Swaledale (cheese)
Swaledale is an English full-fat hard cheese that is now only made in a cheese factory in Richmond ( North Yorkshire ) from raw milk from cows.
properties
The Swaledale cheese wheels 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 , which feed on the special mixture of herbs and grasses of this area. This arises due to the earth and the climate there and are responsible for the unmistakable properties of the Swaledale. It is a semi-firm, moist cheese, the taste of which is described as follows: "It has the freshness of the windy valleys and the wild ferns and the caramel-sweet aftertaste of sheep's milk."
Manufacturing
The recipe for Swaledale cheese is known only to a few people; it is made by hand by them. In the first step of cheese production, the milk from cows in the region is heated to 28 ° C together with microbiological cultures. After a rest period of two hours, rennet is added. After another hour, during which the milk curdles and cools, the mixture is heated again to 28 ° C, cut up and stirred. Then it is divided again, the whey is poured off and the remaining cheeses are placed in molds that are lined with muslin . In the further process, the molds are stored under slight pressure at a temperature of 28 ° C for 18 hours and turned every four hours. After this process is complete, the cheeses are soaked in an 85% salt solution for 24 hours.
The now finished cheese matures in damp cellars for three to four weeks and receives a blue-gray mold rind (unless it is waxed).
history
Legends from the Yorkshire valleys attribute the origins of cheese-making to Cistercian monks from Normandy , who settled in the area in the 11th century. They passed the production techniques on to the farmers in Swaledale, who continued the production even after the monasteries were closed and the monks left the area. In the 18th century it was made in the Swaledales farms and sold either fresh with a white color or aged with the blue rind. The high moisture content and the soft texture of the cheese make it possible to build up the blue noble mold layer under the moist storage conditions. With the beginning of the 20th century, cheese production declined and in 1980 there was only one farm in Swaledale that was still producing Swaledale cheese. This also stopped production in the early 80s, but Mrs. Longstaff passed the original recipe for the cheese on to David and Mandy Reeds, who founded the Swaledale Cheese company and started production again in February 1987.
Awards
Since 1995 the Swaledale has enjoyed the status of a protected designation of origin / PDO . He has also won several awards such as three gold medals from the Great Taste Awards 2008 and three gold and two bronze medals from the 2008 World Cheese Awards.