CHEESEWIRE

Blue mould pioneers turn their hands to developing white varietals

By Patrick McGuigan

A er discovering how to breed blue cheese moulds, scientists have now turned their attention to getting white moulds in the mood for procreation in a bid to create new strains that could “revolutionise” brie-style cheeses.

Penicillium moulds were long thought to reproduce asexually, but Paul Dyer, professor of fungal biology at the University of Nottingham, has discovered a way to naturally breed di erent strains of Penicillium roqueforti to create completely new blue mould varieties that produce unique avours, textures and colours in cheese.

The process, which has been licensed by bio-tech start-up Myconeos, is now also being used to develop new strains of the white mould Penicillium camemberti, backed by a £285,000 grant from the Government-funded Innovate UK scheme.

Scientists are currently hunting for wild strains of the white mould in dairies that they can cross-breed to create a range of new ripening cultures.

“This could revolutionise the taste, texture and even colour of brie and camembertstyle cheeses,” said Dr Jacek Obuchowicz, CEO of Myconeos. “The market for these styles of cheeses is four or ve times the size of the blue cheese market, so there is huge potential for growth.”

Myconeos is keen to hear from British artisan cheesemakers who are happy for swabs to be taken from their dairies, which could then be bred to create novel strains of Penicillium camemberti.

A similar programme was used to develop new types of blue moulds, which led to trials with artisan cheesemakers Moyden’s Hand Made Cheese in Shropshire and Highland Fine Cheeses in Ross-shire.

This led to the creation of four new blue mould varieties last year under the Mycoforti brand, including Classic, Mild, Intense and Artisan, which each provide di erent avour and texture characteristics in cheese. They are distributed by JKM Foods.

A bespoke blue mould was also developed for Moyden’s by isolating a wild strain of blue mould from a hay bale at a Shropshire farm.

“We’d like to work with smaller cheesemakers on similar projects with Penicillium camemberti,” said Obuchowicz. “Commercialised strains can lose their vigour, but wild strains are o en more active. They could bring interesting new properties.”

Myconeos is hoping to develop new strains of Penicillium camemberti

myconeos.com

NEWS IN BRIEF

Norfolk-based Mrs Temple’s Cheese celebrated its 20th anniversary last month. Dr Catherine Temple, who runs the business in Wighton with husband Stephen, makes cheeses including Binham Blue and Gurney’s Gold, using milk from a herd of Brown Swiss cows.

Rollright maker King Stone Dairy in Gloucestershire has launched a new cider-washed cheese called Yarlington in collaboration with Herefordshire cider maker Oliver’s and content creator Sam Wilkin. The soft cheese is washed in cider made with Yarlington Mill apples.

The Prince of Wales visited Lynher Dairies, which makes Cornish Yarg, last month to unveil a plaque commemorating 30 years of cheese making.

Scientists in Italy have discovered four genes that are responsible for making Gorgonzola taste soapy to some people. One in five people are said to experience detergent-like flavours when they taste the cheese with researchers pinpointing four genes (SYT9, PDE4B, AVL9, HTR1B) as being responsible. SYT9 is closely related to a gene that also makes coriander taste soapy to some people.

THREE WAYS WITH...

Pevensey Blue

Made by former Neal’s Yard Dairy shop manager Martin Tkalez and his wife Hazel in East Sussex, this new blue is similar to Gorgonzola. Made with pasteurised cow’s milk from Court Lodge Organic Farm and aged for 11 weeks, it’s sweet, milky and chocolatey with a soft texture that becomes progressively gooey with age.

Salted caramel with miso There’s a triangle of sweet, salty and savoury flavours to Pevensey Blue that gives it great structure and length. A dab of salted caramel with miso turbocharges the experience, picking up on the cheese’s three foundations. Made by Craic Foods in Northern Ireland from double cream, miso and treacle, it’s a remarkable spread and condiment that is buttery and sweet with an umami undertow.

Orange wine Paleokerisio from Domaine Glinavos is a highly unusual orange, semi-sparkling wine from Ioannina, Greece, that is a great foil for blue cheeses. Made from the indigenous grapes Debina and Vlahiko, the wine is macerated on its skins and then bottled before fermentation has finished resulting in a demi-sec, lightly sparkling wine that is full of tangy, spicy and citrus peel notes. The bubbles bring freshness to the creamy cheese, while it also brings out interesting fruity notes.

Pickled walnuts Brighton restaurant Plateau serves Pevensey Blue with pickled walnuts on its menu. The yielding texture of the nuts matches up nicely with the soft texture of the cheese, while their acidity and spice contrasts with the gentle, milky flavour. There’s also a pleasing contrast in colour between the cheese and the dark walnuts.

Swaledale moves to cancel PDO a er relocating production

By Patrick McGuigan

The company that makes Swaledale, one of Britain’s oldest cheeses, has applied to cancel the PDO that protects it, a er the business was forced to move from the designated area where the cheese must be made.

The Swaledale Cheese Company, which previously made the crumbly cheese in Richmond, North Yorkshire, moved out of the designated area of Swaledale to nearby Leyburn earlier this year, meaning it no longer met the requirements set out in the PDO.

As the only producer of the cheese, the company has applied to Defra for its protected status to be cancelled with production continuing as a brand. Owner Richard Darbishire told FFD that once the PDO was cancelled, he planned to apply for PGI status, which is less restrictive. However, following Brexit, this would rst involve securing protection under the new UK GI scheme, before applying to the EU.

“We bought the company from administration and had a ve-year lease on the Richmond premises, but there was a break clause and we were forced to move,” he explained.

Darbishire and co-owner Bengt Odner bought the Swaledale Cheese Company from liquidation in 2019. The business was rst set up by the Reed family in 1987, who revived production of Swaledale cheese, which dates back to the middle ages.

There are two PDOs covering cows’ and ewes’ milk versions of the crumbly cheese, although only the cows’ milk cheese is currently made.

“We’re looking at bringing back the sheep’s milk cheese, and also a goats’ milk version,” said Darbishire.

The only maker of Swaledale is now based outside of the area defined by the cheese’s PDO

BEHIND THE COUNTER TIPS OF THE TRADE

Jo Moody, cheesemonger, Newlyns Farm Shop, Hampshire

Newlyns’ walk-in cheese room is an impressive space, measuring 5.5m x 4m and filled with around 100 cheeses.

COVID made it difficult to have lots of customers in there at once, but now cheesemonger Jo Moody is enticing them to open the door and come into the room once more.

“Some are a little hesitant, especially if there is no-one else inside, so I will step outside the room and talk to them,” she says. “Free tasters also help.”

Humidity and temperature are regulated at around 78% and 10°C, respectively, with the cheeses displayed unwrapped during the day. At night they are wrapped and the room taken down to 5°C – a system that has been approved by the local EHO.

Working in a cold cheese room means the right clothes are essential. “The secret is layers,” reveals Moody. “I wear a thermal base layer, sometimes two, and fleece tights.”

CHEESE IN PROFILE with

Killeen Goat

What’s the story?:

Having fallen in love with Ireland while travelling, Dutch-born Marion Roeleveld moved to Galway in 2004. She brought her skills as a cheesemaker with her and used them to develop a gouda-style cheese and set up Killeen Farmhouse Cheese The unique thing about Killeen, is that it uses the milk from the farm’s herd of 200 Saanen goats, rather than cows’ milk found in a traditional gouda. Hailing originally from Switzerland and pure white in colour, the Saanen breed does not fare well in hot, sunny climes, so Ireland is the perfect place for them to flourish. The goats are fed on the fresh-cut grass grown on the 50-acre farm and Farmer Haske makes his own muesli-type meal for them.

Milk:

Goats’, pasteurised.

How is it made?

The goats are milked twice a day, after which the milk is pasteurised, and starter and traditional rennet are added. The curds are cut and washed before being hand-moulded and pressed for three hours. After brining, the cheeses are coated in a breathable plastic and left for a minimum of two months and up to 11 months. process, helps to remove acidity creating a sweeter, more supple cheese. At three months, the flavour is fresh, clean and milky. The cheese develops more fruitiness as it ages up to nine months, then gradually turns hazelnutty.

Variations:

The farm also produces a fenugreek version of Killeen.

Cheesemonger tip:

The bright white paste looks stunning on a contrasting cheeseboard. With its mild goat flavour, it is a great gateway cheese and can convert many sceptics. Try it on crackers with a mango chutney.

Chef’s recommendation:

A versatile cheese that works both in a salad or melted over savoury dishes. Serve with an offdry Gewürztraminer to cut through the richness.

Appearance & texture: Killeen is a smooth, semihard cheese, bright white under its orange rind. The washing of the curds, a key part of the gouda-making

There are a number of ways you can study Level 1 & 2 Academy of Cheese courses: online as self-study eLearning, interactive virtual classes or traditional classes at a venue. Visit academyofcheese.org for more information.

I love working with sheep’s milk – it’s really rich and creamy

“To brie, or not to brie?”

Meet the Dorset operation making cheeses with a literary twist

Interview by Patrick McGuigan

WHEN PETER MORGAN rst considered a move into cheesemaking he wisely asked a few trusted cheese industry veterans for advice. “I spoke to people like Charlie Turnbull (the then owner of Turnbulls Deli in Sha esbury) and they told me to read as many cheesemaking books as I could and the rest would be bucket science,” he says. “The idea of ‘book and bucket’ really stuck with me.”

This was in 2014 when Morgan was working for sheep’s milk yoghurt company Woodlands Dairy in Dorset and was looking for ways to use up surplus milk. The result (a er much reading and trial batches in a bucket) was Melbury – an Ossau Iraty-style cheese that is still made today.

In 2018, Morgan decided to go it alone, setting up The Book and Bucket Cheese Company at premises in Cranbourne. Sheep’s milk was the obvious place to start, sourced fresh from Burton Dairy in Somerset and Buckshaw’s in Dorset, with the book theme providing a rich vein of cheese names. Some of the rst cheeses he made included the feta-style Austen, the Manchego-like Hardy’s and Shakespeare – a sheep’s milk brie. “I love working with sheep’s milk – it’s really rich and creamy,” he says.

The product list has grown signi cantly, with new sheep’s milk cheeses including the Halloumi-style Burns and cream cheese Orwell, plus a range of cows’ milk cheeses. These were developed during lockdown when a local farm found itself with an excess of milk, which was destined for the drain until Morgan stepped in.

“They told me they had a couple of thousand litres that needed using up. It ended up being 10,700 litres in 10 days. I didn’t sleep more than about 12 hours during that time. I was just making cheese constantly. It changed the direction of the business and got us through COVID.”

Blyton, a cows’ milk Brie, is now the company’s top seller, plus Cranbourne Blue, Wordsworth Gouda and a curd called Potter.

Morgan’s love for NPD has also seen him create bespoke cheeses for The Pig hotel and restaurant group, including a sheep’s curd and Golding – a pressed, aged ricotta salata, named a er group chef director James Golding.

“I rst went down to the Pig on the Beach in Swanage to meet the then head chef Adam Bristow,” says Morgan. “I was so nervous sitting in the garden with my cheeses. But we had a glass of wine and tasted through the range, and he said he’d take the lot.”

Morgan supplies The Pig directly, along with around 120 local delis, farm shops and restaurants, while wholesalers Longman’s and Leopard take the cheeses further a eld. The Book and Bucket’s smart blue and black branding is also a common sight at local food fairs and markets, where the literaturereferencing cheeses seem to capture people’s imagination.

Turnover has grown six-fold from the rst year of trading, with the company processing 2,000 litres of cow’s milk and 1,500 litres of sheep’s milk a week. A product range that includes 14 cheeses, plus half a dozen limitededition creations, might sound a lot, but Morgan argues that variety is an important selling point. “It makes it easy for customers in terms of ordering and rotating cheeses on menus,” he says. “I also just really like experimenting with new cheeses.”

He’s going to need a bigger bucket. thebookandbucketcheesecompany.co.uk

CROSS SECTION

Shakespeare

1

This pasteurised, sheep’s milk cheese, named in honour of the Bard, asks the question, “To Brie, or not to be Brie?” on the label. Cheese judges have answered in the affirmative with the product winning a twostar in Great Taste 2020 and a Gold medal at last year’s World Cheese Awards.

2 3

The cheese is made with fresh milk, never frozen, with a butterfat content of 6.5-7%, which helps explain its rich, buttery flavour and texture. Each 150g cheese is salted by hand and matured for around six weeks. The paste breaks down rapidly as the cheese matures to create a runny, melted ice cream texture. Beneath the fluffy white rind, the paste is alabaster and glossy with a clean flavour that takes in double cream and milky sweetness, with a pleasant hint of barnyard at the finish.

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