COUNTER CULTURE

What’s new in the world of speciality cheese?

UK cheese retail continues to grow

Despite the pandemic and the online selling boom of 2020, the UK’s bricks and mortar retail scene is going from strength to strength with a host of new openings and shop extensions taking place.

Cheese Etc, based in Pangbourne near Reading, has converted some of its warehousing space (pictured right) near the main shop into a tasting room to host events and it has also added a packaging-free dry goods vending area, dubbed Loose Larder, to its new space.

In Northern Ireland, deli Indie Füde has opened a cheese-focused second shop featuring a temperature-controlled serving area on Belfast’s Ormeau Road (pictured bottom right). The retailer is also partnering with a local cheesemaker to set up a small production unit in the city’s Banana Block development.

The Courtyard Dairy has been a beacon of cheesemongering from its base in the Yorkshire Dales over the last couple of years and now founders Andy and Cathy Swinscoe are planning a further expansion of the site. The end result will be a larger retail area, extra space for maturing cheeses and a new improved version of the business’s cheese museum.

Meanwhile, Oxford’s Jericho Cheese Company has opened a second shop – on Ship Street in the city centre – and Cardiff shop Madame Fromage has opened a new premises in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire.

North London cheese & wine specialist Provisions has also doubled its offering by setting up a second outlet in Hackney as a sister business to its original Holloway Road site.

Shepherds Purse to rename Yorkshire Fettle again

Shepherds Purse is looking to rename its Yorkshire Fettle cheese for the second time following demands from Greek cheesemakers, who argue its name breaches the PDO for Feta. First made in 1987 as Yorkshire Feta, the crumbly, sheep’s milk cheese was renamed Yorkshire Fettle in 2008 when Feta won PDO status. However, the Federation of Greek Dairy Products Industries believes Fettle is still too similar to the name Feta and has demanded that Shepherds Purse stop using it. The Yorkshire cheesemaker disagrees but does not have the resources for a legal fight, so will, once again, rename the product. A new name had not yet been chosen as Good Cheese went to press.

Co-owner Caroline Bell said: “Whilst we agree whole heartedly with the spirit of PDO legislation, we don’t believe that our name breaches it. But our resources to fight it are limited, particularly after the pandemic.”

Bell’s sister and co-owner Katie Matten said the enforced change was “a blow” after investing heavily in new equipment and new packaging during the pandemic to help support sheep milk farmers.

shepherdspurse.co.uk

Ukraine hosts inaugural awards

The first ever Ukrainian ProCheese Awards Cheese Festival was held at the Parkovy exhibition centre in Kyiv, on 22nd-23rd May.

A host of expert judges deemed Shedevr (which translates as ‘Masterpiece’) from Dooobra Farm to be the winning cheese while Nadiya Frantovska won the Grand Prix of the Cheesemonger competition for the best cheeseboard.

Both winners were invited to the 2021 World Cheese Awards, held in Oviedo.

awards.procheese.ua

NEW CHEESES

Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses has launched a new range called This Is Proper. It consists of Creamy Lancashire, Crumbly Lancashire, Double Gloucester, Tasty Lancashire, Red Leicester and Goats Cheese. All are made from milk sourced within a 10-mile radius of Butlers’ family herd. They are also fully vegetarian, graded by strength and available in 100% recyclable packaging.

butlerscheeses.co.uk

Holker Farm in Cumbria has had a busy 2021, having created not one but two new cheeses. GoaShee is a mixed-milk cheese (30% sheep’s milk, 70% goats’), similar in style to several Italian and Spanish hard cheeses, that showcases both the rich sweetness of sheep’s milk and floral notes from the goats’ milk The second creation is the semi-soft goats’ milk Lady Grey, which has a grassy, refreshing white paste and a distinctive peppery grey rind. Both are available through The Fine Cheese Co.

stjamescheese.co.uk finecheese.co.uk

Laverstoke Park Farm in Hampshire has invested £100,000 in new equipment for making a new Halloumi-style grilling cheese called Buffalomi. The business, which is owned by former Formula 1 driver Jody Scheckter, is best known for making buffalo mozzarella, using milk from its own 700-strong herd of buffaloes. Buffalomi is made with 90% cows’ milk mixed with 10% buffalo milk and has a softer texture and lower salt content than Halloumi.

laverstokepark.co.uk

Paxton & Whitfield has added a Spanish torta-style cheese called Cremoso to its range. Made by Cañarejal in Valladolid, Castile y León, the 250g spoonable cheeses are made with raw ewe’s milk and cardoon thistle, and have a bloomy white rind. The cheesemonger has also added Georgelet Buchette – an unpasteurised goats’ milk soft cheese from Poitou Charentes in south-west France and a Swiss Alpine cows’ milk cheese called Schnebelhorn.

paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk

NEWS ROUND-UP

The iconic British cheese Tunworth has been rebranded with a more modern look, ahead of plans to significantly expand production. Producer Hampshire Cheese Co launched Tunworth in 2005 and has since added the spruce-wrapped Winslade to the range. Both have been rebranded, with the words ‘soft cheese’ removed and a simpler design.

hampshirecheesecompany.co.uk

Swiss cheese affineur Roger von Mühlenen has died in Bern at the age of 89. His career in affinage spanned some 60 years, and he was also executive president of von Mühlenen AG from 1972 until 2011. In 2011, he left the business and joined his son Walo to found a new cheese firm, Walo von Mühlenen AG, of which he was president until shortly before his death.

affineurwalo.ch

A new book written by cheesemonger Svetlana Kukharchuk – owner of The Cheese Lady shop in Haddington, Scotland – reveals the secrets of how to understand and appreciate fine cheese. The Cheese Connoisseur’s Handbook (Rethink Press, £12.99) explains how to buy, store, taste and serve cheese, as well as detailing how cheese is made, its history and nutritional value.

thecheeselady.co.uk

Fen Farm Dairy’s Jonny Crickmore has hailed the good work and community spirit of the British artisan cheese industry after the collaborative effort to save the “mountains” of cheese that piled up as the first COVID lockdown struck. “It really was an amazing example of how supportive and energetic the British food industry is,” he said. “We all pull together and we are always stronger for it.”

fenfarmdairy.co.uk

Scientists create new strains of blue cheese mould

By Patrick McGuigan

A British scientist has discovered it is possible to naturally breed the blue cheese mould Penicillium roqueforti to create completely new varieties with unique cheesemaking properties.

The breakthrough from Paul Dyer, professor of fungal biology at the University of Nottingham, has now been commercialised, which means that cheesemakers could now have a new way of varying textures and flavours.

The company bringing this to market, Myconeos, has carried out extensive trials with artisan cheesemakers Moyden’s Hand Made Cheese in Shropshire and Highland Fine Cheeses in Ross-shire.

A range of new blue moulds is now available under the Mycoforti brand. The initial line-up includes four strains – Classic, Mild, Intense and Artisan – which each provide different flavour and texture characteristics in cheese.

“We have new strains that give very different flavour, aroma, texture and colour properties,” said Dr Jacek Obuchowicz, CEO of Myconeos. “We have developed blue moulds that can break down fat 20 times faster than existing moulds, or alternatively work much more slowly. Beyond that, we are looking at strains for goats’ or sheep’s milk blues. We want to be able to provide a toolbox that mould-ripened cheesemakers can use to create new products and sensations.”

A bespoke mould was developed for Moyden’s by isolating a wild strain of blue mould from a hay bale at a Shropshire farm. Cheesemaker Martin Moyden plans to use it to make a new version of his flagship cheese called Wild Wrekin Blue. myconeos.com

Quicke’s and Academy of Cheese searching for Affineur of the Year

The first-ever Affineur of the Year competition has been set up by Devon-based cheesemaker Quicke’s and the Academy of Cheese, to help celebrate and foster the art of maturing cheese in the UK.

Eight three-month matured 27kg truckles of Quicke’s cheddar are now in place at maturing rooms across the country, where they will stay under the care of each competitor for the duration of the competition.

Following nine months of turning, tweaking and grading, as each cheddar reacts to the specific temperature, humidity levels and unique microflora within its cheese store, all eight truckles will be judged by a panel of industry experts at a live event in February 2022.

The competitors in the inaugural Affineur of the Year competition are Brindisa, Buchanans Cheesemonger, Cheese Plus, Heritage Cheese, Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese, Neal’s Yard Dairy, No2 Pound Street and Paxton & Whitfield.

The Academy of Cheese was created in 2016 to establish an industry-supported, recognised and certified development programme to promote cheese knowledge. With its four-level cheese qualification, the not-for-profit organisation offers a programme that will build knowledge and skills in the full cheese cycle; from cheesemaking through affinage and selling to consumers.

quickes.co.uk academyofcheese.orgeuropeanfinecheese.com

Saputo buys Wensleydale Creamery

The company that saved Yorkshire Wensleydale from extinction nearly 30 years ago has been acquired by dairy multinational Saputo.

The £23m deal to buy Hawes-based Wensleydale Dairy Products was announced in July by Canadian firm Saputo, which has 61 manufacturing facilities and 17,300 employees globally.

The Wensleydale Creamery employs more than 200 staff. The company was previously owned by Dairy Crest, which closed the plant in 1992 and moved production of the famous crumbly cheese to Lancashire. However, a local businessman and former creamery managers successfully launched a management buyout and restarted Wensleydale production at the site in the same year.

One of the team was David Hartley, who was instrumental in achieving PGI status for Yorkshire Wensleydale in 2013, and served as MD until his death from cancer in December 2020

Comté: Cra ed for generations to cook with all year round

This beautifully diverse French cheese is adored by food lovers and chefs alike, and with over 80 avour pro les, it is the dream cheese to cook with.

WITH CONSUMERS CONTINUING to spend a lot more time at home, they are regularly searching for new recipe inspiration to transform their home cooking. Comté is the perfect cheese to cook with all year round, thanks to its ability to melt beautifully into all kinds of dishes. Adding a unique and delicious avour to any recipe, from gratins and risottos to seasonal salads and soups, it proves its versatility beyond the regular cheeseboard.

Comté’s delicious avour originates from the raw milk of the Montbéliarde and French Simmental cows of the Jura Massif in France, each with its own hectare of land to graze on. The cows eat grass and a wide range of plants and owers out on the pasture in the summer, and locally harvested hay in the winter, producing high-quality milk and giving Comté its very special taste, scent, colour and texture.

Every single day, the milk is brought in from a collection of local farms and transformed into large 40kg wheels of Comté cheese by small village dairies, known as fruitières. These dairies use the skills and expertise of their ancestors to make sure each batch of the cheese is at its most perfect.

The wheels are then moved to local ageing caves and cellars, where ‘a neurs’ take care of the wheels of Comté during the ageing process, regularly turning, salting and rubbing each one with brine solution for up to 24+ months. It is down to their experience and expertise to decide when the cheese is ready for consumption.

As a result, one piece of Comté might have a rmer texture with a nuttier taste and another might be smoother with a more oral avour, dependent on several factors such as the altitude the cows were grazing at, the time of year and the skills of the a neur during ageing.

Each wheel and bite of Comté is therefore completely unique. No fewer than 83 di erent avour pro les in six avour ‘families’ have been identi ed in Comté. These avour pro les are as diverse as walnut, buttered toast, artichoke, leather and vanilla. This lends itself

ROASTED HISPI CABBAGE WITH COMTÉ & LEMON

By Chef Laura Pope. Photography by Howard Shooter

This is my new favourite way to cook these beautiful little pointy cabbages; this method is so easy - especially as you make them in advance to serve at room temperature - and they are delicious served with supper or as an accompaniment to a Sunday roast. Serves 4

Ingredients

120ml light olive oil Zest and juice of 1 large lemon 1 garlic clove, crushed 2 Hispi cabbages (the small, pale green pointy ones with the smooth leaves), outer leaves removed and cut into eighths lengthways Leaves from a few sprigs of fresh thyme 50g mature Comté (18 to 24-month), finely shaved

Method

1. Preheat oven to 240℃ (220℃ fan). 2. Mix together the olive oil, lemon zest (not the juice yet!), garlic, ¼ teaspoon fine salt, a few grinds of black pepper and the thyme leaves. Set aside 2 tablespoons and pour the rest over the cabbage in a large bowl, then gently toss well to coat.

wonderfully to cooking with Comté, as each dish can be truly unique!

Comté has been lovingly made for more than ten centuries. Farmers, fruitières and a neurs of the Jura Massif region of Eastern France produce the internationally popular cheese every single day of the year. It has AOC status, meaning it must be made following the traditional rules that generations have been using to create the cheese exclusively in this region, integrating Comté into every aspect of community life. 3. Arrange the cabbage on two large, lined baking trays and roast in the centre of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until the edges are crisp and golden - after 10 minutes, you’ll need to swap the baking trays around so that the cabbage wedges cook evenly. 4. Gently arrange the cabbage on a large serving plate and let it cool for 10 minutes. 5. Meanwhile, add the lemon juice to the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil mix and drizzle it evenly over the cabbage. When you’re ready to serve, scatter over the shavings of Comté.

If you would like to stock Comté and enjoy a slice of the potential profits of this unique cheese, head to

www.comtecheese.co.uk/are-you-a-cheese-

reseller/ to contact us, as well as downloading promotional materials to support your sales.