If last month’s Cheese, Please! Challenge featured probably the most common cheese consumed in the UK, this month is all about a cheese that’s much under-used. I wavered about picking sheep’s milk (or ewe’s milk) cheese for fear of scaring people away but then I figured – what’s a challenge if it’s not a challenge?! And besides, when it comes to devising recipes, these cheeses pair beautifully with seasonal fruits, preserves and nuts; with fig jam, black cherry jam and quince jelly or eaten simply with a slice of pear or apple and a handful of walnuts or almonds.
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October’s Cheese, Please! Challenge – Hard Sheep’s Cheese
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September’s Cheese, Please! Recipe Round Up – Cheddar
This month saw a bumper crop of entries to Cheese, Please! reflecting, I think, both the popularity and versatility of cheddar cheese. I certainly enjoyed trying some of the traditional farmhouse varieties that ranged from grassy-tasting to downright dirty (in a good way). Alas, I’m afraid I did go back on my promise to cut open my own home-made cheddar; I just couldn’t do it. So he lives on down in my cellar, maturing for a few months more.
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Fowlers Sage Derby
There’s something of the déjà vu about Sage Derby. I feel nostalgic for it, it reminds me of my childhood but I haven’t the foggiest idea why. I never remember eating it or seeing it in the house. I grew up in the next door county so perhaps it was always on the supermarket shelves (I was going to say pub menus but in those days it was all chicken-in-a-basket and a piece of Stilton on the cheeseboard would have been the talk of the town.) So, I don’t know why I think I know Sage Derby. Mum, if you’re reading this (and sometimes I fear it’s only my Mum reading), let me know if we ever ate Sage Derby.
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The Perfect Autumn Cheeseboard?
I’ve been pondering when to write this post. Any piece of writing about autumn has to legally include the words ‘mists’ and ‘mellow fruitfulness’ but, although strictly speaking, autumn in the UK started last Sunday, I just haven’t been feeling it. It’s been too warm and not very misty, mellow or fruitful at all. Even the conkers aren’t ripe. But then, this morning, I saw this on my walk:
A dewy spider’s web in front of some browning acorns! Lo, it was a sign! I declare autumn officially open.
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Mouth Almighty Lancashire Cheese
I’m a bit cynical about celebrities and ‘their’ products. I find it hard to believe that Britney Spears is really out the back chopping up lychees, quinces and civet cat testicles to make her perfume or that Frank Lampard is holed up in his garret, writing children’s stories (or writing joined-up letters, quite frankly). So when I heard that Sean Wilson – or ‘Martin Platt off Coronation Street’ as he’s been called for the last thirty years or so – was making cheese now, I’ll confess, I thought ‘Yeah, of course he is…’
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Quicke’s Cheddar Cheese and Beer Soup
I’m determined not to put the heating on until October but this autumn weather is certainly trying my resolve (hailstones anyone?!) So, it’s ridiculous Nordic cardigans, hot water bottles and comfort food all the way here. Rocket, lettuce and radishes have all fallen by the wayside in favour of starchy root vegetables and soups have kicked out salads. I first came across Cheese and Beer Soup in Kirstin Jackson’s exploration of American cheese, It’s Not You, It’s Brie. It sounded very British – beer, cheese, together in a bowl – so I was surprised to find that it’s a classic American dish that hails from Wisconsin, the dairy capital of the States. There didn’t seem to be any trace of it here at all and it seemed like we were missing a trick.
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Oxford Isis
After surviving a brush with Stinking Bishop last month, I got cocky and decided to plump for another washed rind cheese. Traditionally renowned as ‘the really stinky ones’, these are the cheeses that get banned from public transport or the ones you should sew into the cushions if your spouse has an affair. This time round it was Oxford Isis and I have to say, things were not looking good when I got into the car and my other half said, ‘Oh no, I think the baby’s just done something’, a refrain that was to be repeated every time I opened the fridge door over the next two days.
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A Big Cheesy Love Story
When I started this cheese adventure back in May, hoping to educate myself in all things cheesy, I envisaged myself scoffing back stinky French wedges and holey Swiss slices in my quest for fromage knowledge. Guzzling Gorgonzola, snaffling Saint-Marcellin and pigging out on Parmesan were all part of the plan. Then I read a bit more and was determined to try Norwegian Brown Cheese (Gjetost), Sardinian Maggot’s Cheese (Casu Marzu) and Mauritanian Camel’s Cheese (Caravane). But something rather unexpected happened along the way.
I fell in love with British cheese.
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Montgomery’s Cheddar and Salmon Fishcakes
Given that this month’s Cheese, Please! Challenge is the very British Cheddar, it seems only right that I should conduct extensive research by stuffing my face with as many quality farmhouse Cheddars as I can lay my hands on. The first up for tasting is Montgomery’s Cheddar:
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Blacksticks Blue
I was drawn to this cheese by the story of its name. A blue cheese (rather obviously), it was named ‘Blacksticks’ after a farm of the same name near to the dairy, where some tall chestnut trees looked like black sticks against the winter sky. I love the British countryside in the autumn and winter (my other half likes to go on about ‘crows in ploughed fields’ as he knows it will make me all misty-eyed) and, as the summer starts to wind down, it seemed an appropriate cheese to check out.
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Fromage Homage 