Cheese of the Week - Barkham Blue

Two Hoots Barkham Blue

Two Hoots Barkham Blue

Barkham Blue from the Two Hoots Dairy in Wokingham is a most exceptional cheese.  It is so rich, soft and creamy you can spread it on a cracker when it has warmed up to room temperature.  This is made from Channel Island milk - a mixture of Jersey and Guernsey milk - which gives it that richness and also a wonderful golden colour to the paste.  The rind is beautiful, mottled greyish and shaped like a fossil, quite like the ammonites that you can find in profusion on the beach round Lyme Regis.  It is usually well decorated with a network of bluey-green veins

It is not an aggressive blue, it has a delightful tang but it is quite acceptable to those who are not too keen on stronger blues like Stilton.  This lack of harshness make it extremely popular with ladies.  It goes particularly well with a lighyter red wine such as a Beaujolais and is also ideally paired with a good cider.

Introduced in 2003, it quickly started winning prizes and has now become one of Britains most highly awarded cheeses; here is alist of it's achievements :

Gold - British Cheese Awards 2003
Gold - World Cheese Awards 2003
Best New Cheese -World Cheese Awards 2003
Gold - British Cheese Awards 2004
Bronze - British Cheese Awards 2006
Dairy and Ice Cream Category Winner
Waitrose Small Producers Awards 2006
2 Golds - British Cheese Awards 2007
Gold - British Cheese Awards 2008
Best Blue Cheese - British Cheese Awards 2008
Best English Cheese - British Cheese Awards 2008
Supreme Champion - British Cheese Awards 2008
Gold - World Cheese Awards 2008
Best Blue Cheese - British Cheese Awards 2011
Super Gold - World Cheese Awards 2011

Happy New Year

Cheese of the Week - Exmoor Jersey Blue

Exmoor Jersey Blue

High up on the beautiful Brendon Hills on the north eastern rim of Exmoor are some marvellous ancient meadows liberally scattered with herbs and flowers where the Jersey cows whose milk produces this cheese graze peacefully.  The mixture of herbs in the old grasses flavours the milk and this is passed on into the cheese which has a most beautiful nose and taste - it is similar in this respect to Fourme d'Ambert from the Auvergne which is also made from milk from cows who graze on ancient herb strewn pastures.

As with all cheeses this really does respond well to being brought gently up to room temperature, this will release the aroma and flavour as the cheese relaxes.  The softish paste is a beautiful golden colour from the rich creamy unpasteurised Channel Island milk. It has a fairly strong blue tang, but nowhere near as aggressive as it's elder brother from the same dairy, Partridge's Blue which is really highly argumentative.  The rind is quite colourful with shades of brown, grey and pink.  It is made with vegetarian rennet.

Exmoor Jersey Blue is protected by a PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) which states the product must be traditionally and at least partially manufactured (prepared, processed or produced) within the specific region of NE Exmoor and thus acquire its unique properties.