How are you today? Well, I've decided that I'm going to move with the times and I'll be trying out a range of vegan cheeses as we are getting so many people coming into the shop asking if we stock them. Find out more below!
Also, with Easter coming up, the traditional Italian Colomba cakes are flying out the door and we've only got a few left – I asked the suppliers for more but they've run out, so if you want one, hurry up! It's the same with the Venchi chocolate eggs, they're also selling fast and we won't be getting any more in – when they're gone, they're gone!
Meanwhile, I've got an amazing new olive oil coming in, Frantolo Dorazio extra virgin from Il Fattore. It tastes sensational – look out for it on the shelves in the next couple of days. Mothers Day is coming up on Sunday and we've got loads of stuff that will go down a treat, or you could go for the Celebration Hamper, full of cheese, olives, salami and, of course, chocolate!
All the best in cheese George Mewes
Cheese of the WeekShropshire Blue
With its distinctive blue veins and orangey-yellow paste, you can't miss Shropshire Blue on the counter. Basically a Stilton, but velvety, slightly milder in flavour and sweeter, it's made with pasteurised milk and vegetarian rennet, with a fat content of about 48 per cent. Its orange colour comes from the natural colourant and flavouring annatto, laced with blue veins of Penicillium roqueforti, and its rind is a deep orange-brown (and also very tasty!). Made by Colston Bassett Dairy, who also produce our superlative Stilton, Shropshire Blue has a funny old history with conflicting stories over who invented it. One version says it was a Scottish cheese maker called Andy Williamson, who had trained to make Stilton in Nottinghamshire. It was certainly produced near Inverness in the 1970s and was then known as Inverness-shire Blue or Blue Stuart, but the name was changed to Shropshire Blue, apparently purely for marketing. Production stopped in 1980 but the cheese was taken up by other dairies, including Colston Bassett.
There is also a claim that it was the creation of a guy called Dennis Biggins at Westry Roberts in Shropshire and was launched there in 1977. Dennis has died since then but his family say it was his cheese, so the mystery remains.
Shropshire Blue is perhaps a trifle overshadowed by Colston Bassett Stilton but it's a really delicious cheese in its own right. Maturation times differ – some say it's best at 6-8 weeks while others prefer it a bit older at 12 weeks or longer. However long it's matured for, Shropshire Blue will always be a tasty and unusual cheese. Drop in for a sample!
Treat of the Week Vegan selection
With more and more people seeking alternatives to meat and dairy products, there's been a boom in foods which contain neither – so for those who have been coming in to ask for it, we have a new range of vegan-friendly cheeses from The'Arty Vegan for you to try.
So, we have Miso Brie-So, above left, a take on the classic Brie, Smoky Muenster, above right, for melting in toasties or onto baked potatoes or nachos, and the Truffle and Garlic Young Cam, designed to be baked in the oven like a Camembert. The creamy Melty Mozza is ideal for pizzas, as is the herby Mozza Pesto. We also have Faux Smoked Salmon Lox for those antipasti al fresco days and The'Arty Vegan Tofu, the classic ingredient of much Asian cooking. Come in and check them out!
Available now at George Mewes Cheese in Byres Road, Glasgow, and Stockbridge, Edinburgh.
GOAT St Tola – Soft, mild and creamy, with sweet floral honey tones, becoming more pungent with age. Unpasteurised, natural rennet, from Ireland.
EWE Pecorino Moliterno al Tartufo – Medium-firm and creamy, rich, earthy and salty infused with pungent truffle taste. Unpasteurised, traditional rennet, from Italy.
HARD PRESS
Anster – Gentle, fresh, lemon peel and natural yoghurt sharpness. Firm and crumbly paste. Unpasteurised cow's milk and traditional rennet, from Scotland.
CONTINENTAL Coolea – Gouda-style firm paste, rich and sweet with notes of caramel, butterscotch and honey. Pasteurised cow’s milk and traditional rennet, from Ireland.
SOFT
Minger – Soft, silky and oozy, pungent aroma but mild, lemony and nutty when young becoming stronger with age. Pasteurised and vegetarian rennet, from Scotland.
BLUE
Shropshire Blue –Super velvet texture. Tangy, rich, spicy and slightly nutty with light chilli heat. Pasteurised cow’s milk and traditional rennet, from England.
Talking Cheese Annatto
As we're featuring Shropshire Blue this week, it seems like a good time to revisit our Talking Cheese on annatto, which gives Shropshire, Mimolette, Gouda and Red Leicester their orange colour. Annatto is a natural food colouring from the seeds of the achiote tree, bixa orellana. Originally from Brazil, the tree has been taken around the world and the seeds are used in cuisines from the Caribbean to the Philippines. Mostly annatto is used for colour – you boil or fry the seeds then discard them and use the coloured water or oil – but also for its subtle peppery and nutty aroma and taste. The story goes (there's always a story of some kind about cheese) that some cheesemakers first used annatto to make their products look good. Cheese made with high-quality milk from cows grazing on fresh pasture looks yellow as the large fat globules retain the beta carotene in green grass. So, if you don't have access to fresh grazing, annatto is useful to give cheese a yellowish colour. Gloucester cheese has been coloured with annatto since the 16th century and a warm orange cheese gradually became a brand statement rather than trying to disguise the quality of the milk. You can buy seeds online, so if you're a home cheesemaker you could even try colouring your next batch!
