Curd is obtained by coagulating milk in a sequential process called curdling. It can be a final dairy product or the first stage in cheesemaking. The coagulation can be caused by adding rennet, a culture, or any edible acidic substance such as lemon juice or vinegar, and then allowing it to coagulate. The increased acidity causes the milk proteins (casein) to tangle into solid masses, or curds. Milk that has been left to sour will also naturally produce curds, and sour milk cheeses are produced this way.
Stilton is an English cheese, produced in two varieties: Blue, which has Penicillium roqueforti added to generate a characteristic smell and taste, and White, which does not. Both have been granted the status of a protected designation of origin (PDO) by the European Commission, requiring that only such cheese produced in the three counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire may be called Stilton. The cheese takes its name from the village of Stilton, now in Cambridgeshire, where it has long been sold, but cannot be made because it is not in one of the three permitted counties.
Caerphilly is a hard, crumbly white cheese that originated in the area around the town of Caerphilly, Wales. It is thought to have been created to provide food for the local coal miners. The Caerphilly of that period had a greater moisture content, and was made in local farms. At the start of the 20th century, competition for milk in the local area saw production decline, and Caerphilly production was gradually relocated to England.
Goat cheese, goat's cheese or chèvre is cheese made from goat's milk. Goats were among the first animals to be domesticated for producing food. Goat cheese is made around the world with a variety of recipes, giving many different styles of cheeses, from fresh and soft to aged and hard.
Cheesemaking 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 concentrated form. Cheesemaking allows the production of the cheese with diverse flavors and consistencies.
Blue cheese is any of a wide range of cheeses made with the addition of cultures of edible molds, which create blue-green spots or veins through the cheese. Blue cheeses vary in taste from very mild to strong, and from slightly sweet to salty or sharp; in colour from pale to dark; and in consistency from liquid to hard. They may have a distinctive smell, either from the mold or from various specially cultivated bacteria such as Brevibacterium linens.
Kasseri is a medium-hard or hard pale yellow cheese made from pasteurised or unpasteurised sheep milk and at most 20% goat's milk. "Kasseri" is a protected designation of origin, according to which the cheese must be made in the Greek provinces of Thessaly, Macedonia, Lesbos, or Xanthi, but a similar type of cheese is found in Turkey, Romania, and the Balkans, where it is known as kashkaval. The same cheese is made with cow's milk, but in that case it cannot be legally sold as "kasseri" in the EU and is instead sold under names that are particular to each producer.
Ardrahan Farmhouse Cheese creates two varieties of cheese. They originate from Ardrahan Farmhouse, Kanturk, County Cork in Ireland. The two varieties are Ardrahan and Duhallow. Eugene and Mary Burns first made Ardrahan cheese on their farm in County Cork in 1983 using traditional techniques. Both varieties are made entirely from the milk of the Burnses' cow herd, which is composed of Friesian cows.
Saint-Nectaire is a French cheese made in the Auvergne region of central France.
Crowdie is a type of soft, fresh cheese made from cows' milk, traditionally from Scotland.
Shropshire Blue is a cow's milk cheese made in the United Kingdom.
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. During production, milk is usually acidified and either the enzymes of rennet or bacterial enzymes with similar activity are added to cause the casein to coagulate. The solid curds are then separated from the liquid whey and pressed into finished cheese. Some cheeses have aromatic molds on the rind, the outer layer, or throughout.
Norbury Blue is an English blue cheese made in Surrey. It is entirely handmade and the only blue cheese made in the South of England with milk from a closed herd of Friesian cows, fed on GM-free fodder. The cheese was made at the Dairy at Norbury Park Farm until 2018, when production moved to Sherbourne Farm at Albury.
Florence Lucy Appleby MBE was an English traditional cheesemaker. She created 'Mrs Appleby's Cheshire' which, by the time of her death, was the last remaining Cheshire cheese to observe the traditions of using unpasteurised milk from the farm herd, being bound in calico cloth and matured on-farm. Appleby co-founded the Specialist Cheesemakers Association to defend the use of unpasteurised milk in cheesemaking.
The pallone di Gravina is a firm, semi-hard, cow's milk cheese from the regions of Basilicata and Apulia, in south-east Italy. It is made in the pasta filata style weighing between 1.5 and 2.5 kg, in a pear-like shape, ball or balloon (pallone), and was traditionally produced in the area of the city of Gravina, in the Murgia area of the province of Bari. Today, however, production is centred on the province of Matera.
Béal Organic Cheese is made by Kate Carmody at Béal Lodge Dairy Farm, a small family-run dairy farm of Holstein cows on 56 acres located by the mouth of the River Shannon in Listowel, County Kerry in Ireland. It is a cheddar cheese and claims to be the first Irish produced using organic farming and methods. Béal Organic Cheese is handmade from cow's milk.
Bay Lough Cheese is an Irish dairy owned and operated by husband and wife, Dick and Anne Keating. Bay Lough Cheese produces cheddar-style cheeses using vegetarian rennet and unpasteurised milk. A small amount of cheese is also produced using pasteurised milk.
Patrick Lowry Cole Holwell Rance was a cheesemonger who has been considered responsible for saving many British specialist cheeses from extinction. He is known for writing The Great British Cheese Book (1982) and The French Cheese Book (1989).
