Swaledale cheese
Swaledale is an English full fat hard cheese which only in a cheese factory in Richmond ( North Yorkshire ) is produced from raw milk of cows.
Properties
The Swaledale cheese loaves are round, weigh an average of 2.25 kg and are made from unpasteurized milk. The milk used comes exclusively from animals from the Swaledale ( the valley of the River Swale ), which feed on the special blend of herbs and grasses in the area. This is due to the soil and the climate there and are responsible for the distinctive characteristics of Swaledale. It is a semi-solid, moist cheese, its flavor is described as follows: " It has the freshness of the windy valleys and wild fern and the caramel sweet aftertaste of sheep's milk. "
Production
The recipe of Swaledale cheese is known only to a few people; it is made of this by hand. The milk of cows from the region is heated to 28 ° C in the first step of cheese production, together with microbiological cultures. After a rest period of two hours rennet is added. After a further hour, cooled and coagulates in the milk, the mixture is reheated to 28 ° C, cut and stirred. Then it is divided again, the whey is drained off and the remaining whole cheese are placed in molds, which are lined with muslin. In another method, the molds are stored for 18 hours under a slight pressure at a temperature of 28 ° C and turned thereby every four hours. After this process is complete, the cheese bodies in a 85 % salt solution are placed for 24 hours.
The now finished cheese is aged for three to four weeks in a wet basement, while preserving a blue-gray mold rind ( unless it is waxed).
History
Legends from the valleys of Yorkshire attribute the origins of cheesemaking Cistercian monks from Normandy, who settled in this area in the 11th century. They gave further the production techniques to farmers in Swaledale, who continued the production even after the monasteries were dissolved and the monks left the area. In the 18th century it was produced in the farms Swaledales and are sold fresh with a white coloring or matured with the blue bark. The high moisture content and the soft texture of the cheese make it possible to put the blue edible mold layer under the humid storage conditions. With the beginning of the 20th century, the cheese production decreased and only existed in 1980 a single farm in Swaledale, which still produced the Swaledale cheese. Also this set in the early 80s, the production one, but Mrs. Longstaff gave the original recipe of the cheese to David and Mandy Reed continued, the Swaledale Cheese company founded and shots of February 1987 from the production.
Awards
Since 1995, the Swaledale enjoys the status of a protected designation of origin / PDO. He also won several awards, such as three gold medals at the Great Taste Awards 2008 and three gold and two bronze medals of the World Cheese Awards 2008.