CHEESE AND ALE
‘Did you know that we now have over 900 cheeses in the UK? That’s more than in France. So how has it happened?’
The nettle covered Cornish Yarg
Montgomery, each offering a different taste of the region’s rich pastures. The number of artisan cheeses being made in the West Country has rocketed, part of the remarkable revolution in cheesemaking that’s happily been sweeping the country over the past few decades. Did you know that we now have over 900 cheeses in the UK? That’s more than in France. So how has it happened? To answer that you need to return to
P
the region’s cheesy beginnings. As fresh milk goes off, making cheese (and butter) has always been a wonderful way of preserving surplus milk. So ever since the Romans brought their dairy-making knowhow in 43AD, pretty much every dairy farm, abbey and monastery would have made their own cheese, using animal rennet or herbs like wild thistle to kickstart the process. The West Country’s most celebrated “territorial” (i.e. named after the area where it was made) is, of course, Cheddar. It’s been produced in and around Somerset’s Cheddar Gorge since the 12th century, although it was not until the 16th century that this hard cheese became known as Cheddar. The area’s rich grazing grass produced lovely rich milk and its cool limestone caves were ideal for storing the cheeses. King Henry II was an aficionado of Cheddar for one, and in 1170 is said to have bought 10,420 lb at a farthing a ton. Perhaps surprisingly, you’ll also find Cheddar in East Devon – at places like Home Farm at Newton St Cyres, where it’s been made by the Quicke family on and off for over 450 years. West Country cheesemaking has had
10 | THE WESTCOUNTRY FOODLOVER
op into any decent West Country pub for a
Ploughman’s, and you’ll be served cheeses with names like Cornish Yarg, Sharpham or
fluctuating fortunes though. War with France at the start of the 19th century gave cheesemakers a ready market, but after Waterloo in 1815, cheese and butter were once again imported from Normandy, driving small farms out of business. Further setbacks a few decades later were Louis Pasteur’s discovery of pasteurisation techniques which meant fresh milk kept longer, and Brunel’s Great Western railway which could now take surplus milk for sale in towns and cities throughout Britain.
The two world wars dealt a further
blow, as cheesemakers were called to fight, so vital skills were lost. In (and after) the second world war, cheese was rationed, and the only cheese produced was “National Cheese”, a hard factory-made cheese that was bland enough to put anyone off cheese for life. Only a few dedicated artisan cheesemakers struggled on. By 1948 there were just 57 farms making Cheddar, for example, compared to 514 before the war. The subsequent rise of the supermarkets, which wanted cheap, industrially-made, plastic-sealed cheeses, further depressed any efforts at reviving artisan cheesemaking.
In the 1970s, however, a few pioneers got West Country cheeses going again. Some resurrected traditional favourites (mainly hard cheeses), while others created modern cheeses with fresh textures and flavours, from creamy blues to
pungent-smelling semi-soft washed-rind cheeses and melt-in-the mouth soft cheeses. On the Sharpham Estate, for example, entrepreneur Maurice Ash decided to add value to the estate’s milk by creating a Brie-style soft cheese, previously unheard of in Britain. In East Devon, the Quicke family started making Devon Cheddar once again. Whereas cow’s milk had been the norm in recent centuries, cheesemakers started to use goat’s, sheep and even buffalo’s milk too. At Ticklemore Cheese, near Totnes in Devon, for instance, Robin Congdon revived the art of milking sheep, and used ewe’s milk to make his Beenleigh Blue cheese, Devon’s answer to Roquefort and
Ticklemore’s Cheeses
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