Mention Hawes in Yorkshire to many cheese-lovers and they’ll think of the Wensleydale Creamery, a big old operation with viewing gallery, museum and gift shop to boot. But recently Ribblesdale Cheese caught my eye – mainly because all of the roads where I live are named after places in Lancashire, with Ribblesdale being one of them; the Ribble valley straddles both Yorkshire and Lancashire, a pretty perilous position for anywhere to take, quite frankly. (It’s fair to say the region has ‘history’.) Also based in Hawes, Ribblesdale Cheese is a slightly smaller operation, with just three staff but one sight of their snowy white goat’s cheese, set off with its brown rind, the colour of a smoky ceiling in an age-old pub and, as ever, size didn’t matter.
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Tag Archives: hard cheese
Ribblesdale Goat’s Cheese (Smoked)
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Shropshire Blue
Of course, I’ve eaten Shropshire Blue before. I knew I had because I grew up in Staffordshire, the neighbouring county. We used to shop over county lines in Market Drayton and Shrewsbury so obviously I’ve eaten Shropshire Blue.
Oh dear
Oh dear, oh dear.
So, this is one of those moments when I’m reminded that I know bugger all about cheese. Probably more than your average Joe, I’ll give me that, but really, bugger all. Now, I don’t feel too bad about knowing flip about flocculation or being an affinage amateur. And I’d never heard of Norwegian Brown Cheese or Idiazabal or even Perl Las until the last couple of months. And I’m fine with that. But recently I found out that…pauses to put on the big cap with ‘CD for Cheese Dunce’ on it and retires to the corner in a puddle of shame…Shropshire Blue has nothing to do with Shropshire.
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Mimolette
I’ve been eating a lot of British cheese recently as there’s so much to discover on my own doorstep and so many great stories behind our cheeses that I hadn’t felt the urge to stray very far afield. But there’s one cheese I keep hearing about that’s causing such a ruckus at the moment that I felt compelled to check it out. And that cheese is mimolette.
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Tooting Gold II: Further Adventures in Home Cheese-Making
Last month I documented my first attempt to make an artisan Cheddar cheese for the discerning citizens of SW17. If you’ve already read it, you’ll know that it wasn’t an unqualified success. If you haven’t, the sorry story is here. Or to summarise: I bought the wrong milk, didn’t have a thermometer or proper mould, heated up the curds too quickly, drank some wine and left them to drain for too long before finally someone moved my ‘cheese’ onto a warm hob and it gave up the ghost altogether. The finished ‘Cheddar’ looked like this:
So. Not terribly Cheddary then.
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Gorwydd Caerphilly
I thought I must have tasted Caerphilly. I mean, how could I not have? It’s up there with Cheddar and Cheshire and Stilton as a traditional British cheese. It even has its own joke (don’t tell me you don’t know it). But what I vaguely recollected was a dull crumbly white cheese so when I happened to mosey past Gorwydd’s stand at Borough Market and saw their great rindy wheels of squidgy ivory loveliness, I was perplexed. In the name of research I thought I’d better try some. Then in the name of greediness I thought I’d better buy a chunk and take it away with me.
Here it is, happy in its new home, showing off a bit with its frilly rind:
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Spenwood
There’s been a distinct lack of ovine action on this blog so far and I think that’s partly because I didn’t realise just how many sheep’s cheeses were out there (remember, I did start this blog from the premise of ‘I am a cheese ignoramus’). In my defence, I think it’s fair to say that most people in the UK don’t associate sheep with cheese. In fact, let’s face it – given that almost a third of primary pupils think cheese is made from plants, they probably don’t associate cows with cheese either. But some of our favourite cheeses are derived from the woolly-backed beasts: Pecorino, Feta, Manchego and Roquefort, to name but a few.
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Cheshire Cheese Enchiladas in Mole Poblano Sauce
Mexico was the first holiday that the Other Half and I went on together. He remembers it mainly as two weeks of ensuring ready access to a lavatory but my stomach is made of famously strong stuff and so I have happy memories of fresh guacamole and salsa, bursting with chillies and lime, fish grilled on the beach, scrambled eggs with chilli and the famous mole poblano sauce. Often abbreviated to ‘the one with chilli and chocolate’, there’s so much more to this smoky, rich sauce (which is hardly surprising when you look at the long list of ingredients). Traditionally served over meat, especially turkey, in this recipe it pairs well with the salty, nutty Cheshire cheese.
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Filed under cheese please challenge, Cheese Recipes
Reypenaer V.S.O.P.
Okay, okay, I’ll come clean from the start. This cheese is Gouda and I have eaten Gouda before. But although it said Gouda on the label, this one looked different, casually propped up against the back of the chiller cabinet with its ‘two year aged’ label. I’ll admit it; it looked expensive and a bit vintage. It was the cheese equivalent of being beckoned onto a yacht by a leathery-skinned old oligarch jangling his Rolex at me. Reader, I fell for it.
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Cheshire Cheese and Marmalade Bread Tarts
I always thought that my older sister had invented bread tarts. Sunday afternoon would often find us pressing buttered slices of Mother’s Pride into bun tins and spooning in various concoctions of egg, cheese, bacon and mixed herbs. Bread tarts are perfect for children to make – no messy pastry and you only need a concentration span of about ten minutes. The tart ‘cases’ come out surprisingly crisp and most people never guess that it’s essentially flat toast. Perfect for a picnic or as canapés.
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Smoked Lincolnshire Poacher
There has been a distinct bias so far on this blog towards cheeses of the English southern counties and semi-soft cheeses and I felt this week I should attempt to redress the balance. So I’ve headed north-east to munch on Lincolnshire Poacher, a hard unpasteurised cheese made from the milk of cows that graze on the chalky pastures of the Lincolnshire Wolds, an area not usually associated with dairy let alone cheese-making.
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Fromage Homage 