Speciality Food Magazine June 2024

CHEESE UNCUT @specialityfood 30 New retail perspectives from industry experts ‘We arewhatwe eat’ H ow did we arrive to today with such a plethora of cheese? From block Cheddars to farmhouse PDO Cheddar, to highly processed questionable slices that only contain 51% cheese, and so-called American slices, which contain no cheese whatsoever. In my opinion it’s a sorry situation that we find ourselves in - eating slices of oil. Especially as they are pretending to be something they’re not. How about the manufacturers sell these products for what they are? Slices of stabilised oil with colour and flavour added. Would you buy that? Not me! One of the most questionable ingredients used in these slices, in my opinion, is an ingredient called natamycin. This is an antifungal used to treat conjunctivitis, and when used in food can apparently disturb your gut microflora. I will let you draw your own opinions on the matter of American slices for your burgers and sandwiches. I, on the other hand, will decline such highly processed garbage. Cheese indeed is one of the world’s original processed foods, with cooked meat coming in first, having been prepared some 1.5 million years ago. Cheese has been part of our diets at home and internationally for thousands of years. It was a ‘found food’ along with goats, wheat, and legumes in the Fertile Crescent, also known as the Levant. How was it found? Well, there is a lot of speculation, but I believe it would have been discovered along with the JAMES GRANT NO2 POUND STREET A cheesemonger passionate about preserving the art and heritage of British farmhouse cheeses has launched a new networking and skills sharing group. Andy Swinscoe of The Courtyard Dairy, says he feels it’s a pressing issue for cheesemakers to come together to share knowledge and experience, and learn from one another. It’s the only way, he believes, ancient recipes for products such as Wensleydale, Lancashire and Cheshire cheese can survive. The inaugural sessions of the Northern Dairy Cheese School (open to everyone) take place from 16th to 18th September, 2024, with a focus onWensleydale, exploring how it’s crafted, and how small changes and New group for cheesemakers nuances can affect the outcome of the finished product. There are a couple of drivers behind the project, which will foster events each autumn and spring. “First, in France, Switzerland and Italy there’s a lot of technical support for cheesemakers,” says Andy. “In Britain we just don’t have that anymore. We’re looking at howwe can build that knowledge up around farmhouse and artisan cheeses, and the best way is to start discussions, get interested cheesemakers together, and to experiment. A second reason behind the school is the recent loss of Cotherstone from the cheese landscape. “It was a traditional cheese from the Dales, and when we lost them from the industry, we lost all that knowledge and expertise,” Andy continues. “We’ve spent a lot of effort and time trying to put farmhouse Wensleydale on the map and we need to continue that so in 40, 60 or 100 years’ time there’s something there for people to work from. We thought it would be a great idea to use Wensleydale as a starting point. “Anyone interested in cheese can come along. The objective is to learn more, make bonds and create a really strong industry. Hopefully it will evolve, and we’ll take it to other areas and parts of the country. It’s really exciting.” Contact Andy at The Courtyard Dairy for more details or to book a spot. Strathearn Cheese Co brings a new product to market this month, six years after the release of its last addition, Wee Comrie. Known for soft, creamy, washed rind or young, delicate cow’s milk cheeses such as Lady Mary and Strathearn, typically aged for a maximum of four weeks, Braggon (aged for three to four months) is a depart into a whole newworld of cheese for the Scottishmaker. Co-founder Pierre Leger says they’ve been working on Braggon since last September. “Because of the type of cheese we make, November and December are extremely busy for us,” he explains. “We can almost never make enough so we thought, ‘why don’t we make a cheese we can mature longer and make earlier in the year when we’re not so under pressure?’.” Pierre says they were looking for something that would mature in a fewmonths, in an almost Gouda style. “Something I could press overnight. It’s a semi-hard cheese with a natural rind. We make the cheese, turn it out, salt it, and mature it, turning it regularly. That’s it.” He describes the flavour as akin to a young Vacherin or Tete de Moine. “It’s sweet and savoury. On the cheese tasting wheel you might say the sweetness is like cooked cream and condensed milk. That’s what you get to start with. And the savoury is a little meaty, almost like Parma ham.” The team are very happy with the results, and have been selling out at farmers’ markets and via local delis. “It’s been flying out the door,” Pierre says. “So we’ve had to increase production and we’ve decided to make it regularly. From June we will have a regular stock and be able to supply further afield.” Braggon is available in 1.3kg rounds for retail. Scottishmaker launches Alpine- style cheese domestication of goats. Spilt milk with a lumpy creamy texture. This would have occurred after the spontaneous acidification from the natural cultures turned it into a cottage cheese style consistency. Inquisitive as humans are, it would have been tasted and the rest, as they say, is history. This new foodstuff formed part of the staple diet. In leaner times, the preservation of milk into cheese fed populations during the winter, with the harder cheeses prevailing as they would keep for a longer time. The use of rennet would have been discovered as a coagulant to easily split the curds from the whey, and produce a solid faster. Salt has been used for millennia as a preservative of many foods, including cheese. Our first recorded British cheese is Cheshire, which features in the Doomsday book of 1086. We are learning that “we are what we eat, what they eat” can have serious consequences. What I mean is if you spray a field with synthetic fertiliser to grow feed for your livestock, which go on to make cheese or are reared for meat, you will ingest those fertilisers. The same applies to arable production. Natural fertiliser has been used for thousands of years and in my opinion should be the only way we farm. Nutrient-rich soil can only be naturally rich in nutrients without messing with the flora and fauna. We need to work with nature and not try to change it. Ill-gotten gains are exactly that, ill. Our world populations are suffering with diseases and many allergies that we are now beginning to realise are a direct result of diet. “We are what we eat, what they ate, what they sprayed” is so true. Eating cheese shouldn’t be about the profit, but about celebrating and being thankful for the great cheese being made by dairy farmers and producers who are connected to the soil, and those great people that only champion real cheese and brilliant produce.