#36 - Mainland Noble Tasty Cheddar

Ok, I have to declare a personal bias for this cheese, as I was one of the technologists involved in developing it when I worked at the Fonterra Research Centre.  But it really is a good cheese - even with my independent hat on, given I no longer work for Fonterra.  It is good to see that all the hard work put in over the years by many researchers has been launched onto the market.

The key thing about Noble Tasty Cheddar is that it has 30% less fat than standard Cheddar cheese - but it still tastes great (if not better than any other supermarket cheeses out there).  Many reduced fat cheeses can be lacking in flavour, and in particular reduced fat cheddars are often rubbery or bitter. Using a combination of well controlled manufacturing conditions, a selection of cultures, and some care, it is possible to actually make this cheese that develops a great flavour and texture as it matures.
The Noble Cheddar in the supermarkets at the moment appears to be at the younger end of the scale, so it has a young cheddary texture, but it has a good amount of flavour with some extra savoury notes not seen in standard Tasty.  From my experience, I know that the flavour of this cheese ages well - as it matures it will develop some strong savoury and slightly fruity notes.  I would expect a good piece of this Noble Cheddar at 12 months old to have stronger and more interesting flavours than a regular Tasty.

As the Noble Cheddar ages, it will develop small crystals both inside the block and on the cut surfaces.  These are a a mix of minerals and amino acids formed as a result of the aging processes going on in the cheese itself, and are perfectly normal.  Some people wait until the cheese is riddled with crystals before they even eat it as they know the flavour will be super strong.  However on the flip side, if you prefer a milder cheese, pick a younger one with less crystals.

A testimony to this cheese is that during its development, it won a gold medal at the 2011 International Cheese Awards in Nantwich, England.

OK, so it's not a gourmet artisan cheese, and I have a personal bias for it, but as far as commercial cheeses from big suppliers go, this is a very good cheese, even before you consider it is 30% reduced in fat!

# 35 - Karikaas Vintage Leydon (cumin seed gouda)

New Zealand has fantastic Gouda cheeses, made by Dutch families who have immigrated over the last few generations and kept up the traditional cheese making methods.  One could even argue that the best Dutch cheeses are found in New Zealand!

On my way North from Christchurch to Nelson, I took a small detour inland through Rangiora to stop in at the Karikaas factory and shop at Loburn.  Karikaas was started in 1984 by Dutch immigrants Karin and Rients Rypma, and makes Dutch-style cheeses and fresh European style dairy products.  Since the late 1980s, the milk they use has been sourced from a single local farm.

One of the cheeses Karikaas is best known for is their Vintage Leydon - a traditional Gouda with cumin seeds added.  The balance between the cumin flavour and the cheese itself changes as the cheese ages.  The younger cheeses are delicious but perhaps the cumin seems stronger compared to the cheese flavour.  By the time the cheese has aged for a couple of years, I think it reaches the best balance between the rich, savoury flavours of the cheese and the cumin seeds.

So I bought a piece of Vintage Leydon - cut from the wheel - to take on my trip North.  I found a nice calm spot for lunch on the beach at Rabbit Island, near Nelson.  The piece of cheese I had was delicious - it would have been a good vintage Gouda in its own right - slightly sweet, firm but not crumbly, savoury with a slight nuttiness, and clean acid dryness when first put in the mouth.  But the cumin adds an extra dimension - it was not dominant but balanced perfectly with the other flavours of the mature cheese.  This would not have been the case with a 'base' cheese of lesser quality.  This went well with the Danish Salami in my 'road trip wrap' - although next time I'll opt for a salami with less garlic so I can taste the other cheese!

South Island cheese tour

I am just coming to the end of a week long cheese tour of the upper part of the South Island. I have driven myself over 1400 km from Kaikoura down to Christchurch, Rangiora, and up to Nelson, during which I have visited cheese shops, artisan cheese makers and markets.  I have met so many cool, friendly, open and passionate people and I am looking forward to writing posts about my trip.  So keep an eye on the blog in the coming weeks and months for some great Kiwi cheeses and brands you may not have heard of.

#34 - Kallarney Blue by The Cheese Barn at Matatoki

Back in March my mother went on a trip to the Coromandel peninsula, and on the way she stopped off at The Cheese Barn at Matatoki.  One benefit of being involved in the cheese industry is that every time anyone in our families stops at a cheese shop they inevitably purchase something to bring back for us to try out!

So mum had purchased a wedge of Kallarney Blue for us.  This cheese was made from organic cow's milk, and using vegetarian rennet.  The fat content was stated as 29.5%, which I calculate to give a cheese of around 50% FDM (for those Europeans used to such terminology).

The wedge of cheese was wrapped in cling film and it had obviously been wrapped up for a while as the surfaces did not look very fresh, and were a little dry and oxidised.  This is not something to worry too much about, as simply scraping down the surfaces with the face of a knife will tidy it up well.

The cheese paste was firm, slightly dry, almost like a soft, slightly crumbly cheddar. It had nice blue marbling throughout.  The flavour was quite savoury - almost meaty - and there was good balance between this savouriness, the blue veins and the salt.

Overall a nice cheese.  Given that our sample didn't appear so fresh, we would recommend looking for a piece that had been more recently cut from the truckle.  Kallarney Blue would go well in a cheeseboard selection with some nice chutney or a savoury crab-apple jelly.    

Kallarney Blue from The Cheese Barn at Matatoki.  

#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.