Wensleydale cheese - one of my very favourite cheeses

Good Wensleydale has a supple, crumbly, moist texture and resembles a young Caerphilly. The flavour suggests wild honey balanced with fresh acidity. Wensleydale Creamery

Yes we know about Wallace and Gromit and the Monty Python cheese shop, but what I didn't know about my favourite English cheese is the history of it. I also endeavoured to find out who makes it - both over there and over here and sort of failed on that one.

First the history. My first researches told me that it was originally made by French Cistercian monks who came to England from Roquefort in 1150. This is what lots of sites told me, but a later site I found disagreed and said that they came from Normandy - with the Normans. Which sort of makes more sense. And anyway does it matter where they came from? They were definitely French though.

They started making cheese from sheep's milk - hence the Roquefort connection no doubt, at their second home - Jervaulx Abbey in the Yorkshire Dales - specifically in Wensleydale. It's now a ruin - well Henry VIII burnt virtually all the abbeys down in the mid 1500s. But it's still there - as is the cheese making.

It was also originally a blue cheese. After a while cows started to replace sheep on the nearby farms and so cows' milk was used instead although some sheep's milk was also added. And it is still a component of the 'real' Wensleydale. After the abbeys were burnt down the farmers' wives continued to make the cheese at home and this continued on down through the centuries. until 1897 when a local businessman started producing it commercially in the village of Hawes. The 1930s depression saw it falter and almost fail until bought by one Kit Calvert in 1935 shown here below.

But wouldn't you know it the government moved in and banned the making of specialist cheeses like Wensleydale during the war - only government cheddar was allowed. However after the war he revived it and finally sold it to Dairy Crest, which was really an arm of the Milk Board. Then they did the dirty in 1992 and moved production to Yorkshire's sworn enemy, Lancashire, closing down the plant in the process. I' had a quick look at their website and it said nothing about Wensleydale. But back in Yorkshire, once again the locals saved the day - this time in the form of four managers and a local businessman who bought it back and still run it today under the name of Wensleydale Creamery.

wnesleydale creamery product

current range

In 2013 after many years of campaigning they got PGI (Protected Geographical Indicator) status for Yorkshire Wensleydale, so now nobody can make Yorkshire Wensleydale. I think they can make Wensleydale though, because obviously others do, including our own Maffra Cheese Company. They state on their website that their Wensleydale is made from cows' milk though - no sheep. Somerdale export Wensleydale (and other English cheeses) but I don't know where it comes from as they put their own label on it.

And somewhere in that long history the blue Wensleydale became the minor version not the major. You can still get it but it's much less common. An increasingly common version is the one with cranberries. For Wensleydale goes particularly well with fruit and fruit cake, including Christmas pudding. It's a traditional accompaniment to apple pie in Yorkshire - giving rise to the saying:

'an apple pie without the cheese is like a kiss without the squeeze'

According to one site that I found all of the other Wensleydale cheese made in Britain comes mostly from small producers - and mostly in Shropshire and Cheshire. Which I find hard to believe because I remember buying it from huge blocks in British Home Stores when I lived in England. But then again maybe the Wensleydale Creamery produces enough to service the supermarkets of England - it does employ over 200 people now after all. And when we visited Roquefort last year, the Président factory which exports worldwide didn't look that huge.

What really intrigues me though is why there isn't more of it made here. We are a nation of cheddar eaters - that much is obvious, so why not all those other brilliant English cheeses too. However, we can now get a huge range of European cheeses that are made here. There are also an increasing number of 'small' artisan producers such as Meredith, Yarra Valley, La Luna and others. So why aren't they making Wensleydale? I have seen a fair bit of Red Leicester that is made here, but that, to my mind is much more ordinary. And where is Caerphilly? Now I have never seen that.

I gather part of the problem is the rules and regulations that apply:

"Under current strict national biosecurity guidelines, limited cultures can be brought into the country - and these cultures are what gives a cheese it's unique flavour."

But I think it's just that Wensleydale is not seen as trendy. English is not gourmet. European is. I also vaguely remember reading somewhere some time ago that Wensleydale does not travel well. It's not aged for very long - the most aged cheese that Wensleydale Creamery produces is nine months old and most of it is fairly young. Which probably gives it its moistness and crumbliness.

Why am I talking about it? We bought some in one of our supermarkets recently for our last monthly lunch party and I had some for lunch today. I can still taste it. Delicious, though I can't say I can taste the honey. Everyone mentioned honey in their tasting notes.

I did not find a lot of recipes for its use by the way and those that I found were using it in the same way as you would use any other cheese. Though leeks seemed to be a common partner. No the real deal seemed to be to partner it with fruit and fruit cake.

POSTSCRIPT

Just a few more words on where it comes from. I had a look at the big English supermarkets - Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury's to see where theirs came from. Some of it was from the Wensleydale Creamery, one came from Belton Farm - which was one of those smaller Shropshire/Cheshire makers, and some was home brand. Now where did that come from? I have no idea. I have to admit though that most of it came from the 'true' source.

I also wondered whether somebody else could set up in Yorkshire and make Yorkshire Wensleydale. Or do they have to come from Wensleydale itself. But surely this would not prevent somebody setting up there. Maybe there are also some rules about how it's made - as I found when investigating Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano.