True dairy innovation. From pumpkin seeds in Red Leicester cheese to soft cheese with chilli, chocolate, blueberry or even salted caramel, there were myriad variants on offer for tasting.
I also found the Pilgrim’s Choice Cheese Crumbles a fascinating departure from ready prepared breadcrumbs. This is a heavily cheesy breadcrumb mix with herbs, designed to make pasta and fish pie toppings a mouthwatering doddle.
After the judging, I spoke with Richard Thorpe, who explained to me that the big business today is grated cheese. His company The Cheese Warehouse grates 400 tonnes a week in the North of England, for use on supermarket-sold ready meals.
“We do some block,” he said, “but it’s the shaved and diced cheese for pizza, lasagna and cheese sauces that is our main income.”
He also talked about the instability of the marketplace, particularly pre-2008: “Cheese is now a global commodity in terms of price,” he said, “as a cheese such as mozzarella can now be made in Denmark, Poland or Northern Ireland.”
Laura Newmarch of Eurilait is a specialist in continental cheeses: “We’re seeing a big trend in baking cheeses such as Halloumi and Camembert,” she said. “Particularly with the economic downturn, the trend to shared eating and cooking at home has grown. We see a spike in this at Christmas every year and now more than ever, people are looking for premium products to enjoy cooking with and eating at home.”
And what about these wonderful new cheeses with inclusions? Well, there was a Gouda cheese with truffle and cepes mushrooms, a Red Leicester with black pepper, and others with sun-dried tomatoes and herbs. A hard Italian cheese rather like Parmesan was infused with espresso coffee and had a wonderful, extra mature taste. Others had Chai tea spices, and I have to say that the soft cheese with caramelised onion was particularly good; could do really well on crisp bread for the lunchtime deli sector.
I must admit, the cheese with wasabi wasn’t quite to my taste, but others with plums and cider brandy (almost a Christmas pud flavour) set the pulse racing.
Speaking with Robin Skailes, development director for Cropwell Bishop and winner in the soft blue category with a Dolcelatte-type cheese called Beauvale, he said that their most popular Cheddar-style cheeses with inclusions are a date & orange variant and a cranberry cheese.
Personally, my tip is horseradish: it’s a little hot and spicy, but something everyone knows and I believe it would just add a little piquancy. What do you think?
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