The Taste of Britain. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

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СКАЧАТЬ hour. The curd is cut by hand, drained gradually and the mass stirred, recut and turned until considered dry enough. It is milled through a peg mill into pieces of about 50mm then filled into moulds. It is left under medium pressure for about 18 hours, after which it is unmoulded. Brining is for 6 hours. The cheeses are wrapped in nettle leaves; these encourage the growth of penicillium moulds essential for ripening. The cheeses are stacked in controlled humidity and temperature for 3 weeks, turned daily.

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, CORNWALL.

      Curworthy Cheese

      DESCRIPTION:

      PRESSED, PASTEURIZED AND UNPASTEURIZED COW’S MILK CHEESE. THERE ARE 3 CHEESES IN THIS GROUP, CURWORTHY, DEVON OKE (THE LARGEST) AND BELSTONE. DIMENSIONS: 10CM DIAMETER, 4.5CM DEEP (450G, CURWORTHY ONLY); 12CM DIAMETER, 5CM DEEP (1.1KG, CURWORTHY AND BELSTONE); 15CM DIAMETER, 6CM DEEP (2.3KG, CURWORTHY AND BELSTONE); 16CM DIAMETER, 10CM DEEP (4.7KG, DEVON OKE). COLOUR: BUTTERY YELLOW, DARKER TOWARDS THE EDGES, WITH A FEW SMALL HOLES. TEXTURE AND FLAVOUR: SMOOTH, SWEET, WITH OVERTONES OF DRIED GRASS AND SHARP AFTERNOTE.

      HISTORY:

      The Curworthy recipe was devised in the early 1980s using old instructions for ‘quick’ cheeses from the South West combined with local expertise. Sources included Gervase Markham’s Country Contentments (1620), Baxter’s Library of Agriculture (1846) and Dorothy Hartley’s recipe for slipcoat or slipcote (1954). Slipcoat is a term which was used quite widely in England until the beginning of the last century meaning either a cheese which burst its coat and was eaten young because it would never mature properly (usually referring to a Stilton), or a creamy, light-textured cheese to be eaten young, made with only a light, brief pressing -a category to which Curworthy belongs. The initial development was carried out by the Farmer’s Weekly (the main trade journal for the farming community), Wanda and David Morton (farm managers working for the magazine) and the staff of the local Agricultural Development and Advisory Service. Curworthy is an emergent product; it began initially as an experiment in diversification. Having proved successful, the farm and recipe were acquired by the current makers in 1987 and output has increased steadily.

      TECHNIQUE:

      The same method is employed for all 3 cheeses. Animal rennet is used for Curworthy and Devon Oke, both of which can be of pasteurized or unpasteurized milk; Belstone is always made from unpasteurized, using vegetable rennet. Milk from a designated herd of Friesian cattle is used. The milk is pasteurized if required and then brought to the temperature necessary for cheese-making; starter and rennet are added. The curd is cut 2 ways, stirred and scalded to about 38°C, then drained and piled at one end of the vat, before being filled into the mould. It is pressed for about 2.5 hours, after which the cheese is removed and brined. Maturing varies with size, but is a minimum of 6 weeks for the smallest Curworthy and up to 6 months for Devon Oke.

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, OKEHAMPTON (DEVON).

       ‘Bachelor’s fare: bread and cheese, and kisses.’

      JONATHAN SWIFT

      Dorset Blue Vinney Cheese

      DESCRIPTION:

      BLUE MOULD, HARD, SKIMMED COW’S MILK CHEESE, MADE IN CYLINDERS OF 1.35-2.3KG AND 6KG. COLOUR: CREAM OR YELLOW, WITH FINE BLUE-GREEN VEINS. FLAVOUR AND TEXTURE: STRONG, SHARP BLUE FLAVOUR; HARD TEXTURE.

      HISTORY:

      The word vinney derives from an archaic word vinew, which meant mould. It was in general use until the sixteenth century but was subsequently confined to South West dialect. Here, it was associated with a blue-mould cheese made in Dorset. This was certainly known in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a cheese made by the wives of dairymen, using milk left after the cream had been removed for sale or conversion into butter. Thus it was always a very low-fat, rather hard cheese (Rance, 1982). Numerous recipes survive. The growth of blue mould in the cheese was regarded as the defining characteristic, and was encouraged by various methods, including placing the cheeses in barns or harness rooms to mature.

      In the twentieth century, several factors adversely affected production: the secure market for whole, fresh milk provided by the Milk Marketing Board; the invention of efficient mechanical devices for separating milk and cream, which left no residual fat, producing a very hard cheese; and limits on cheese-makers imposed by the Ministry of Food during 1939-45. Until the 1970s, output remained low and the cheese was hard to find. A true Blue Vinney is once again available commercially.

      TECHNIQUE:

      The milk from morning milking is skimmed by hand. Skimmed-milk powder is added to adjust the fat content, to make a cheese suitable for modern taste. Starter culture, rennet from vegetable sources and penicillin mould are added. The curd is cut into 2cm cubes and left overnight. Next day, the curd is drained, cut into blocks, milled, salted and packed into moulds. These remain in a warm dairy for 5 days. The cheeses are unmoulded, spread with a paste of flour and blue mould, and ripened for 10 weeks to 5 months, with spiking after 1 month to encourage the spread of mould through the cheese. Dorset Blue has been awarded Protected Geographical Indication (PGI).

      REGION OF PRODUCTION:

      SOUTH WEST ENGLAND, DORSET.

      Double Gloucester Cheese

      DESCRIPTION:

      HARD, PRESSED, UNPASTEURIZED AND PASTEURIZED COW’S MILK CHEESE. DOUBLE GLOUCESTER IS MADE IN A FLAT WHEEL ABOUT 30CM DIAMETER, 12CM HIGH, WEIGHING ABOUT 11KG. COLOUR: PALE ORANGE TO DEEP RED-ORANGE. SOME CHEESES HAVE ANNATTO ADDED TO THE CURD. FLAVOUR AND TEXTURE: MELLOW, ROUND FLAVOUR AND CLOSE CREAMY TEXTURE.

      HISTORY:

      Two cheeses are associated with Gloucestershire: Double Gloucester, and the less common, lower fat Single (see below). Despite a common heritage, they are separate. The differences of method are subtle and the origin of the terms double and single obscure. They evolved in the late eighteenth century, when the traditional method for making ‘best’ cheese developed into one calling for the whole milk of 2 milkings, or the cream from an evening milking plus the whole milk from a morning milking (Rance, 1982). Double may refer to this use of 2 lots of milk. Alternatively, the terms may have meant nothing more than double being twice as thick as single (Black, 1989).

      Gloucestershire, which includes both the Cotswolds and the low-lying land in the valley of the River Severn, has certainly produced cheese for a long time. Rance (1982) states that a regional cheese was exported in the eighth century AD. It is impossible to know what this was like. Fourteenth-century records show a Cotswold manor making cow’s and sheep’s milk cheeses and sending them to the nuns who owned the farm, in Caen in Normandy. If Gloucester cheese did incorporate sheep’s milk, no trace of this habit has been found beyond this isolated record.

      Evidence for cheese-making throughout the county during the early modern period can be seen in the tall farmhouses which contain a cheese-room on the third storey; domestic inventories also mention СКАЧАТЬ