Cheeses of the month – March
Following our true story of ‘Romance over the cheese’ - we have just had to choose these three cheeses as our 'Cheeses of Love' for the month of March! Berkswell Ewe This is one of our all time favourite hard sheep cheeses. It’s very more-ish! And it our local cheese - made just up the road at Berkswell at Ram Hall Farm The taste is sweet and dryish, sometimes described as similar to Pecorino. It’s a lovely dense textured, hard sheep’s cheese which has been matured for around 4 months. Its robust, complex, sweet and nutty flavour enhances any cheese board. It looks great too...it’s beautiful golden-orange rind, moulded in a unique barrel-shaped truckle. A chef’s trick is to grate this cheese - pile onto waxed parchment on a baking tray and cook for just 3 minutes in the oven - it makes perfect cheese crisps to serve with soup or with a starter.
Brie de Pays
Brie de Pays is ‘The’ classic French brie. This unpasteurised cow’s milk farmhouse cheese is very popular, and many argue a better, alternative to Brie De Meaux. It has an equally good texture and appearance, but the flavour is less tart and this lack of bitterness leads to a much rounder and more accomplished taste. Brie de Pays has a full rustic flavour and classic runniness when ripe. No dinner party table is complete without its presence. This famous cheese from the Pays de Brie was acclaimed the “King of Cheeses” at a sumptuous dinner during the Congress of Vienna in June 1815.
Cashel Blue
Cashel Blue is creamy, richly marbled, delightfully nutty semi-soft blue cows’ milk cheese made on the farm by Jane and Louis Grubb in Tipperary Ireland. They use pasteurised whole milk from their pedigree Friesian dairy herd to make the handmade cheese. Although much of the cheese is sold young while it is still firm and crumbly, for a fuller flavour it is best eaten at about three months of age, when it has developed a a softer texture and more mature flavour.
If you were going to pop the question - which would be your favourite cheeses?