British Cheese
I’m always slightly shocked when I’m given foreign cheese at British
homes and restaurants! Such has been the success and growth of the British
artisanal cheese-making movement that it seems perverse in most instances to
serve anything else. In France or Spain or Italy we wouldn’t dream of
eating anything other than the local varieties of cheese, but for some reason
when we get back home we don’t apply the same standard. Is there an innate
foodie inferiority complex? Is the Europhilia of wine drinkers so strong that
it extends to a stubborn belief that everything is better over there? Of
course this prejudice is historically well-founded over wine, but when it comes
to the products of the dairy it’s wrong.
Christmas is almost upon us so what should the well-dressed cheeseboard have
upon it this year? I’ve put some notes on some fantastic British cheeses
below, but the main thing is to find a local deli or cheese shop and taste
before you buy. Ten years ago making this suggestion would have been madness – with
the exception of Neal’s Yard,
Ian Mellis in Scotland and Paxton & Whitfield there
were then precious few places offering an enthusiasts trail through the great
possibilities. But now there are farm shops, cheese shops and farmers markets
all over the country offering these services. It’s lovely to have a perfect
piece of local cheese on the Christmas table, maybe bought from the producer,
maybe with a story to be told.
British cheese makers are doing it all now; whatever style of cheese you like
there’s someone out there making something that will suit you, something
you’ll love and even feel a stirring of patriotic pride about! I’d
put the best British cheeses up against the best from anywhere and expect a
good showing, and in our heartland strength areas of hard cow’s milk
cheeses, particularly Cheddar, and blues, particularly Stilton, I’d expect
us to win, win, win.
So what are the possibilities for the well-dressed cheeseboard at this time
of year? As Paul Howard has discussed in his wine
and cheese matching article, one great cheese is a better gastronomic experience
than a random assortment of disparate styles. That way you can match the one
cheese with a lovely wine and maximise the pleasure. Nonetheless, pleasing
the assembled Christmas throng may involve putting a few cheeses together.
Below is my pick of what’s good at the moment in a variety of styles
working up from the mildest first.
Wigmore
Ewe’s milk cheese made in Berkshire by Anne Wigmore and recently eulogised
by Broadbent in his Decanter magazine column. This is a soft round
cheese that needs to be eaten at the point where the cut surfaces are beginning
to bulge and ooze. It’s creamy and mild but deliciously complex with
soft lilting gentle straw and farmyard notes. This is all about mouthfeel as
Wigmore gently melts in the mouth in a fabulously hedonistic way.
Sharpham’s Elmhirst
Sharpham should be a British foodie
legend. The estate down in Devon, near Totnes, makes not just a range of fabulous
cow’s milk cheeses but also very good English wines. Elmhirst is my favourite
of their cheeses. It’s a belt-busting triple-cream cheese of unsurpassed
unctuous richness. Surprisingly good young, when the rich creamy decadence
predominates, it is heart-stoppingly good at 6-8 weeks once the texture has
become smooth and creamy and more complexity has developed.
Gorwydd Caerphilly
Magnificent unpasteurised real-deal farmhouse Caerphilly made in Ceredigion.
The other big name in Caerphilly is Duckett’s which can also be excellent
but sampling the two side-by-side this week the Gorwydd was clear winner. The
smell is fresh and lactic and the flavour medium-weight with a lovely lemony
freshness cutting through the rich cheese.
Vintage Lincolnshire Poacher
I’ll do a piece on cheddar sometime, because with fantastic cheeses
such as Montgomery’s, Westcombe and Poacher (not
a PDO cheddar, I know!) we should celebrate our heritage in making these amazing
cheeses and claim the name back from the vile factory abominations bearing
the name. Maturing is the key to many cheeses but especially to this style
and nothing can replace tasting what the shop has for sale. Nonetheless, vintage
Poacher is a reliably complex and balanced cheese with lovely nutty salty overtones.
East Midlands customers should catch them at farmers markets and buy their
hand-made butter pats too!
Stinking Bishop
Made in Gloucestershire since 1972, Stinking
Bishop is made from cow’s milk and treated to a rind-washing process
using Perry made from the local Stinking Bishop pears; this is a cheese whose
bark is worse than its bite! When ripe it has slightly lurid orange-colour
rind, an oozing quality like the Wigmore and a powerful scent which is both
farmyardy and sweetly fruited. In the mouth it is soft, rich and surprisingly
elegant and harmonious with a delicate balance of sweet fruit, richness and
acidity. A cheese almost in danger of being a victim of it’s own success,
numpty cheese shops sell it when it’s still just a solid block – avoid
it at this stage as it needs time to balance, mature and integrate and for
the texture to smooth out. My Mum calls it “Smelly Nelly” and
won’t even touch it so it divides the jury, but when it’s good
it as good as any stinky cheese from anywhere.
Colston Bassett Stilton
The great survivor of the proud names of the Stilton dairies, Colston Bassett
varies with the seasons. The good news for this Christmas is that the spring
pasture milk used to make the current cheeses was exceptional. In a Wine
Alchemy 2007 taste-off it came second to the young pretender Stichelton
- but the Colston Bassett this season is unbeatable.
Andy Leslie, November 2008
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