This was a meeting with a different entertainment! A talk given by Jenny Deeprose, an acclaimed international cheese judge and member of the Guilde Internationale des Fromagers, for which she showed us her award. She says people tend to laugh when asked about her occupation, but it’s evidently very serious and interesting work which takes her all over the UK and France, judging at agricultural shows.
She started with some general information about cheese; how so many are created by artisans who cannot produce enough to sell nationwide via supermarkets so keep to their own regions. We do have the French cheese Epoisse from Burgundy, though it doesn’t travel well due to it’s pungency. Cheshire cheese is our oldest cheese consumed in this country. A cheese iron is the long thin device inserted into the maturing cheese to see if it is ‘ready’. We were then given five cheeses to taste, with biscuits and grapes to accompany:
Blackstick Blue made by a family business for 4 generations in rural Lancashire. Milk comes from local suppliers ensuring consistent quality. It’s a soft creamy blue cheese, orange coloured with annatto. That company also specialises in other local cheeses, hard and soft, including a goats cheese log called Kidderton Ash.
Red Fox made by a 3rd generation cheesemaker in the heart of Shropshire. It’s a Red Leicester matured for over 16 months, and has a creamy, savoury texture with a subtle crunch.
Comte made from unpasteurised milk in the Jura region of Eastern France. Cows of the Montbeliarde breed give rich milk and the large cheeses are made in the traditional way, by co-fruitieres. It has a PDO (Protective Designation of Origin) to maintain rules about high quality and consistency. Producers use the silence and darkness of caves to mature these cheese wheels.
Pie d’Angloys which literally meant ‘foot of the English’ in Medieval times and was originally made in the 14th century by Cistercian monks in the Burgundy region. It is a cows’ milk soft cheese and it’s rind is washed with wine which gives it a slightly orangey colour. When brought up to room temperature it is simply delicious!
Cornish Yarg which comes from the Lynher Dairies near Truro originally belonging to Alan Gray who found a 16th century cheese recipe in his attic – so it was called Yarg (Gray backwards as the sharp eyed readers will have noticed!), not an obscure Cornish word!
I wonder if Link readers know all these cheeses? I personally only knew two so the evening was really informative.
While munching left over pieces of the cheeses and biscuits we held our usual raffle with some good prizes. A great evening!.
Next month’s meeting will be our AGM and games, something else to look forward to!
