Tag Archives: cow’s milk cheese

Barkham Blue

Today’s cheese choice demonstrates the power of social media. Or something like that. When I wrote up my sorry tale of the mauling judging of my home-made Cheddar, Colin, I was somewhat mortified to receive several tweets from proper cheese-makers, although all of them were kind and full of encouragement. One of them was from a producer called Two Hoots Cheese, with reference to my nascent plans to produce a Stilton called Trevor:

It made me smile and so I clicked on their profile and then onto their website and read all about the cheeses they produce, which included one called Barkham Blue, which I’d heard of before but never tried. A few days later I was in my local cheese shop to stock up when what should I see on their shelves but Barkham Blue! After a wee tasting, which involved the cheese-monger being rather lovely and ceremoniously involving my five year old (who loves blue cheese and, after much slightly precocious Gallic shrugging and face-manoeuvring, gave it a literal thumbs up) the Barkham Blue was in the bag. And here it is:

barkham blue cheese
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Ogleshield

People don’t tend to talk about cheese coincidences, do they? Perhaps most people don’t have cheese coincidences. I’m not sure I used to, to be honest, but if you’re going to eat a lot of cheese and read about a lot of cheese, it’s going to happen. And so it was when some friends came round for a fondue night and brought with them the gift of a chunk of cheese. (Kind guests! Wise guests!) The cheese was called Ogleshield and it just so happened that one of the cheeses that was lying in an enormous grated cheese-mountain behind me, ready to be fondued, was Bermondsey Hardpressed. And goodness me, what do you know, they only go and share a Cheese-Daddy! (That’s very different from a Sugar Daddy by the way…)

Here is the Ogleshield (it was vacuum-packed so I don’t think it usually looks quite this shiny):

Ogleshield cheese
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Tooting Gold: Judgement Day

home-made cheddar cheese

Anyone who’s been getting their cheesy fix from this blog for a while now will know that in the bowels of my house, amongst the old abs toners and rusting tins of paint, lives a home-made cheddar which goes by the name of Tooting Gold (or more affectionately E-Colin, or Colin for short). Colin was made in June 2013. I’d been learning about cheese for about six weeks when I thought it would be interesting to see for myself how it’s made and so, with zero knowledge about milk, cultures, rennet, temperatures, acidity, timings, hygiene, maturation or indeed pretty much any aspect of cheese-making, I plunged right in there and tried to make a cheddar. Not an easy ricotta or even a little chèvre. Oh no. A cheddar, which requires rennet and cultures and cheddaring and moulding and maturing and all manner of what-not.
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Teifi

Since setting out on my mission to chomp my way through and learn about as many cheeses of the British Isles as I can (there are about 700 at the last count…and I’m not sure that includes Ireland…so I could be some time…) I’ve tried to ensure I represent a mix of different cheeses. Cow, sheep, goat, buffalo. Hard, soft and the various states of squidginess inbetween. Raw and pasteurised. But I know that I’ve been very rubbish indeed when it comes to geography and anywhere outside of England is getting a raw deal of it. This is purely down to what’s available where I shop, rather than any kind of cheese separatism but I know I need to try harder. So, this week, in the spirit of union, I bring you Teifi:

teifi cheese wales
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Barber’s Cheese, Starter Cultures and Success with Soufflés

Twice Baked Cheddar Cheese Soufflés Barber's 1833 Vintage Reserve Cheddar

Contrary to what some of my friends think, I do not, alas, lie on a chaise longue all today quaffing free cheese. Partly because eating cheese lying down is a recipe for indigestion but also because mine is not the kind of blog that gets inundated with freebies. Which is fine by me, as a large part of the fun of it is deciding what cheese to try next.

Recently, however, I got invited to the Good Food Show by the cheddar chaps at Barber’s in Somerset and didn’t hesitate to accept; partly because it seemed free cheese might finally be in the offing, partly because it meant twelve hours on my own without having to attend to anyone’s toileting or answer questions about slugs, but mainly because I had recently found out that Barber’s are the sole guardians of Britain’s traditional starter cultures. For a cheese geek like me, it was an offer too good to turn down.
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Cotehill Blue

For anyone squeamish of cheese (who, let’s face it, probably ran screaming from this blog a long time ago) today’s cheese may well sound like their worst nightmare. Not only is it soft and squidgy like a ripe Brie but it also has blue veins and a slightly crusty rind. Only washed rinds terrify cheese-haters more than a squidgy, crusty blue. But one person’s cheese nightmare is another’s jackpot and the combination sounded pretty fantastic to me. So when I caught sight of some at a food show recently, it was in my bag as quick as you like.

Here it is, oozing menacingly:

cotehill blue cheese
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Baron Bigod

I just love the name of this cheese. I wasn’t sure how to say it when I bought it and the nice young chap who was selling it couldn’t enlighten me but I liked to think of it as pronounced like ‘Baron BY GOD!’, preferably by Brian Blessed, whilst dressed as Henry VIII. I was terrified that in the course of researching the cheese I would find out that it was actually pronounced ‘Bee-Go’ or somesuch but fortunately ‘BY GOD!’ it is. Genius.

So, here is Baron Bigod, throwing its voice from the diaphragm, darling, and shaking its magisterial beard:

baron bigod cheese fen farm dairy
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Home-Made Buffalo Mozzarella

Home-made Buffalo Mozzarella

Okay, stop sniggering at the back, please. The title of the post doesn’t say that I made my own bodyweight in mozzarella or enough mozzarella to keep Papa John’s afloat. I will admit that it’s not the largest haul of cheese ever produced but that’s the thing about artisan cheese, right – quality over quantity. So there.
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Kit Calvert’s Wensleydale

This week’s post is nominated for both personal and topical reasons. The personal sees me in an opening credits montage from Who Do You Think You Are, staring pensively into the middle distance in the sheep-dotted Yorkshire Dales, sandwiched perhaps between Christopher Biggins and Derek Griffiths. This is because we recently found out that my great-great Uncle Charles was involved in Wensleydale cheese-making (well, okay, we think he was a stockman but that’s a vital job; happy cows equals tasty cheese). Alas, penning a cheese blog has yet to bring me the requisite celebrity and so the BBC are not rushing to help me with this one. Another time.

Here is my family’s legacy the cheese:

wensleydale hawes
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It’s a Sunday…there’s an R in the month…must be time for Another Eight Cheeses

I’ve already written about two previous tastings which I attended at one of my local cheeseries, Cannon and Cannon, hosted by cheese-meister Ned Palmer. For a self-educating cheese geek like myself, they’ve proved a great way to try several great British cheeses in one go, as well as learn a little about their history and production. You can read about the previous two here and here.

The theme this month was Winter Warmers and the tasting reflected both the changing nature of cheese throughout the seasons, as well as the fact that as humans we tend to crave different foodstuffs according to whether it’s hot or cold. With regards to taste, the colder weather tends to makes us crave something with a bit more oomph; substantial rather than salady, comforting rather than cooling.
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