Mary Quicke’s Guide to Great Cheese

“If you attend a cheese training course in the UK then it’s quite likely that you’ll be given a range of Cheddars as part of the tasting. It’s Britain’s number one best-selling cheese so it helps to have a good understanding of the variety available. You’re likely to be given samples from the mass-produced creamy Cheddar that sell in millions of tonnes, through to small, traditional West Country Farmhouse Cheddars. Side by side the difference is vast and there’s a full spectrum in-between.

“Even cheese produced by a single dairy farm can have variations throughout the seasons. Other than starter cultures and maturation period, the overriding influence on a cheese’s flavour is milk. So if a dairy cow is wintered in shed, fed on silage, then her milk will have a distinctly farmyard taste to it – not ideal.

“Far better to keep your herd grazing on grass for as long as possible, which is why Quicke’s operates a New Newland grazing system to ensure the cows are outdoors for up to 11 months of the year. In spring when the new grass growth comes to the pastures, clover and other flora appear in the meadows then these seasonal changes are reflected in the cow’s milk, making it protein rich and fatty – perfect for cheesemaking.”