#33 Saint Marcellin

We actually tried this cheese at home in Palmerston North, far from France where we would have originally liked to try it.  On a trip down to Wellington in March, Andrew popped in to La Marche Francais deli, who specialise in European and in particular French cheeses, and decided to pick out a cheese we had not yet tried.

Saint Marcellin is a small (typcially 80g) soft cheese made from raw or thermised cow's milk in the Rhone-Alpes region of France (thermised milk is heated in a similar way to pasteurisation, but at a lower temperature of 63-65°C).  The cheese is made using a lactic curd process and is allowed to drain gently in moulds without pressing.  It contains around 23% fat which is approximately 50% fat in dry matter.  It is often sold in small ceramic dishes, as it can become quite soft and runny as it matures.

The example we purchased was made by French family owned cheese company Fromi.

We purchased the cheese on the first weekend of March, and the shop assistant recommended we leave the cheese out on the kitchen bench for a few days to ripen it properly before we ate it.  Through a combination of forgetfullness, experimentation and poking the cheese, we ended up leaving it in the dairy section of the fridge for a full month until early April before we got around to eating it.  In fact we tackled this cheese a few days after the labelled best before date, which in my experience is usually when many cheeses are at their best anyway.

This cheese was packaged in a tiny wooden cup/box, which looks great compared to many of the cheese packages we see in New Zealand.  There was a light, white geotrichum mould around the edges of the cheese.  Although St Marcellin is not a washed rind cheese, there was a gentle aroma typical of washed rind cheeses, mixed with the sweetness of the geotrichum.  When cut, the cheese had a smooth, unctuous centre with a thin tender rind that held cheese in shape.  The flavour was sweet, milky, nutty, slightly sour and with a hint of animal notes - but nothing in excess - it was beautifully balanced.

We absolutely loved this cheese and devoured it pretty quickly.  We had left the cheese out of the fridge for about 30 minutes, which was enough to soften it nicely but not so warm that it ran across the plate.    

Thought about putting it back in the fridge... but not for long.  Also thought about eating this half in one mouthful. In the end we shared and savored it.

#32 - Berkswell cheese

Image taken from www.cartmelcheeses.co.uk

Berkswell cheese is made at Ram Hall near the village of Berkswell in Warwickshire.  Sheila and Peter Fletcher milk a flock of Friesian and Dorset sheep, and the cheese is made by Linda Dutch and her team at the 16^th century farmhouse.  Berkswell cheese is made from unpasteurised ewe’s milk, and using traditional animal rennet, both of which contribute to its depth of flavour.  The curd is drained in basket moulds (although modern plastic versions are used now) which gives it a distinctive UFO shape.

The cheeses are aged for around 6 months, but good batches can be aged for longer and can develop an amazing depth of flavour.  It has a medium firm texture when younger but becomes firmer as it matures.  The rind is firm but thin, and can vary from smooth to rough/crusty and varying in colour in older cheeses.  It can even become pitted from mites as it ages, a bit like mimolette.

The flavour is rich and often complex - savoury and fruity and a little sweet (reminiscent of parmesan style cheese) and sometimes nutty, but with an extra flavour contribution and waxy texture from the sheeps milk.  This was one of my favourites in the short time I worked at NYD.

Further information:

A good info sheet can be found on the Neal’s Yard Dairy website:  here

And a detailed article on the Fletchers' farm and Berkswell cheese production can be found here

Specially selected Berkswell maturing at the Neal's Yard Dairy maturing arches.

#31 Stichelton

While we were working at Neal's Yard Dairy at the end of last year, we were invited to a number of staff cheese tastings where we met with NYD suppliers, tasted their cheeses, and heard what drove them to create their unique cheeses.  We were lucky enough to attend a session with Joe Schneider, who makes Stichelton - one of the stars at NYD.

Stichelton is a blue cheese made from unpasteurised, organic milk from the Collingthwaite Farm on the Welbeck Estate in Nottinghamshire.

Many people have said that Stichelton is "a raw milk Stilton" but this is not strictly true - first of all Stilton cannot be made using unpasteurised milk according to it's PDO designation.  Stichelton is a cheese in it's own right.  Although the original recipe was based on traditional methods used to make Stilton long before it's PDO status was granted, the current process will have been tweaked and modified to create the best product possible at the Collingthwaite Farm factory.  For example, traditional calf rennet is used and the curd is hand ladled from the vat to the draining table, but instead of piercing the cheeses by hand they are pierced by machines to ensure more uniform ripening and distribution of blueing.  It could be said that Stichelton gives one an idea of what a Stilton could be like if it was still made using the old traditional methods before pasteurisation was common.  Interestingly, the only Stilton that is still made using the traditional hand ladling technique is made specifically for Neal's Yard Dairy, to meet their high standards.

A good Stichelton has an orange/golden/brown crust that is not too dry, with a creamy smooth mouthfeel, even blueing throughout the paste, and loads of flavour.  The flavour can be slightly sweet with savoury notes, and some aromatic blue flavours.  Many more slight variations in flavour can be seen between different batches or individual rounds of the cheese.

Stichelton we took home from the tasting session, and then devoured.

The tasting session was set up as a blind tasting.  We tasted 8 cheeses in two groups of four, with nothing to identify them (except our expertise - many of the cheesemongers attending were able to identify the cheeses sold by NYD).  The cheese samples included Stilton purchased at supermarkets (made with vegetarian rennet), Colston Basset Stilton from NYD, and samples of Stichelton.

Whilst a lot of variation can be expected when tasting these types of small volume blue cheeses, everyone agreed that the supermarket Stiltons were below the level of the Stilton and Stichelton made using traditional methods.  Part of this is due to the extra care and handling the cheeses receive through a proper cheesemonger.  Partly it is due to the cheese makers and their attention to detail to make the best cheese possible for a customer with high demands.  Opinion varied between those of us at the tasting session about which sample was best out of a couple of Sticheltons and the traditional  Colston Basset Stilton. Some pieces of cheese tasted slightly different due to difference amounts of blueing, some people have different preferences or can detect tastes (e.g.bitterness) more or less strongly than others.  Nevertheless, we were picking fine details between some very delicious cheeses!

Some people claim they prefer Stichelton over Stilton purely because it is made with unpasteurised milk.  In my opinion, Stichelton is not automatically better than Stilton, but it has the potential to be better because of the unpasteurised milk and the careful cheesemaking methods used.  Because of variability caused by many things, sometimes a traditional Colston Basset Stilton is going to be better, but when Joe and the team get it right the resulting Stichelton has a complexity and flavour that the Stilton will probably not achieve.   The best way to make sure you get the best cheese is to buy it from a cheesemonger, who knows how to look after the cheese properly and will hopefully have selected the batch to meet their standards.

Stichelton maturing on the shelves at Neal's Yard Dairy's Bermondsey maturing facility.