.isleofmullcheese.co.uk

CELTIC SELECTION

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Specialists in the field for nearly 30 years, discover Brindisa’s range of classic and artisan Spanish cheeses to suit any occasion. sales@brindisa.com | 0208 772 1600 | www.brindisa.com AWAdvert2016-Cheeses.indd 1

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Speak to us for an open exchange of ideas about the up-to-theminute challenges and innovations in the retail sector Our main focuses, which together sum up what really matters in today’s world of retail; Open Technology, Shopper Experience, Energy Efficiency and Process Improvement Scales, Labellers, Tills, Labels, Slicers, Mincers & Strip Cutters

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info@bizerba.co.uk

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PROFILE: WHITE WOOD DAIRY

Life in the raw Julie Cheyney’s obsession with dairy cows took her from Hampshire to the Norfolk-Suffolk border, where she has just won a second major accolade for her small-batch raw milk cheeses.

MICK WHITWORTH reports.

P

erched at a breakfast bar in the kitchen of her tiny cottage on the Norfolk-Suffolk border, Julie Cheney is explaining how her two cheeses, St Jude and St Cera, were named.

She starts with the latter, a little washed-rind number in the style of the French Epoisses or Langres, and essentially a brine-washed version of St Jude.

St Cera, Julie says, takes it name from an Irish abbess of the 6th or 7th century, whose main claim to fame seems to have been – unusually for a saint – to die peacefully in her own bed.

No obvious dairy connections there, then, but the name had two simple advantages. For one thing, Julie was looking for a female saint to complement the male St Jude. But she also simply liked “the shape of the letters” – St Cera, she felt, would suit the font used on her labels.

So what about St Jude, the unctuous, lemony, lactic cheese with which she launched White Wood Dairy back in 2012?

“It’s a joke against myself,” she explains. “St Jude was the patron saint of lost causes!”

A week after our interview, I’m still trying to figure this out, because Julie – who shares premises at Fen Farm Dairy near Bungay with farmer Jonny Crickmore, maker of the up-and-coming British brie Baron Bigod – is anything but a lost cause.

It’s true the road to Fen Farm from Hampshire, where she had co-founded Hampshire Cheeses 20 years ago with then business partner Stacey Hedges, was not smooth. The two had created the much-loved Camembert-style Tunworth, and after she and Stacey parted company in 2010, Julie seems to have suffered a crisis of confidence.

It was only with support from her industry colleagues – notably retailer and wholesaler Neal’s Yard, Dairy where she worked for a couple of years – that she got back on her feet as a cheesemaker.

However, by 2012 she had launched her new venture, White Wood Dairy, in a rented unit in Hampshire, and begun developing the raw milk, lactic cheese that became St Jude. And just a year

Self-professed ‘cow nerd’ Julie Cheyney with some of Jonny Crickmore’s Montbéliarde-led herd at Fen Farm Dairy later, Julie was awarded one of the most prestigious prizes in her profession: the James Aldridge Trophy for the best British raw milk cheese.

Presented annually by the Specialist Cheesemakers Association, in honour of one of the founding fathers of modern British artisan cheeses, this is the trophy that matters most to a lot of top cheesemakers, because the winner is selected by their peers in the industry.

And it gets better. Because this year, Cheyney achieved a first for the artisan cheese sector by taking the Aldridge trophy for a second time, this time with St Cera, made at her new East Anglian base.

this year, julie achieved a first for the the artisan cheese sector by taking the aldridge trophy for a second time, this time with st cera

“The wonderful thing is,” she says, “that I won it with two different cheeses made in two different counties. For me, this is the highest accolade, because it’s not something you can enter for – you have to hope that you are nominated, and it’s judged by people you respect.”

She may be a modest soul, but it’s clear Julie is held in high regard as a cheesemaker and, in particular, for her devotion to raw milk cheeses and the dairy herds that help produce them.

Tunworth was originally a raw milk cheese (it’s now pasteurised) and the one thing Julie was sure of when she set up White Wood Dairy was that – for better or worse – she was sticking to the unpasteurised path.

She has always been a “cow nerd”, she says, ever since learning to milk cows as part of a weekend job on a farm. After ‘A’ levels she spent

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Ins_Gruyere_premier_cru_204x141.5_RZ_X3.pdf

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22.12.15

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Cremo SA, von MĂźhlenen Case postale CH-1701 Fribourg Switzerland T +41 (0)26 492 93 30 F +41 (0)26 492 93 39 www.vonmuhlenen.ch

The Truckle Cheese Company, home to award winning products including its farmhouse cheese truckles, is delighted to be working with Dorset-based, Ford Farm offering their cave aged products, traditional West Country Farmhouse Cheddars aged deep within the caves at Wookey Hole in Somerset.

Maturing cheese in Caves is a practice that dates back many hundreds of years. The cheesemakers at Dorset-based Ford Farm, have revived this art by ageing their traditional, hand-made farmhouse cheddar truckles in the historic caves at Wookey Hole in Somerset. The constant, yearround temperature and humidity offers the ideal conditions to create a cheddar that is deliciously rich, tangy and mature combined with the distinctive, earthy and nutty flavours from the Caves’ unique atmosphere.

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goodcheese 2016-17

profile: white wood dairy a year on a traditional dairy Kent farm, where the herd of 60 Jerseys had the luxury of 60 acres to graze in, and she learned more during a further three years at agricultural college.

It was her pursuit of the perfect milk that led her from Hampshire to the flat farmland around the river Waveney in Suffolk. Listening to Radio 4’s Farming Today one morning, she heard an interview the Jonny Crickmore about his plans for Baron Bigod. “Oh, that will just be another boring brie,” she thought, until he began talking about using Montbéliarde cows – a French breed producing high-protein milk that is particularly suitable for cheesemaking. “At that point, I knew he was serious,” she recalls, adding: “He was also using the same French cheese consultant as me, Ivan Larcher.”

Over the next year, Jonny and his wife Dulcie came down to Hampshire to make cheese with Julie, she made similar trips to Suffolk, and eventually it was agreed that St Jude would share space in Jonny’s cheese room with Baron Bigod.

The two are made in different ways – the briestyle is a quick make, heavy on the rennet, whereas the lactic St Jude is a long, slow set – but both take raw milk from the farm, either straight from the milking parlour or stored briefly in a 2,000-litre tank over the making room.

Jonny Crickmore’s herd was originally based on familiar British Friesians and Holsteins. But in a move to add more value through cheese- and butter-making, he bought in an initial 80 Montbéliarde cows from various farms and, by artificial insemination from Montbéliarde bulls, is gradually introducing those genetics throughout the rest of his cattle.

The herd is currently split into two, calving in spring and autumn, which, Julie says, only adds to the endless variations in her raw material, as milk from cows with different genetics, different feed and different stages of lactation finds its way into her parlour.

With her own cheesemaking methods constantly evolving, the award-winning St Jude and St Cera are morphing too, not just with the seasons but through the years. “It’s ever-changing,”she says, “which I find exciting, curious and sometimes frustrating.”

Around 600 of the little St Judes leave Fen Farm each week, with some going to Neal’s Yard for brine-washing and conversion into St Cera.

Asked about her ambitions, Julie says that number might double, but she has no wish to become a large-scale producer. Instead, she wants go where the ever-changing Fen Farm milk takes her.

St Jude was originally dubbed “St Marcellin style” – a soft, creamy raw milk cheese that becomes more unctuous as it ripens. “But it’s not St Marcellin at all,” Julie says. “It’s a lovely little soft white Suffolk cheese, and I want it to speak of this place, of Fen Farm. I feel there’s more in Jonny’s milk than I’m getting out of it at the moment. I’ve got to encourage that.”

Moving from Hampshire to Suffolk has given Julie a step-change in milk quality. Now, she says, her cheesemaking skills have to catch up with the milk.

Hardly the language of a “lost cause”. www.whitewooddairy.co.uk www.fenfarmdairy.co.uk www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk

I feel there’s more to jonny’s milk than I’m getting out of it at the moment. I’ve got to encourage that.

Julie makes St Jude alongside Fen Farm’s own cheesemakers, who produce the larger, brie-style Baron Bigod

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Knowledge, Professionalism & Pride

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SERVING SUGGESTIONS

Getting it together Now it has added a London shop to its roster, surely there is no better business to advise on how cheese should be served than The Fine Cheese Co? MICHAEL LANE meets founder Ann-Marie Dyas in Belgravia to discuss cheeseboards, accompaniments and innovation.

W

hether you know it as a wholesaler, importer, retailer or a cracker producer, The Fine Cheese Co is a business of many parts. But, until recently, founder Ann-Marie Dyas felt there had always been a “missing piece of the jigsaw”.

Now the company has a London shop, in the upmarket district of Belgravia, it has a place to meet and entertain international clients and suppliers, but also to showcase its array of cheese accompaniments and crackers.

The shop on Motcomb Street boasts an impressive wall of cheese like the company’s flagship store in Bath, and it also has a strong focus on serving cheese plates, with all the trimmings, on the premises.

Even in such a cosmopolitan part of the Capital, this is still not the easiest sell.

“Even now, cheese is still more of a challenging part of food,” says AnnMarie.“Everybody actually knows good Italian food and how to order it, for example. They have a familiarity, a comfort with it.”

“But with cheese, people love the idea of it, know they like it and want to eat it but they’re just not sure what to have or how to put it together. It’s a big learning curve for the British particularly.”

You can opt to make your own selection for your cheese plate from the counter, guided by the cheesemongers, but less confident

customers can choose one of several carefully assembled selections of three cheeses.

The Spanish plate is anchored by a Manchego and, as you might expect, there’s a classic strong blue – Picos de Europa. The third and final cheese is the wildcard, the “drunken” Cabra al Vino Campollano – a semi-soft goats’ cheese that has been bathed in red wine.

Meanwhile, the Italian plate features a “banker” (Pecorino), a soft blue (Gorgonzola Dolce) and a wildcard (Casatica), which is a semisoft bloomy-rinded buffalo milk cheese made in Bergamo.

All of these combinations have been balanced by the expert palates of Ann-Marie and her team but good advice for the lessexperienced is to keep an eye on the level of blue and goat on your cheeseboard, as those tend to be the styles that most people will object to.

Although three cheeses seems a little stingy, bear in mind that each is a 60g portion and, as Ann-Marie points out, 180g is actually a reasonable amount for one person.

“If you’re cutting smaller pieces of cheese it looks like a bird table on a plate,” she says. “It needs to be a bit more substantial, it’s not the chariot at a restaurant where you have a shaving of this and a tiny dot of that goats’ cheese.

“We’re trying to give someone enough that they can get their teeth into.”

Ann-Marie’s perfect pairings

Hafod cheddar with sour cherry compote

The Welsh organic cheddar and its buttery, nutty flavours are a good foil for this compote of sour cherries, cranberries and star anise. It’s too dense with fruit to be a chutney but the tangy, zingy richness is ideal for strong savoury hard cheeses.

ST Maure de Touraine with tropical fruit press A classic Loire goats’ cheese needs something tangy and sharp to complement its creaminess and strength of flavour. Step forward American producer Grace & I, whose tropical fruit & nut slice is made from layers of pressed dried pineapple, mango, papaya and passion fruit with macadamias and almonds.

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Exquisitely flavoursome cheese, handmade and aged to perfection.

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British Cheese Awards 2014

Traditional cheese handcrafted on the family farm

From our family farm in West Limerick, we produce a range of handcrafted, artisan, award winning cheeses, including: Cahill’s Original Irish Porter Cheddar, Cahill’s Irish Whiskey Cheddar with Kilbeggan, Cahill’s Ardagh Red Wine Cheddar.

The cornerstone of our business is that each cheese is individually made and handcrafted thus retaining the subtlety of flavour that is invariably absent from the mass produced product.

T: +353 6962365 E: info@cahillscheese.ie

www.cahillscheese.ie

HOME FARM, NEWTON ST CYRES DEVON, EX5 5AY • 01392 851222

www.quickes.co.uk

WA L O V O N M Ü H L E N E N than Switzerland has mountains

ST ANDREWS FARMHOUSE – Aged for 9 months to give a creamy, medium strength cheese with a well-rounded, lingering finish.

Walo with Stärnächäs: Supreme Champion Continental International Cheese Awards Nantwich 2016 Selection Affineur Walo is exclusively distributed in the UK

by The Fine Cheese Co. www.finecheese.co.uk 01225 424212

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goodcheese 2016-17

serving suggestions

Wigmore with damsons in gin

True to their name, all of the ‘plates’ served at Motcomb Street are actually ceramic – illustrated in the same style as the staff’s aprons and the shop’s tote bags – but Ann-Marie admits she is quite fond of marble cheeseboards because they keep cheese in good condition and are an antidote to ubiquitous slate.

She is quick to point out that, if the cheese is good, it probably doesn’t matter too much what surface you serve it on. That said, presentation is still vital.

“The aesthetic is an important part of how you enjoy things because your eye is being seduced as well as your stomach,” she says.

Her favourite way to serve cheese is on a large baker’s peel, complete with crackers and

lot of partners help them on that road.”

Her experience of selling to people from nondairy cultures, like the Japanese, is that having crackers and accompaniments really help with first experiences of cheese.

She also stresses that even if The Fine Cheese Co deems an item to be to a good match for a particular style that doesn’t mean it can’t or won’t work with another.

“We’re not the food police. At the end of the day, if we suggest quince paste with hard cheese and you like it with blue, that’s alright. All we can do is get people thinking.”

The traditional tried-and-tested pairings – like Manchego with membrillo or even the humble British cheese, chutney, and crackers – certainly have their time and place for AnnMarie but lately she’s been thinking about other possibilities.

“I’m absolutely fascinated by America and the fact that they eat cheese at the different time of the meal than us. If we ate it at the beginning, as a sort of aperitif, that’s where all the partners come out. It’s fun because you’re sort of picnicking with cheese.”

One product that fits this occasion is the Grace & I range of pressed fruit and nuts that The Fine Cheese Co has recently started importing from California. The attractive slabs are cut into cubes and served with cheese, like the Spanish deploy their fruit and nut tortas.

Closer to home, Ann-Marie’s most successful invention, the Toast For Cheese range of flavoured crackers is still evolving with the latest Festive version mimicking the style of fruit cake that Yorkshire and Lancashire folk like to pair with their crumbly white cheeses. And she assures Good Cheese that The Fine Cheese Co will soon be unveiling another flavour that has never been considered before.

“When you see it, you’ll say ‘Oh yeah, why didn’t someone do that before?’,” she says.

“It’s surprising yet completely natural and logical. That’s what you’re going for, really.”

Although Ann-Marie claims that no-one can predict what the next big thing will be when it comes to cheese accompaniments, the shelves at The Fine Cheese Co might be the closest thing to a crystal ball.

People love the idea of cheese, know they like it and want to eat it but they’re just not sure what to have or how to put it together. accompaniments, rather than using multiple plates and vessels.

But, given the dizzying array of products at her disposal, how does she even begin to approach choosing additions for a selection of cheese?

If she’s serving a distinctive condiment, like fruit for cheese, then she makes sure the crackers are neutral so there aren’t too many competing flavours on the palate.

Ideally, accompaniments should make cheese “a new adventure”, she says, even for people who are better versed.

“People know brie but do they know it with damson fruit cheese?” she says. “Because that changes it and gives lot of people a different taste experience.”

She also has no qualms with what Good Cheese describes as purists – people who prefer to take their cheese unadulterated.

“If you are an expert or guru, then I think that’s a perfectly fine position to take. I’ve got no argument,” she says. “Most people are not.

Most people actually need a little bit more help with cheese in order to get to that stage and a

Whole damsons, stones and all, are macerated in gin to create this tart yet sweet condiment.

Boozy, in both flavour and aroma, it works wonders with mild, creamy cheeses. And what better example is there than a British modern classic like Wigmore?

Casatica with Moscato grape nectar This grape nectar, made from grape skins and sugar, is usually drizzled like honey over powerful aged cheeses such as Pecorino, Gouda or Gruyère. But a delicate cheese, like the bloomy-rinded buffalo milk Casatica, is a great platform for the nectar’s luscious winey notes.

Pecorino with truffle honey

An acacia honey infused with white alba truffles already displays a great deal of harmony but the fact that some versions of Pecorino are made with truffles mean it’s an obvious bedfellow for this classic Italian cheese and its sweet, herbaceous flavours.

www.finecheese.co.uk

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goodcheese 2016-17

STREET FOOD

Melting points If you thought the ever-growing UK street food scene was dominated by burgers and world cuisine, then think again. A growing number of traders now offer dishes to satisfy those craving nothing more than a big cheese hit. PATRICK McGUIGAN hits the pavements to track them down.

Alplings These Austrian mountain snacks, also known as knödel, have found a whole new audience thanks to Martin Auer. Originally from the South Tyrol, he now plies his trade at Edinburgh’s Leith, Penicuik and Portobello markets, and is planning an Austrian café in Leith too Essentially bread dumplings, Alplings (£4.50) come in spinach and beetroot flavours, but it’s a cheese version that wins Scottish hearts and stomachs. The dumpling mix is enriched with cheddar and there’s a gooey Red Leicester centre. All are served with a nutty butter and Parmesan sauce. www.alplings.co.uk

Mac n cheese

Grilled cheese sandwich

The Cheese Truck has elevated the humble toastie into an art form, creating melted masterpieces from raw milk cheese and sourdough bread in two converted 1970s Bedford ice cream vans, called Audrey and Alfie.

Owner Mathew Carver’s signature grilled cheese sandwich (£4.50) contains a mix of Keen’s cheddar, Ogleshield (a raclette-style cheese made by Montgomery’s in Somerset) and a mix of onions, which are turned into gorgeous oozy goo between two slices of long fermented sourdough.

The vans, which trade at Maltby Street market in London and music festivals, are due to be joined by two fixed cheese bars in Deptford and Camden soon, after the company launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £100,000. www.thecheesetruck.co.uk

“Mac not crack” is the strapline for street food trader Anna Mae’s, which feeds people’s pasta and melted cheese addictions at London’s Kerb market and at numerous events and festivals across the UK. At the heart of the experience is the base Annie Mac: elbow macaroni in a creamy Monterey Jack, sharp Cheddar and stringy Mozzarella sauce (£6). Cheeselovers can then add different toppings, such as a chipotle, sour cream and coriander (the Spicy Juan) or bacon, pesto and basil (the Don Macaroni).

The firm, operating from a converted 1980s GMC truck called Burt Reynolds, is run by former charity worker Anna Clark and advertising exec Tony Solomon.

They gave up those careers in 2010 to take a foodie road trip across the US, and came back with a mac n cheese-based business plan. www.anna-maes.com

Raclette

Canada was built on poutine – a hearty dish of fries topped with squeaky curds and gravy – and now Brits are getting a taste for it too, thanks to Caribou Poutine, which trades at Digbeth Dining Club street food market in Birmingham.

Set up by Michael Palfreeman and girlfriend Elizabeth Hurst, who fell in love with poutine’s gravy-soaked charms after trips to Canada, the business serves several versions. The Original (£4.50) comprises double-cooked fries with cows’ milk curd and a special gravy made from organic chicken stock, onions and garlic, while the Mrs Piggy is also topped with pulled pork, bacon and sausages (£7).

Molten cheese scraped over new potatoes (aka raclette) is an Alpine delicacy, but it’s also a big hit in the lowlands of South London. Urban cheesemaker Bill Oglethorpe, owner of Kappacasein Dairy, has long thrilled punters at Borough Market with his version of the dish, made with Ogleshield (a raclette-style cheese made in Somerset) or his own London Raclette (made under a railway arch in Bermondsey).

The cheese is grilled until it reaches the critical ooze point, before being blanketed over Maris Peer potatoes and served with crunchy cornichons (£6).

“Our London Raclette is paler and more nutty than Ogleshield, which is richer because it’s made with Jersey milk, but both melt perfectly,” says Oglethorpe, who makes a mean grilled cheese sandwich too.

Kappacasein has just moved its stall to a fixed site at the market, which is open Tuesday to Saturday.

www.cariboupoutine.co.uk

www.kappacasein.com

Poutine

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44 awards in 3 years Two trophies for ‘Best Cheese’ 2014 ‘Producer of the Year’ ‘Gold’ World Cheese Awards

Great tasting British Cheese made the traditional way

01803 732600 info@sharpham.com

www.sharpham.com

Cropwell Bishop is famous for its cheese, and we have been producing delicious Stilton for three generations from our village creamery. We handcraft our cheese the traditional way, using milk from carefully selected regional farms.

Beauvale, the TOP 50 2015 winner at last year’s Great Taste awards is made from pasteurised cow’s milk and this blue cheese was applauded for its “creaminess and crumbliness without being curdy” Find out more about our range of cheese, and what makes it so tasty, at www.cropwellbishopstilton.co.uk Call us on 0115 989 2350 or follow us on twitter @YummyStilton

Winterdale Cheesemakers award winning...

Kentish Handmade Cheese Cryer & Stott are a family run cheesemongers & fine food wholesaler. Big enough to meet demand, but small enough to care.

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goodcheese 2016-17

MAKING IDIAZABAL

O

f the 112 producers of Idiazabal PDO cheese, 111 are genuine on-farm artisan producers situated in the Basque Country or in the province of Navarra.

Each producer uses unpasteurised milk and rennet drawn from their own herd of Latxa sheep and matures the cheeses on the farm. They are all members of Artzai Gazta, the organisation established in the 1980s to protect authenticity, quality and the sustainability of the region’s favourite cheese. The 112th producer is a large cooperative producing Idiazabal from milk bought in from farms around the region.

In the UK, Idiazabal is the lesser-known cousin to Manchego, Spain’s hard sheep’s milk cheese, which is a great shame as the Basque favourite makes for exceptional eating, and I doubt there exists another PDO cheese in the world with a similarly entrenched artisan heritage.

In June 2016, I set out to discover exactly how deep the roots go. I travelled to the Alava province in the Basque Country, to a family farm a short distance north of the village of Ilarduia, close to La Leze cave, from which the Queseria La Leze takes its name.

Josi Mari Jauregi and Elisabeth Gorrotxategi, along with their two sons and six sheep dogs tend and milk a flock of 400 blond-faced Latxa sheep.

The family farm is set in idyllic surroundings, a backdrop of steep craggy hills overlooking lush open fields. In the warmth of summer, it would be a lifestyle choice for many, although the family’s ruddy complexions suggest winters are perhaps a touch arduous.

Elisabeth is the cheesemaker, working in a cramped, albeit spotless dairy where she first adds

starter culture to the evening and morning milk before a mix of salt and the farm’s own rennet is used to begin coagulation.

After 40 minutes, the curds and whey are scalded to 37°C and cut using an implement called a lira before she squeezes the curd by hand to expel the whey. She then cuts the curd into rectangular blocks before pressing them into moulds lined with cheesecloth. The cheeses spend 30 minutes in a press before Elisabeth removes each one and places a ‘plaque da caseina,’ the cheese’s unique number on the top surface of the fresh rind.

She turns each cheese before returning it to the press for a further four hours, after which they are immersed in a brine bath for 12 to 15 hours, depending on size.

The maturing room is a stable 10°C and 90% humidity, and the mould growth essential for good ageing starts developing on the rind within a fortnight. At two months, each cheese is graded

by Artzai Gazta graders before it can be sold as genuine artisan Idiazabal PDO.

A fascinating hour watching Elisabeth make cheese passes too quickly. As we leave the dairy, she leads us through a large, airy barn where several hundred sheep are noisily penned waiting to be turned out to graze.

Outside, we watch as Josi Mari and his six sheep dogs shepherd the entire flock onto the lush grass of adjacent fields. Elizabeth then leads us to a tiny shop attached to the family farmhouse where a serve-over chill counter crammed with cheese runs along one wall and a table laden with cut cheese, several glasses and a bottle of Rioja are opposite.

We taste three Idiazabals, two aged for three months, one of which is smoked and a 16-month mature cheese with a darker rind.

At three months, the paste is ivory in colour, firm but supple, and the flavour is light, fruity with creamy notes, and a long, gentle finish.

The 16-month Idiazabal offers a deeper complexity and delivers an intense, creamy piquancy leaving you reaching for more. The smoked version is clever, delivering a gentle level of smoke, perfectly balanced without burnt overtones.

On the palate it is rich and buttery with teasing hints of caramel.

Elizabeth kindly presented me with a smoked cheese to take home that has subsequently proved the star turn on our cheese board this summer. We also tasted her new blue sheep’s milk cheese. At two-months maturation it is surprisingly smooth, creamy and approachable, with a pleasingly gentle finish. The Rioja was pretty good, too.

There can be few better ways to spend a warm June afternoon. www.quesoslaleze.com info.artzai-gazta.net

Basques on the farm With the 2016 World Cheese Awards being staged in the Basque Country this year, awards founder Bob Farrand visits artisan maker La Leze to hear about the making of the region’s most famous cheese. goodcheese 2016-17

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DRINKS MATCHING

Bring out more bottles Still pairing cheddar with a big Bordeaux and goats’ cheese with Sauvignon Blanc? To help us all widen our booze-matching repertoire, PATRICK McGUIGAN raided his drinks cabinet and headed to a special Good Cheese tasting with the team at inspirational emporium La Cave à Fromage in Hove. Here are their Top 10 matches.

1. Twinings Green Tea and Berkswell

Put down the biscuit barrel and rev up the cheese trolley the next time you make a brew. That’s because cheese works surprisingly well with tea, especially the damp grassy notes of green tea that has been allowed to steep. It brought out the inherent fruitiness of Montgomery’s cheddar, but the stand-out match at our tasting at La Cave was Berkswell – the saltiness of the sheep’s milk cheese had an affinity with the tea’s seaweed notes and there was a nice mellow quality to the match.

“Green tea is quite earthy, which matches up with the nuttiness of the cheese,” said Mick Whitworth.

“It would be a great way to finish a meal.”

2. Brewdog Kingpin Lager and Double Barrel A pint of lager might not be the first drink you reach for when the cheeseboard arrives, but the crisp, refreshing bubbles of a Pilsner-style beer help reboot the palate, especially with creamy cheeses. Arguments were made for BrillatSavarin and Flower Marie, but Kingpin (4.7% abv) also has a pronounced malty backbone which found a natural ally in the fruity power of Double Barrel (Lincolnshire Poacher, aged for two years). “Poacher has that wheaty, yeasty note already so I always think of it as a good beer cheese,” said Alan Watson.

“Matching cheese is about complements and contrasts. This match is totally complementary.”

3. Lustau Manzanilla Papirusa sherry and Montgomery’s Cheddar A fabulous sherry from one of Spain’s best bodegas, this Manzanilla (15% abv) has good acidity, but is also rich with notes of nuts and dried fruit, and has a briney finish. That salty quality overpowered a sweet goats’ milk gouda, but worked in an explosive way with an aged Pecorino.

Montgomery’s was a more civilised match, with the almond notes of the sherry dovetailing with the nutty cheddar, while the acidity cut through the creaminess. It also highlighted an intriguing note of mustard at the end of the cheese.

“These are like comfortable old friends,” said Patrick McGuigan.

“They take turns and let each other talk.

Our tasters David Deaves, retail divisional manager, La Cave à Fromage Alan Watson, shop manager, La Cave à Fromage, Hove Mick Whitworth, editorial director, Guild of Fine Food Patrick McGuigan, food journalist and cheese writer 38

goodcheese 2016-17

DRINKS MATCHING 5. Fever-Tree ginger ale and Crozier Blue

4. Philippe Michel Cremant du Jura and Gouda This cremant (12% abv), which is made in the same way as Champagne with 100% Chardonnay grapes, costs just £7.49 at Aldi. But don’t be deceived by the price: it’s a serial award winner that has beaten many well-respected Champagnes in blind tastings. Often eaten with Comté (it’s made in the same region), the team found it worked better with more delicate cheeses, such as Fleur de Maquis – a creamy herb-covered sheeps’ milk variety. But hands-down favourite was a young Gouda, aged for eight months.

“The sweet caramel flavour of the cheese really picks up on the honey notes of the wine,” said La Cave’s David Deaves. “It’s absolute harmony.”

7. T aylor’s Late Bottle Vintage Port, 2010, and Chabichou au Poivre

The heat of ginger is a natural partner for spicy blues, but the soft carbonation of Fever-Tree’s ginger ale made the match trickier than expected. It tasted foamy and overly sweet against the salty power of Bleu des Causses, but the more gentle character of Irish sheep’s milk cheese Crozier Blue was more successful.

“Sometimes I find aggressive carbonation is too much with complex cheeses – the palate becomes too busy, “ said Watson. “But the sweetness and the delicate spice of the Crozier is just right.”

6. Akashi-Tai Honjozo Genshu Sake and Camembert Rich, velvety and mellow, this undiluted sake (19% abv) proved to be a flexible friend when it came to cheese matching. There was a comforting starchy back note, which helped frame a wide variety of different styles, from Gruyère to soft goats’ cheeses. The jury was split 50/50 between a Camembert de Normandie and the light fluffy goats’ cheese Cabécou.

David Deaves was a fan of the raw milk Camembert from Graindorge. “There’s a hint of fermented vegetables to the sake, which picks up on the cabbagey notes in the cheese.”

8. Chase Smoked Vodka and Katherine

10. Horsham Roaster’a Costa Rican coffee and Beemster Goat Gouda

There’s nothing like a challenge, and Chase Smoked Vodka (40% abv) certainly provided that.

Smoked cheeses such as Brezain and Smoked Lincolnshire Poacher overpowered the tasters’ palates, while pungent washed rinds such as Langres and Munster were too farmyardy. The answer was a gentle washed rind goats’ cheese called Katherine, made in Somerset by Pete Humphries at White Lakes Cheese Co, which is washed in cider brandy.

“It’s not perfect, but it’s not bad,” was McGuigan’s verdict.

“The cheese has a meaty, almost smoky quality from the washed rind, but it doesn’t leave an acrid flavour like some of the other matches.”

All agreed the vodka needed to be colder – ice cold – to tone down the burn of the alcohol.

Serving cheese with coffee sounds wrong, but actually makes sense when you think of it as adding cream and sugar to the brew.

The lactic tang of a Caws Cenarth Caerphilly partnered nicely with the fruity and roasted notes of the coffee, while the caramel, chocolate flavour of a three-year-old gouda turned the experience into something more like pudding. Sitting halfway between the two was a young goats’ milk gouda that was milky and fresh, but also had a fudgey sweetness.

9. Penderyn single malt whisky and Golden Cross goats’ cheese While smoked vodka proved tricky, this sweet and fresh single malt from Wales was the star of the show, pairing nicely with several different cheeses.

Wild and punchy Isle of Mull cheddar more than held its own against the burn of the whisky when it was served neat. A splash of water softened the spirit making it a match for the sweet, fruity Erborinato (an Italian blue), as well as Golden Cross goat’s cheese. “The cheese is creamy and gentle so doesn’t try to take on the whisky, but just lifts the whole experience,” said Mick Whitworth, the regular Penderyn drinker among us, who pulled rank and declared it the winner after a three-way split among the tasters.

The team gave Stilton the swerve for once and tried out some more left-field cheese matches for this port, which was crammed full of rich cherry and plum flavours. There was a comforting familiarity with the Double Barrel and Montgomery’s, but it was the lactic goats’ cheeses that won the day, particularly Chaibchou, which La Cave dusts in black pepper.

“The dark red fruits and sweetness of the port are like a velvety blanket that hugs the cheese,” said Patrick McGuigan.

“There’s also nice acidity to the port, which stops it from becoming cloying and the pepper brings a spicy tingle at the end.”

cornish orchards pear cider and...

This is the one that got away.

Pears and cheese are firm friends, so this should have been a straightforward match. But whatever we tried and whichever angle we came at it from, the pear cider (5% abv) just wasn’t up to the job. Very sweet and with the initial pear flavour quickly fading, it was overwhelmed by every cheese we tried.

From creamy goats’ logs, traditional cheddars and Stinking Bishop to Roquefort and Parmesan, nothing worked. As Mick Whitworth said: “Life’s too short to try and find a match for this.”

Raise a drink to La Cave

Our thanks to the team at La Cave à Fromage in Hove, East Sussex, who have us the run of their fabulous cheese selection to choose our Top 10 matches.

La Cave has shops in Notting Hill and Kensington too, and in 2015 was ranked the world’s third most amazing cheese shop by The Telegraph. Its sister company, Premier Cheese, wholesales perfectly finished cheeses to the likes of La Manoir aux Quat’Saison in Oxfordshire and The Waterside Inn at Bray. www.la-cave-co.uk

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CHEESE ACCOMPANIMENTS

Howdy Partners No matter how good your cheese selection is, you’ll need something to serve it with and on. Here’s our selection of preserves, crackers and more.

Every variety in Puckett’s Pickles range has an ideal cheese partner. It’s Pear & Apricot Chutney is good with Harrogate Blue but also combines well with cheddar in a ploughman’s. Carrot & Cardamom Chutney works with Wensleydale while both Beetroot & Orange and Red Onion Chutney are good with goats’ cheese. www.puckettspickles.co.uk

Given additional depth with a liberal measure of Somerset Cider Brandy, Tracklements’ Apple & Cider Brandy Chutney (RRP £3.40, 320g) is billed as an all-rounder. Not only is it a good partner for mature cheddar but the chutney and its tanginess also sits nicely alongside strong, earthy blues.

The Oak Room has a set of Vintage

Cheese Markers (£27.99), which have been made from silver-plated vintage cutlery and hand-stamped with the words ‘creamy’, ‘mild’, ‘stinky’ and ‘strong’. www.oakroomshop.co.uk

www.tracklements.co.uk

Rosebud Preserves has developed a fresh, sweet and delicately floral fruit preserve using quinces sourced from a small orchard on the north east Essex coast. The North Yorkshire business’s sliceable English Quince Fruit Cheese (1.25kg, trade price £9.50) is a good match for Manchego, in particular, and is currently available to foodservice customers.

Stag Bakeries’ signature

www.rosebudpreserves.co.uk

The new Selection Box (RRP £6, 265g) from Peter’s Yard has been designed as a onepack savoury biscuit solution for cheese.

While the Original crispbread provides a platform for any kind of cheese, the Charcoal variety is recommended for bries and soft goats’ cheeses and the Spelt & Poppy Seed should be paired with a Single Gloucester, Camembert, Wensleydale or Caerphilly.

Original Water Biscuits are made to traditional recipes and handbaked in small batches. The Classic Water Biscuits (RRP £1.98, 150g) are based on the original recipes that were developed to supply local fishermen making long trips. The biscuits’ neutral base is perfect for a wide selection of cheeses.

www.stagbakeries.co.uk

www.petersyard.com

Made with traditional methods, artisan techniques and, of course, the original 150-year-old slater’s knife, each piece from the Slated range is handmade and durable. Gift boxes featuring Square and Heart cheese boards retail for €45. www.slated.ie

Cumbria’s Hawkshead Relish has a number of options when it comes to embellishing your cheese selections.

Its Westmorland Chutney is ideal in a ploughman’s with rustic cheddars while its sweet Red Onion Marmalade is a good foil for the earthiness of soft goats’ cheeses. For sharp blues, there’s Pear & Date Chutney while Cranberry Relish works well with brie-style cheeses.

The 2 Kewt range of tabletop products includes a cheese/ butter dish that is ideal for all cat lovers. The ceramic black and white dishes are available at www.giftideasonline.co.uk

www.hawksheadrelish.com

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WHAT HAPPENED IN 2016?

3021 CHEESE FROM 31 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES 266 JUDGES FROM 26 COUNTRIES ONE WORLD CHAMPION Kursaal, San Sebastián – the venue for World Cheese Awards 2016-17

Find out more at www.gff.co.uk/wca World Cheese Awards: next edition opens for entry September 2017 INTERNATIONAL CHEESE FESTIVAL

www.internationalcheesefestival.eus/en

AUSTRIAN CHEESE PIONEERS

www.gff.co.uk |

@guildoffinefood #worldcheeseawards

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oduced r p dly et, England u o Pr omers S n

EST.1897

W: keenscheddar.co.uk T: 01963 32286

EUROPE GMBH

Contact: Bob Pitt +44 (0)7802 359820 Bobpitt1@btconnect.com

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www.inapicklefoodco.co.uk

COTSWOLD

Tel 01451 870852 cheese@turnstonefarming.co.uk

www.simonweaver.net

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ORGANIC

rity, CK s.

RECIPES Here are three great recipes to indulge your appetite or satisfy your healthier instincts Neil Rankin’s

GET COOKING

Bone-marrow cauliflower cheese

Serves 4-6 2 cauliflowers, leaves removed Vegetable oil, for drizzling 3 garlic cloves, 2 crushed and 1 finely sliced 2 thyme sprigs 1 rosemary sprig, plus chopped rosemary to finish 50g Parmesan cheese 50g bone marrow (out of the bone) 50g unsalted butter 65g plain flour 300ml hot milk 300g Westcombe cheddar (or any strong cheddar),grated ½ teaspoon English mustard Maldon salt and cayenne pepper Set your oven to 180°C and put a baking tray in to heat. Slice the cauliflowers in half lengthways, then cut each in half again lengthways.

Lay these quarters on the hot baking tray. Drizzle over some oil, add some salt and cayenne, and toss to coat.

Add the crushed garlic and herb sprigs to the tray and toss again. Roast the cauliflower for 30–40 minutes until soft. As soon as you take the tray out of the oven, grate the Parmesan all over the cauliflower, then transfer to a hot serving dish.

Whilst the cauliflower is roasting, make the sauce. Melt the bone marrow in a pan. Pass through a sieve to remove any nasty bits, then put the marrow back in the cleaned pan.

Add the butter and sliced garlic.When melted, stir in the flour. Cook out the flour for 3–4 minutes, stirring, to make a roux, then slowly stir in the hot milk and bring to the boil to thicken. Finish with the grated cheddar, mustard, and salt and cayenne to taste. Pour the sauce over the cauliflower to cover and sprinkle with a little cayenne and chopped rosemary to finish.

• From Low and Slow by Neil Rankin (Ebury Press, £25)

Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi’s

Fennel & feta with pomegranate seeds & sumac Serves 4

½ pomegranate 2 medium fennel heads 1½ tsp olive oil 2 tsp sumac, plus extra to garnish Juice of 1 lemon 10g picked tarragon leaves 10g parsley, roughly chopped 70g Greek feta cheese, sliced Salt and black pepper

Luca Ciano’s

Pear & Parmesan soufflés Serves 4

10g unsalted butter, melted, plus 1 teaspoon butter 100g all-purpose (plain) flour, plus extra to dust 500ml milk 100g Parmigiano Reggiano, grated 5 eggs, separated

This salad has all the little bursts of flavour we look for in a dish. The little explosions of sweetness from the pomegranate seeds, for example, along with the tart astringency of the sumac. It’s lovely to eat as it is, or else served alongside some grilled fish or roasted meat. Dried cranberries or sour cherries work well as a substitute for pomegranate.

Start by releasing the pomegranate seeds. Halve the pomegranate along its ‘belly’, then hold the half firmly in your hand with the seeds facing your palm.

Over a large bowl, bash the back of the fruit with a wooden spoon. Don’t hit too hard or you’ll bruise the seeds and break the skin. Magically, the seeds will just fall out. Pick out any white skin that falls in.

Remove the fennel leaves, keeping a few for garnish, and trim the base.

Make sure you leave enough of it still attached to hold the slices together.

Slice very thinly lengthwise (a mandolin is handy).

In a bowl, mix the olive oil, sumac, lemon juice, herbs and some salt and pepper. Add the fennel and toss well.

Taste for seasoning but remember the feta will add saltiness.

Layer the fennel, then the feta and then the pomegranate seeds in individual serving dishes. Garnish with fennel leaves, sprinkle over some sumac and serve immediately.

• From Ottolenghi: The Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi (Ebury Press, £27)

Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F). Grease 4 ramekins with melted butter and lightly dust with extra flour.

Whisk flour and milk in a saucepan on low heat, until smooth and almost simmering. Remove from heat. Add Parmigiano Reggiano and stir until melted and smooth. Add egg yolks, one at a time, stirring continuously, until combined. Season. Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold.

Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Using a large metal spoon, gently fold egg white into cold mixture, until just combined. Divide mixture between prepared ramekins.

Bake for 20–25 minutes, until soufflés are puffed and golden. Serve immediately.

• From Luca’s Seasonal Journey by Luca Ciano (New Holland Publishers)

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Artisan handmade sheeps’ cheese from Spain Winner of 15 World Cheese Awards since 2010

Tomato & Chilli Jam

Raspberry Jam with Red Berries Tea

TRADITIONAL FLAVOURS WITH A MODERN TWIST Award winning JAMS that capture the flavour of the fruit CHUTNEYS that capture the essence of the season MARMALADES that capture the zing of the citrus

S I LV E R

Handcrafted with love using traditional methods

2 010

W: www.berryfreshbakery.co.uk

GOLD

E: info@berryfreshbakery.co.uk Queso Artesano de Teruel Albarracín (Spain) +34 978 710 323 info@quesodealbarracin.es

T: 01948 860538

Blue Cedars, Mastiff Lane, Malpas, Cheshire. SY14 7NQ

www.quesodealbarracin.es

Home Grown & Hand Made In Leamington Spa

Preserves that are packed with flavour that will take your taste buds on a journey.

Hand made in small batches since 2013.

Great Cheese needs a great partner…

Order online at

Pricesspices.com

and check out our

For more information on stocking our fantastic products please call or email 01557 814 001, jam@gallowaylodge.co.uk

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goodcheese 2016-17

recipes for each product too!

07779 243886 |

El Salivate Ador

sales@pricesspices.com | www.pricesspices.com

DIRECTORY OF RETAILERS The Melton Cheeseboard

Macknade Fine Foods

Tisbury Delicatessen

Where to buy good cheese London & South East The Cheeseboard 26 Royal Hill Greenwich London SE10 8RT 020 8305 0401 www.cheese-board.co.uk @CheeseboardUK

Clough’s Delicatessen 27 Sunte Avenue Haywards Heath West Sussex RH16 2AB 01444 452060 www.cloughsdeli.co.uk @CloughsDeli facebook.com/cloughsdelicatessen

Macknade Fine Foods Selling Road Faversham Kent ME13 8XF 01795 534497 www.macknade.com @macknade facebook.com/macknade

The Deli Downstairs 211 Victoria Park Road London E9 7JN 020 8533 5006 www.thedelidownstairs.co.uk @delidownstairs facebook.com/The-Deli-Downstairs

La Cave Ă Fromage Ltd 34-35 Western Road Hove Brighton East Sussex BN3 1AF 01273 725500

www.cowdray.co.uk @CowdrayFarmShop facebook.com/cowdrayfarmshop

TW2 7LS 020 8894 0510

www.pangbournecheeseshop.co.uk @PangCheeseShop facebook.com/ ThePangbourneCheeseShop

Harrisons Vintners & Delicatessen 60 Pitshanger Lane Ealing London W5 1QY 0208 998 7866 www.harrisonwines.co.uk

Androuet Cheese Shop Old Spitalfields Market 10A Lamb Street London E1 6EA 0207 2477 437 www.androuet.co.uk @AndrouetLondon facebook.com/androuetlondon

Pistachio & Pickle Deli 237 Liverpool Road Islington London N1 1LX 0207 607 6319

The Larder 71 Ladywell Road London SE13 7JA 0208 314 5797 www.thelarderdeli.com @larderladywell

www.ralphswinecellar.com @ralphswines facebook.com/ralphswinesonline

@HarrisonsDeli facebook.com/HarrisonsDeli

Midlands

www.la-cave.co.uk @LaCaveaFromage

www.pistachioandpickle.com @PistachioPickle facebook.com/pistachioandpickle

Cowdray Farm Shop Ltd. Cowdray Park Midhurst Sussex GU29 0AJ 01730 815152

The Pangbourne Cheese Shop 17 Reading Road Pangbourne Berkshire RG8 7LU 0118 984 3323

Umami Delicatessen 13 Newbury Street Wantage Oxon OX12 8BU 10235 766245 www.umami-deli.co.uk facebook.com/umami.deli

Cut & Cured Unit 11 The Long Shop Merton Abbey Mills Watermill Way London SW19 2RD 0208 540 1939 www.cutandcured.co.uk @cutandcured facebook.com/curandcured

Ralphs Wine Cellar & Delicatessen 78 High Street Whitton Twickenham Surrey

Bakers & Larners of Holt 8 Market Place Holt Norfolk NR25 6BW 01263 712244 www.bakersandlarners.co.uk @bakersof holt facebook.com/bakersandlarnersofholt

The Melton Cheeseboard 8 Windsor Street Melton Mowbray Leicestershire LE13 1BU 01664 562257 www.meltoncheeseboard.co.uk

Gonalston Farm Shop Cliff Mill Farm, Southwell Road Lowdham Nottinghamshire NG14 7DR 0115 966 5666 www.gonalstonfarmshop.co.uk @GonalstonFarm facebook.com/gonalstonfarmshop

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Thelma’s Original

Fresh and creamy with a lemony after taste. Royal Welsh Best Farmhouse Caerffili five years in succession.

•Reserve Champion Royal Welsh Show

Golden Cenarth British Cheese Awards

‘Supreme Champion’.

A semi soft washed rind cheese with an unmistakeable seductive pungency and nutty aftertaste.

•Supreme Champion British Cheese Awards

Perl Wen

This delicious, briestyle cheese is creamy with a fresh citrus taste and a hint of sea salt.

•Gold Medal Yorkshire Show

Perl Las

Differing from most British blues. A creaminess followed by short saltiness, blue tones and a delicate lingering flavour.

•Winner Best Welsh International Cheese Awards

Cenarth Brie

A traditional, creamy and buttery brie with distinctive mushroomy and cabbagy aromas whilst maintaining its Cenarth flavour •Recently listed on major airline

Caws Cenarth cheese making in the heart of rural wales. www.cawscenarth.co.uk | info@cawscenarth.co.uk

DEDICATED TO TASTE FOR OVER 25 YEARS Handmade exclusively from the milk produced by the ewes here on our farm. Available throughout the UK, also; North America, Europe and Asia.

• Super Gold 2013 World Cheese Awards • Best Modern British Cheese and Best Export Cheese at the British Cheese Awards • The James Aldridge Memorial Trophy • Excellence in Practical Farming; The Royal Agricultural Society of England.

A Three Sta r Great Taste Awa rd for Crossogu e Preserves in 2016!

Spreading goodness!

Crossogu e Preserves was fou nded by Veronica Molloy in 1995.

Over the yea rs, the bra nd has won over 50 awa rds including ma ny 1 sta r a nd 2 sta rs at the prestigious Great Taste Awa rds a nd Golds at The World’s Original Ma rmalade awa rds.

This yea r we celebrate a coveted Great Taste 3 sta r, the highest a ccolade was awa rded for ou r Da mson Port Jelly as well as a 1 sta r for ou r Loga nberry Ja m a nd ou r Rhu ba rb a nd Ginger Spread.

Most recently, Veronica was honou red to receive a life time a chieve ment awa rd by the Irish Food Writers’ Guild.

Follow Crossogu e Preserves on Fa cebook, Twitter, LinkedIn info@berkswellcheese.com 01676 532203

www.berkswellcheese.com

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www.crossogu epreserves.com info@crossogu epreserves.com Tel: 00353 504 54416

DIRECTORY OF RETAILERS www.quickes.co.uk @QuickesCheese facebook.com/quickescheese

Turnbulls Deli & Cheesemongers 9 High Street Shaftesbury Dorset SP7 8HZ 01747 858575 Delilah Fine Foods Delilah Fine Foods 12 Victoria Street Nottingham Nottinghamshire NG1 2EX 0115 948 4461 www.delilahfinefoods.co.uk @delilahfinefoods food@delilahfinefoods.co.uk

Four Seasons Cherry Valley The Deli at no 85 85 High Street Skelton-in-Cleveland North yorkshire TS12 2DY 01287 652561 The Cheese Cave

North of England Tully’s of Rothbury High Street Rothbury Nothumberland NE65 7TB 01669 620574 www.rothburydeli.co.uk @rothbury_deli facebook.com/rothburydeli

Keelham Hall Farm Shop Brighouse & Denholme Road Thornton Bradford West Yorkshire BD13 3SS 01274 833472 www.keelhamhallfarmshop.co.uk @KeelhamFarm facebook.com/Keelhamfarmshop

All Things Nice Deli, Cafe & Bakery 48 - 50 Market Street Marple Stockport Cheshire SK6 7AD 0161 427 2222 http://www.allthingsnicedeli.co.uk @AllThingsNice2 facebook.com/All-Things-Nice

George & Joseph Cheesemongers 1c Regent Street Chapel Allerton Leeds Yorkshire LS7 4PE 0113 3450203 www.georgeandjoseph.co.uk @georgeandjoseph facebook.com/georgeandjoseph

www.thefourseasonsni.co.uk @fourseasonsdeli facebook.com/thefourseasonsbelfast

Scotland

Apley Farm Shop Norton Shifnal Shropshire TF11 9EF 01952 730345 www.apleyfarmshop.co.uk @apleyfarmshop facebook.com/ApleyFarmShop

Four Seasons Cherry Valley Ltd 38-40 Gilnahirk Road Cherry Valley Belfast BT5 7DG 028 90792701

The Cheese Cave 7a Dower House Square Bawtry South Yorkshire DN10 6LS 01302 376366 www.thecheesecave.co.uk @cheese_cave facebook.com/thebawtrycheesecave

Real Meals 25 Milton Street Saltburn By The Sea North Yorkshire TS12 1DJ 01287 622266 www.real-meals.co.uk facebook.com/realmeals.uk Godfrey C Williams & Son Corner House The Square Sandbach Cheshire CW11 1AP 01270 762817 www.godfreycwilliams.co.uk

Corner on the Square 1 High Street Beauly Inverness Scotland IV4 7BY 01463 783000 www.corneronthesquare.co.uk facebook.com/corneronthesquare

The Storehouse Foulis Ferry Evanton Ross-shire Scotland IV16 9UX 01349 890038 www.thestorehouseathome.com @thestorehouse facebook.com/thestorehouse1

Ardardan Farm Shop Ardardan Estate Cardross Scotland G82 5HD 01389 849188 www.ardardan.co.uk @ardardanestate facebook.com/Ardardan

South West

The Cheese Hamlet 706 Wilmslow Road Disbury Manchester M20 2DW 0161 434 4781

www.fodder.co.uk @fodderharrogate facebook.com/fodderharrogate

Gastro Nicks Ltd. Unit 4 Garlands Estate Cadley Road Collingbourne Ducis Wiltshire SN8 3EB 01264 852701 www.gastronicks.co.uk @GastroNicks facebook.com/gastronicks

Tisbury Delicatessen High Street Tisbury Wiltshire SP3 6HA 01747 871771 @tisburydeli facebook.com/tisburydeli

The Cotswold Cheese Company 5 High Street Moreton-in-Marsh Gloucestershire GL56 0AH 01608 652862 www.cotswoldcheese.com @cotswoldcheese facebook.com/CotswoldCheese

1-2 Fountain Court Digbeth Street Stow-on-the-Wold Gloucestershire GL54 1BN 01451 870034 113 High Street Burford Oxfordshire OX18 4RG 01993 823882 Thomas of Malmesbury 51 The Triangle Malmesbury Wiltshire SN16 0AH 01666 823981 www.thomasofmalmesbury.co.uk @malmesburyking facebook.com/thomas.of.malmesbury.1

www.thecheesehamlet.co.uk @TheCheeseHamlet facebook.com/TheCheeseHamlet

Fodder Great Yorkshire Showground Railway Road Harrogate North yorkshire HG2 8NZ 01423 546111

www.turnbulls.co.uk @Turnbulls_ facebook.com/turnbullsdeli

Wales Quickes Traditional Home Farm Newton St Cyres Exeter Devon EX5 5AY 01392 851222

Porter’s Delicatessen 1 Market Street Llangollen Denbighshire Wales LL20 8PS 01978 862990 www.portersdeli.co.uk @PortersDelicatessen facebook.com/portersdelicatessen

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#nothingtickles like a Puckett’s Pickle Say goodbye to sludgy pickles. Ours are wholesomely natural, gloriously colourful and joyfully British. No nasty preservatives, no needless food miles – just seasonal produce, bright fresh herbs and rich whole spices (and a secret soupçon of Granny’s know-how).

Happy pickles to leave a tickle on your tongue!

Beetroot & Orange Chutney Carrot & Cardamom Chutney

Pear and Apricot Chutney

For more information please contact us either by phone 01948 840 221 or email dairy@applebyscheese.co.uk Sarah Puckett 07918714277 www.puckettspickles.co.uk Pucketts Pickles @Puckettspickles

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Charlotte Brown’s Handmade

Artisan Preserves and Relishes

Passionate about Preserving What is it that makes Charlotte Brown’s products so good?

Charlotte would say that fresh, high-quality ingredients, mastery of traditional methods and great attention to detail are what make the difference. Her growing band of devoted return customers rate her PiCCalilli, rasPBerry Conserve, Chilli Jam and other delicious treats outstanding. One described them as “life-changing”!

home of award winning Kentish cheeses including the award winning Chaucers Camembert.

Now making THREE new sheep cheeses!

All our cheeses are available at Shed in Canterbury, or through the cheesemakersofcanterbury.co.uk website, as well as through our wholesalers. signature cheese Ashmore Farmhouse, Bowyers Brie and of course the award winning Chaucers Camembert.

We are happy to send samples of these or our Great Taste winning Piccallilli.

Call or email today

PRODUCED IN

KENT

Why not visit our NEW website and find out about our handmade cheeses and follow the process from milk through to the presses and the range of award winning cheeses.

In addition you can discover our history a s che e s e m a ke rs and the history of Ashmore Cheese.

Lamberhurst Farm, Dargate, Faversham, Kent. ME13 9ES Tel: 01227 751741 - www.cheesemakersofcanterbury.co.uk

Tel 02380 671047 / 07826 835127 charlottebonney@hotmail.com

www.charlottebrowns.co.uk

UN P

Bringing the best of The Mediterranean to you

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TEURIS AS

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F

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– FARMHOUSE CHEESEMAKERS –

VINTAGE RESERVE CHEDDAR CRAFTED IN SOMERSET SINCE 1833

– MATURED

MON T HS –

Always matured for a minimum of two years to provide a cheddar that is powerful and complex with exceptional depth of flavour It has a slightly brittle and often crunchy texture as a result of its long and slow ageing

BARBERS1833.CO.UK TEL: +44 1749 860666 BARBER’S FARMHOUSE CHEESEMAKERS, MARYLAND FARM, DITCHEAT, SOMERSET, BA4 6PR

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