| Cheese was originally developed as a way | | | | very high melting point. |
| of preserving milk. Now cheese is | | | | Red Leicester cheese is another |
| classed as a gourmet food, well, some | | | | favourite. This has a nutty taste and |
| cheese anyway. | | | | should have cracks in it. This is |
| Cheeses from different regions have | | | | another cheese that is infinitely better |
| their own characteristic texture and | | | | when freshly cut, rather than shrink |
| taste because the conditions that the | | | | wrapped. Red Leicester has better |
| bacterial fermentation is carried out | | | | keeping properties than Lancashire and |
| under differ. Cheese makers can use | | | | also works well on toasted sandwiches. |
| fresh or pasteurised milk, skimmed or | | | | Stilton cheese is made in Leicestershire |
| whole milk and add colouring. Different | | | | and has blue veins running through it. |
| pH levels for the fermentation and | | | | You can buy mature, extra mature and |
| different temperatures will alll affect | | | | vintage Stilton. Be aware though that |
| the taste and texture of the finished | | | | once you have developed a taste for the |
| product. | | | | vintage cheese that you can never go |
| Cheese is a very personal thing. Many | | | | back to the ordinary supermarket |
| people will not have foreign cheese. | | | | variety. |
| French people have never heard of the | | | | The extra cost for the vintage cheese is |
| majority of English cheeses. I enjoy | | | | not high, yet the taste comparison is |
| French cheese, but I will try anything. | | | | unbelievable. You can recognise a good |
| Camembert and Brie are made from | | | | stilton by the rind. It should be about |
| pasteurised and from unpasteurised milk. | | | | about one centimetre thick, crusty and a |
| Look for cheeses made from unpasteurised | | | | deep creamy yellow. The cheese itself |
| milk. They bear no resemblance to the | | | | should be deep yellow with plenty of |
| tasteless and bland pasteurised | | | | blue veins through it. Most people do |
| varieties. Unpasteurised cheese is not | | | | not eat the rind on Stilton, but it is |
| suitable for very young children or the | | | | edible. |
| elderly. | | | | If you eat vintage stilton without |
| English cheese is what I was brought up | | | | drinking a ten or twenty years old port |
| on. My lunch used to be 1/4 of | | | | with it you are missing a taste |
| Lancashire cheese ( and a steak and | | | | combination that can only be desrcibed |
| kidney pie). Lancashire cheese is mild, | | | | as ecstatic. You can judge the quality |
| very pale and very crumbly. It is best | | | | of the port by how far up your sinuses |
| cut from a whole cheese. Shrink wrapped | | | | the taste goes. The best port and |
| lancashire cheese is fine for cooking, | | | | Stilton combination I have ever tasted |
| but that's all. You can only keep | | | | was a 1991 Noval LB with a vintage |
| lancashire cheese for three or four | | | | Stilton. WOW! That made my eyes pop out, |
| days. The taste deteriorates on exposure | | | | the taste senation went so far up my |
| to air. Lancashire is the best cheese | | | | sinuses. |
| for making toasted sandwiches, it has a | | | | |