louisa pearson : ‘I AM INTIMIDATED BY the EMPHASIS PLACED ON HYGIENE’

ave you ever made a five-hour journey with an Isle of Mull truckle in the back of the car? Forget needing to stop for a cup of coffee en-route, the pungent aroma of this delectable cheese is all your need to keep you alert. Mine was in a Christmas hamper destined for the in-laws, but on any given day you can find the same sort of smell emanating from my fridge. There’s some Lanark Blue (the blue bits have actually gone green, but I’m choosing to believe that’s a good thing) and some Borders Brie in there at the moment, just awaiting an oatcake and stick of celery to make their life complete. There’s also some mozzarella, cheddar, emmental, parmesan and an end-bit of something I really cannot identify.

I was beginning to worry that this sounds like cheese addiction, until I read that cheese is bought by more than 98 per cent of British households. The nation’s favourite? Cheddar. We only eat half as much cheese as the French, mind you. British Cheese Week is currently underway and has launched a search for the country’s best cheeses. Last year’s winners included Connage Dunlop, made by Connage Highland Dairy, and Strathdon Blue, produced by Highland Fine Cheeses. If you’ve a notion to start nibbling on artisan cheeses then there has never been a better time to do it. Between 1994 and 2010, the number of British cheesemakers has more than doubled and there are now over 600 unique British cheeses in fridges around the country.

I know what you’re thinking. You are anticipating some horrendous statistics that will show that cheese production is causing deforestation, a hole in the ozone layer and the melting of the ice cap. Fear not. I love cheese far too much to ever advise against eating it. But perhaps we should take a glance at the facts and figures. More than a quarter of total UK milk production every year ends up in cheese – that’s around 3,500 million litres. A Scottish Government report into the greenhouse gas emissions of dairy products found that the significant sources of emissions in the life cycle of cheese are the milk (90 per cent), retail distribution (five per cent), processing and maturing energy (two per cent) and packaging (two per cent). The report’s recommendations on how to improve the process include better energy-efficiency on farms, reducing emissions connected with packaging and so on. There is also a keenness that whey not be wasted while we are busy gorging on curds.

What can the consumer do? Buying local is a good option – direct from producers or farmers’ markets. To make sure supermarket cheese has been produced, not just wrapped, in Britain, check the small print and look for a red tractor logo on the package. I am considering making my own cheese, but am intimidated by the emphasis placed on hygiene and sterile implements. Soft cheese looks relatively straightforward – heat up milk, add bacteria and rennet and voila, you’ve got curds and whey. A guide for making hard cheeses then went on to describe subsequent stages of scalding, pitching, running whey, stacking, milling, salting, moulding, pressing, drying, sealing and maturing. Having only just mastered jam, I’m not quite ready for this level of self-sufficiency, but I will keep on tucking into local crowdie, caboc and cheddar, with absolutely no environmental angst to spoil the experience. n