Swaledale is a full fat hard

cheese Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...

produced in the town of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

in Swaledale,

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The cheese is produced from cows’

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...

, Swaledale sheep's milk and

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

s’ milk.

Description

The cheeses are round in shape with an average weight for the cheese wheel of and are made with unpasteurised milk. The animals whose milk is used to make Swaledale cheese, all graze on land in Swaledale which makes their milk characteristic of the area as a particular mixture of

herb Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typically distingu ...

s and grasses grow there due to its soil and climate and this give the cheese distinctive properties. The cheese has a moist medium firm texture and its flavour is described as having “the freshness of the misty Dales and wild bracken, with the sweet caramel undertone of ewes’ milk”.

Production

Swaledale cheese is handmade to a

recipe A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish (food), dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main r ...

from Swaledale, the knowledge of which is limited to a few people. Milk from farms in Swaledale is collected and, in the first stage of the cheesemaking process, heated to with

microbiological culture A microbiological culture, or microbial culture, is a method of multiplying microorganism, microbial organisms by letting them reproduce in predetermined culture medium under controlled laboratory conditions. Microbial cultures are foundational a ...

. After being left for two hours

rennet Rennet () is a complex set of enzymes produced in the stomachs of ruminant mammals. Chymosin, its key component, is a protease, protease enzyme that curdling, curdles the casein in milk. In addition to chymosin, rennet contains other enzymes, su ...

is added to the milk. The mixture is then left to curdle for an hour after which time the resulting curd is heated to 28 °C, cut up and stirred. It is then cut up again, drained and the resulting cubes stacked up, before the blocks are broken up and then put into moulds lined with

muslin Muslin () is a cotton fabric of plain weave. It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting. It is commonly believed that it gets its name from the city of Mosul, Iraq. Muslin was produced in different regions o ...

. The moulds are then lightly pressed during storage at 28 °C for 18 hours, and are turned once after four hours. Once the cheese has finished being pressed it is removed from the moulds and is soaked in a

solution Solution may refer to: * Solution (chemistry), a mixture where one substance is dissolved in another * Solution (equation), in mathematics ** Numerical solution, in numerical analysis, approximate solutions within specified error bounds * Solu ...

of 85%

brine Brine (or briny water) is a high-concentration solution of salt (typically sodium chloride or calcium chloride) in water. In diverse contexts, ''brine'' may refer to the salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% (a typical concentration of seawat ...

for 24 hours. After being made Swaledale cheese is stored in humid cellars. While the cheese is maturing, if it is not covered in natural wax, a grey-blue mould grows on its rind. The cheese takes between three and four weeks to mature.

History

Legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...

s about the

Yorkshire Dales The Yorkshire Dales are a series of valleys, or Dale (landform), dales, in the Pennines, an Highland, upland range in England. They are mostly located in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, but extend into C ...

, the area that includes Swaledale, say the origin of cheese making lie with

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

monks from Normandy who settled in the area in the 11th century. Their techniques were passed on to local farmers in Swaledale who continued to produce cheese, although the monks left during the dissolution of the monasteries. In 18th century cheese was produced at farmhouses within Swaledale and sold fresh with a white colour or ripe once they had developed a blue colouration. These cheeses' high moisture content and open texture allowed them to blue easily when they were matured in damp conditions.

Cheesemaking Cheesemaking (or caseiculture) is the craft of making cheese. The production of cheese, like many other food preservation processes, allows the nutritional and economic value of a food material, in this case milk, to be preserved in concentrate ...

started to decline in Swaledale at the start of the 20th century and by 1980 only one farm in Swaledale, Harkerside above Reeth, was still making cheese. In the early 1980s this cheese stopped being produced as well, until Mrs Longstaff gave the original recipe for Swaledale cheese to David and Mandy Reed who founded the Swaledale Cheese company in February 1987 to produce the cheese.

Awards

Swaledale cheeses have won a number of awards including three gold awards at the 2008 Great Taste Awards and three gold and two bronze medals at 2008 World Cheese Awards.

References

External links