CHEESEWIRE

Cheesemongers up the innovation in the face of price increases

By Patrick McGuigan

Cutting costs, changing suppliers and o ering deals are among the tactics being deployed by UK cheesemongers as they battle huge increases in the price of artisan cheese.

Wholesale cheese prices have increase by 20-30% since Christmas, according to retailers, as milk, energy and fuel costs soar.

The farm-gate price for milk was close to 50p a litre at the beginning of August, up from 29p a year ago, due to the rocketing cost of fuel, fertiliser and feed with cheesemakers and wholesalers forced to pass on the increases. While retailers have also increased their prices, they are also tempering the impact in other ways.

Gemma Williams at The Little Cheesemonger in Wales has taken drastic action to cut costs, including closing her rst shop in Rhuddlan. “Customers just aren’t driving to rural shops like they used to, for obvious reasons,” she said.

She has also mothballed her maturing room to conserve energy and on very hot days even switches o the serveover counter in her remaining Prestatyn store for the same reason, transferring cheeses to another display fridge, and using the counter for ambient display.

“On closing, I use extra insulation on my multi-deck fridge to hold the temperature more e ciently over night,” she said.

At Cheese Etc in Pangbourne, Berkshire, coowner Jen Grimstone-Jones is shopping around to get the best price on cheese, buying direct from cheesemakers if possible.

“Where I have to buy through a wholesaler I try to buy from those based in the area where the cheeses are made. They tend to be able to o er their local cheeses at the best prices.”

Paxton & Whit eld has also introduced measures to support customers, with free delivery for online purchases over £30, plus a £30 ‘ripe and ready’ box that is lower in price than the standard retail price. It will also introduce a more accessibly priced cheese subscription for Christmas 2022 at £85 for three months and is planning to list new cheeses at more accessible prices.

At George & Joseph in Leeds, owner Stephen Fleming has launched a new deal – three 100g pieces of cheese and a bottle of wine for £20.

“We’ve noticed that average spend is down, but customer numbers are the same, so ideas like this help to give sales a li ,” he said.

Retailers have had to try new ideas to shift stock from their counters

NEWS IN BRIEF

Shepherds Purse has renamed its Feta-style cheese as Mrs Bell’s Salad Cheese. Originally called Yorkshire Feta and then Yorkshire Fettle, the cheese has been rebranded for a second time after pressure from the Greek government.

Kirkham’s Lancashire won the James Aldridge Memorial Trophy for best British raw milk cheese at the Specialist Cheesemakers Association’s annual farm visit. King Stone Dairy’s Ashcombe won the Patron’s Award for the Best Artisan Cheese of the Year.

The Cheese Cellar Dairy in Worcestershire, part of Harvey & Brockless, has launched two cheeses. Greta is a cows’ curd, in basiland garlic-infused oil. Delilah is a pyramidshaped, triple-cream cheese, topped with pink peppercorns.

Preston-based cheese wholesaler The Crafty Cheese Man has teamed up with a local brewer to create a beer that is the ultimate match for cheese. It Ain’t Easy Bein’ Cheesy, made by Farm Yard Brew Co in Lancaster, is a 9.5% demerara sugar & sea salt stout, which is aged in Rioja barrels for six months.

THREE WAYS WITH...

Gert Lush

This new Camembert-style cheese from Felthams Farm in Somerset takes its name from a West Country phrase that translates loosely as ‘very lovely’. Made with organic, pasteurised cows’ milk, it has a bloomy white coat and a soft golden paste. It is buttery and mushroomy with a slightly herbaceous note.

Pumpkin Soda Summerhouse Drinks in Aberdeenshire has recently developed this sparkling soft drink made with pumpkins, cinnamon and nutmeg, which is sweet and savoury with a spicy, floral edge. It works well with blues, but is even better with mould-ripened cheeses. The perfumed flavour adds another layer to the savoury notes of Gert Lush, while the bubbles break up the creaminess.

Golden kimchi The fermented tang of sauerkrauts and spicy kimchis are a sure-fire match for cheeses with a bit of funk, but Gert Lush needs something a little lighter. Golden Kimchi from Londonbased Eaten Alive is just the ticket. Made with turmeric, preserved lemons and ginger, it has a refreshing, fragrant quality that brings out something similar in the cheese. The contrast in colours between the two is an added bonus.

Roasted grapes Like Camembert, Gert Lush can be baked in the oven until it is molten and dunkable. Drizzle some black grapes with olive oil and balsamic and then roast for 10-20 minutes at the same time until they start to split, and you have a perfect accompaniment. You can even load them on top of the melted cheese so they become part of the dish. The sweet, sharp, juicy grapes provide a refreshing counterpoint to the earthy cheese.

The Fine Cheese Co teams up with a neurs to revamp Continentals

By Patrick McGuigan

The Fine Cheese Co has overhauled its Continental cheeses range to overcome Brexit supply chain issues and reinvigorate sales in the face of sti competition from British alternatives.

The Bath-based wholesaler and retailer is now sourcing a wide range of new cheeses from specialist, regional a neurs in France, including Xavier Fromager in Toulouse, Rodolphe le Meunier in Tourraine and Fromagerie Joseph Paccard in Savoy, as well as Kaeskuche in Germany and Tradifoods in Portugal.

“We previously worked exclusively with and exporter but, with new paperwork a er Brexit, shipping was taking longer and we were losing shelflife on so , lactic cheeses,” said cheese specialist Nick Bayne, who led the project. “By working directly with a neurs we are getting cheeses at the right age pro le. But it also allows us to source interesting regional cheeses from tiny producers.”

Cheeses in the range include Banon, St Marcellin, Reblochon and Tomme de Savoie from fermier producers, as well as lesser-known French cheeses, such as Cendre de Paulinet – an ashed lactic sheep’s milk cheese from Tarn – and the diamond-shaped goats’ cheese Ferde-Lance.

Other new cheeses include Hornkäse, an Alpine-style cheese coated in elder ower cordial and burnt hay, and the creamy Chiriboga Blue, both from Bavaria, plus Portuguese cheeses Azeitao, Zimbro and Sao Jorge.

“Quite rightly, British cheeses have had an incredible rise and Continental cheeses have sometimes been put on the back burner,” said Bayne. “We wanted to reinvigorate our European cheeses, so we are sourcing the absolute best that we could nd from some of the smallest producers. These are special cheeses that will help cheese shops really distinguish themselves.”

Cheese from French affineur Xavier Fromager are part of the new line-up finecheese.co.uk

Sam Harris

BEHIND THE COUNTER TIPS OF THE TRADE

Heather Ramskill, manager, Henshelwoods Deli, York

It’s not just cheesemongers who have suffered in the recent record temperatures. The cheeses in their counters have been feeling the heat too.

“We hit 32°C on the shop floor and the fridges were only just bearing up at below 8°C,” says Heather Ramskill, manager at Henshelwoods in York.

To help preserve her stock, Ramskill reduced the amount of cheese in the counter so that air could flow more freely, keeping more in the walk-in storage fridge. She also reduced orders for soft cheeses in favour of hard.

“Customers were struggling to get soft cheeses home in good condition because it was so hot, but hard cheeses are a bit more robust,” she said. “We also paid close attention to how we were wrapping and rewrapping the cheeses in the counter to stop sweating and oxidation.”

Keeping a good air flow in the shop also helped staff cope with the heat, she adds.

deliyork.co.uk

CHEESE IN PROFILE with

Manchego DOP

What’s the story?

Manchego can only be made in the region of La Mancha, between Madrid and Alicante. Dry, arid and with temperatures up to 40°C during the summer, the harsh landscape is home to the hardy Manchega sheep breed, which graze the wild grasses and shrubs of the dehesa (wild meadows) and provide rich milk for cheese (also part of its PDO regulations). Manchego is the most popular of Spanish cheeses and is iconic in its culinary heritage: the zig-zag pattern on the rind was originally formed when the curd was placed in esparto baskets made from plaited grass to drain, but is now formed from an imprint on the moulds.

How is it made?

Manchego can be made from either raw or pasteurised ewe’s milk. However, raw milk versions must carry the term “Artisano” on the label, and usually, animal rennet is used for coagulation. The curds are scalded up to 40°C and the cheese is pressed, then dry-salted or brined. The rinds may be sealed with a coating or rubbed with olive oil before aging.

Appearance & texture:

The combination of flavours—a delicate balance of buttery, herbaceous, sweet, and nutty—makes it a complex cheese that appeals to all palettes. It changes significantly from its young semi-curado age where the cheese is white, fatty, lactic and soft, through to curado where it’s firmer with small holes appearing in the ivory and almost translucent cheese. At this age the Manchego is dry, salty and sweetly nutty. The oldest cheeses, of 12 months or more, viejo, are highly dense in flavour and make the perfect tapas.

Variations:

Wheels of Manchego are categorized according to age, ranging from the twoweek fresco to semicurado (three weeks to four months), curado (three to six months), and añejo or viejo (one to two years).

Cheesemonger tip:

The perfect “grazing board” cheese, Manchego is also elevated by accompaniements – so make sure to serve it with some quince membrillo.

Chef’s recommendation:

Makes a great appetizer, on a cocktail stick with a sweet roasted pepper, briny green olive and sprinkling of fresh thyme. With all age variations, you will not go wrong serving it with a glass of its native cousin, Pedro Ximénez sherry, or a fruity Rioja.

Cheese courses: online as self-study eLearning, interactive virtual classes or traditional classes at a venue. The Guild of Fine Food, FFD’s publisher, is holding its first in-person Level 2 course on 27th-28th September in London. Visit gff.co.uk/training for more details and academyofcheese.org for other learning opportunities academyofcheese.org

It needs good retailers to stock it, explain it and taste it.

There’s more to Greece than Feta

The founders of Maltby & Greek are on a mission to showcase their homeland’s cheese to the trade

Interview by Patrick McGuigan

“THERE’S MORE TO Greek cheese than Feta,” says Yannos Hadjiioannou with a serious look. To prove his point, the co-owner of importer Maltby & Greek is hosting a grand Greek cheese tasting at its HQ, under railway arches in Bermondsey Spa, London.

It’s an impressive sight. A long table is laden with dozens of cheeses, from grainy wedges to smoked cheeses and u y ricottas.

“Greece is sold on sun, sea and sand, but there is so much more to the country – amazing mountains, beautiful rivers and waterfalls, fantastic wildlife and plant life,” says Hadjiioannou. “These di erent landscapes are re ected by its cheeses. There is huge variety.”

Greece has 24 cheeses with PDO or PGI status, many of which are stocked by Maltby & Greek. Cheeses such as Manouri – a PDO ricotta-style cheese from Thessalia made with sheep’s and goats’ whey le over from Feta production. Or Metsovone PDO, a sausage-shaped provolone-style, made in the mountains of Northern Greece, that is smoked over smouldering leaves, grasses and herbs.

There are also various hard Graviera cheeses (named a er Gruyère), including the PDO-protected Cretan Graviera – a hard sheep’s milk cheese made in 16kg wheels and aged for 24 months until it is grainy.

Hadjiioannou and his business partner Stefanos Kokotos, both from Athens, rst started selling on a market stall on Maltby Street in 2012, before wholesaling to restaurants and retailers, and moving to their current site in 2017. Today, the company stocks hundreds of products, from bottarga and olive oil through to preserves and wines, and it supplies delis including Bayley & Sage, The Ealing Grocer and Raoul’s.

“When we started, Greek wine was nowhere to be seen but now it’s regularly on wine lists. The same thing can happen with Greek cheese. It needs good retailers to stock it, explain it and taste it.”

Even Feta needs further explanation, despite already being well known, he says, because there are so many di erent styles and avours. They are o en very di erent to the young, sharp cheeses, matured in tin containers, found on supermarket shelves.

“I’m looking for the right balance between salinity, pH and creaminess,” he says, as we taste a 100% sheep’s milk Feta from Grevena in North West Greece, which is sweet and briny with a sheepy nish. There’s also a buttery, yeasty Feta from Lesbos, plus barrelaged cheeses, such as Kourouniotis, made with milk from sheep and goats that graze high mountain pastures in the Peloponnese. It’s fruity with a little bitterness on the nish. The 12-month Kostarelos Feta from the island of Evia is very di erent, with a harder texture and piquant, savoury, gamey avour.

“When we grew up, you didn’t go to the supermarket to buy Feta,” he says. “You would go to the local store where they had three barrels – some were hard, some were so . People would buy a couple of kilos at a time.”

Brits are a long way o buying in those quantities, but Hadjiioannou is hopeful that, with time and education, interest will grow in the same way it has for Spanish and Middle Eastern foods in recent years.

“We open up the arches on Saturdays and the people that shop here don’t know the cheeses, but when they taste them, they buy them. It just needs a little leap of faith.”

maltbyandgreek.com

CROSS SECTION

Xirotyri

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A hard sheep’s (80%) and goats’ milk (20%) cheese from the island of Samothraki, Xirotyri is made by Panagiotis Papanikolaou, who studied economics, but returned to the island in 2000 to revive his grandfather’s dairy.

2 3

The cheese is made with pasteurised milk from animals that graze wild pastures (more than 100 aromatic plants have been recorded on the island) and also sometimes drink seawater, giving the cheese a complex multi-faceted flavour. Made in 3.7kg wheels, it is aged for 8-9 months. The texture is hard and flaky with sweet, spicy, floral and herbaceous notes, plus a roasted lamb note finish. Maltby & Greek recommends pairing it with an earthy red wine from Crete, made with Liatiko grapes.