Cheese 1 - England
I've only had two cheeses than I've liked!
A Camembert (called Brie, actually made in Denmark!). Castello Brie, probably also available in NZ!? I liked it probably because it was similar to the Dairy Farm Road camembert that I used to make, with extra added cream and it was sold as a 200g block. Shaun, we need to keep working on the increased size. I think it is the way to go. I only have a photo of the packaging as I demolished it quite quickly after opening it!
The second cheese that I liked was a Cornish Kern, purchased from where it was made at Lynher Daires Cheese Co in Cornwall! Matured for two years at 9°C, it had a nice sweet mature flavour, similar to our Dairy Farm Road Flavoursome Gouda. Interestingly, it was coated in a wax rind that was painted on in two or three coats! Here's a photo of what is left of it and some of their promotional material.
Lynher Daires also have a cheese called Cornish Yarg, which is sold at one month of age and is wrapped in nettle leaves - all edible! Interesting concept, but the cheese was too young for me - acid and chalky. The nettle leaves flavour were subtle but were overwhelmed by the young cheese.
We also went to another dairy: The Bath Cheese Company, just on the outskirts of Bath and they had a similar concept to Lynher Daires where they milk the cows on site, process the milk into cheese and sell it on site! Great concept I think. At the Bath Cheese Co, I had a great chat to one of their staff (shop staff) until I got too technical...
But the platter was delicious, and so was the cider!
There were plenty of other cheeses that we've tried...
Red Leicester, but (sorry Dave) it just tasted like mild cheddar with food colouring!
We also tried this mature cheddar. It was ok, a bit dry and very expensive!!!
And I didn't think much of their Swiss Cheese at Eden Garden
A quiet note at the end of this post...
I bought over half a dozen blocks of cheese for our daughter who was absolutely stoked!! (just don't tell Nic or Barbara! It included one of the Dairy Farm Road camembert, which of course we ate first and was still delicious! It survived the trip to the other side of the world, including a three day stop-over in Dubai! And was never once checked at any border points. Shaun, I think I could sell 350 camembert per week, if you want to start sending them over!
Paul's cheese time!
ReplyDeletePaul - if you have time, go to Neal's Yard Dairy in London. They have shops in Covent Garden and at Borough Market. They collate all the best British cheeses... so you can try a real Red Leicester and see what it's meant to be like! Also you can try St James, which is the one Sandi and I used to make. Definitely worth a visit (and just go to Borough Market anyway for all the other stuff).
ReplyDeleteDefinitely agree with Andrew, that Red Leicester you tried was from a budget supermarket - most cheese from Aldi are mediocre at best. Being a Leicestershire girl, I have to stick up for our lovely cheese - it's one of the home counties of Stilton too. You need to try a Melton Mowbray pork pie while you're at it - probably more Paul's thing than Marie's.
ReplyDeleteOk, sounds like I have more homework to do here in the UK, but unfortunately we are off to Europe early tomorrow, so I will have to continue this exploration when we'll back, which is in December. Thanks for the tips though Andrew and Janet.
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