Wensleydale and cranberries - why?

"It's okay to like wensleydale and cranberries" reddit - Is it?

Wensleydale cheese - the pure kind, is one of my favourite cheeses, but you can never buy it easily here in Australia, and I do remember reading somewhere a long time ago that it didn't travel well - which is a bit redundant in today's world when you can fly stuff easily from one side of the world to another in a day. It might cost you but in Australia this would be a gourmet product.

But weirdly you can easily find Wensleydale & cranberry cheese. I bought some recently for a family birthday party, and I now have a bit mouldering in the fridge. It is mouldering, because neither David nor I are fans really. Like blue cheese, but we do buy them for guests sometimes.

We don't make a Wensleydale copy here in Australia - well most British cheeses other than Cheddar really. Neither do we make anything similar - at least I haven't found anyone recommending an Australian cheese as similar. Maybe Mersey Valley? It's a crumbly cheese after all. But Wensleydale is not only loved by me it is also beloved by Wallace and Gromit, to whom I shall return.

First a little bit of history. It comes from the Yorkshire dales - this is Wensleydale, where a group of Cistercian monks settled in Jervaulx Abbey in 1150. They brought with them their method of making cheese. Alas in 1536 Henry VIII destroyed all the monasteries, but the monks passed the recipe to the local farmers wives who continued making it at home from their own cows.

Jump to 1897 when Edward Chapman opened the first Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes where Wensleydale continued to be made in spite of world wars and depressions until 1966 when it was sold to the Milk Marketing Board. Then in 1970 it was sold to Dairy Crest who almost ran it into the ground, and were going to close it down. However, a group of ex and current managers decided to buy it out and have since made it into a very successful company making 20 varieties of cheese, and employing more than 1,000 workers.

Many say that that success is down to Wallace and Gromit who adored Wensleydale cheese. Here I found two stories about why Nick Park - the creator of Wallace and Gromit decided to have Wallace pick Wensleydale as his favourite cheese. The first is the offical story:

"Wallace and Gromit's enthusiasm for Wensleydale stemmed partly from Nick Park's own taste for the cheese and partly from the need for a wholly northern product." Martin Wainwright/The Guardian

Although I saw another story that said that Nick Park chose it because it was easy to lip sync the name, and that he didn't even know that it came from Yorkshire. Whatever the story is, the creamery is said to have been saved by Wallace.

The Wensleydale Creamery is not the only maker of Wensleydale cheese however, it is also made in other local creameries and in other counties. Which to my mind means that there are no barriers to naming your cheese Wensleydale, so why don't they make it here? My theory? It's British and therefore not highly respected in the cheese world.

But how come the Cranberries?

Well fruit and cheese is not an original idea. Most cheeseboards whether for the common folk or the gourmets will inevitably also feature fruit of some kind and, at least for the gourmets, a fruit paste. And a particular modern trend is for anything with watermelon and feta. But fruit as part of the cheese itself?

"Mankind has apparently never been able to resist meddling with one of the finest foods known to it; the Romans were fond of blending their cheese with fruit and herbs, while the Dutch, with their gouda speckled with cumin, began their experiments in the 17th century," Juliet Harbutt/The Guardian

According to the same Juliet Harbutt - a Yorkshire cheesemaker: They started out about 1994, with white Stilton with rings of orange peel on the top." And the 'official' story as told on the Creamery's website is that:

"A member of our team was enjoying a quiet drink with a friend, who happened to be a supplier of high quality dried fruits. Discussions turned to where their respective industries were heading and what new ideas were coming to fruition (so to speak!), and they cooked up the incredible idea of putting cranberries into cheese." Helen Miles

The cranberries were first blended into the cheese, once the curds were formed, in 1996. Today you can also buy versions from this particular creamery that are blended with, apricots, stem ginger, mango and ginger and pineapple. There is also a cranberry version that also has cointreau and orange. I also saw people talking about blueberries but maybe that's from another creamery. For there are plenty of others.

So what does it taste like? According to Marcella the Cheesemonger - a blogger on cheese :

"The cheese is creamy, crumbly and mild; the cranberries are sweet, tart and pungent. The combination is not only pleasing to the palate but also eye-catching."

Maybe that's why the popularity - they're eye-catching - which may be why:

"Some “cheese elites” tend to “poo poo” flavored cheeses; while the rest of us regular folks are inclined to go with the flow and enjoy the cheese with its added herbs, spices or fruits, etc." Marcella the Cheesemonger

I began this post because I have this small piece of Wensleydale & cranberries. I tried it again at lunchtime, and, admittedly it was probably past its best, but I don't really like it. It's wrong somehow. And you know me - I can't just throw it out. So what to do with it? Well here are three ideas from the creamery itself: Pear and Yorkshire Wensleydale and cranberries galette - Helen Miles; Cranberry and red onion picnic scone - Helen Miles and Yorkshire Wensleydale and cranberries and apple cake - Sandra Bell

There are lots more on their Recipe section as well. And here's one more general suggestion from CoffeeBeansGalore on Mumsnet:

"Make a quiche with it. Add some decent cheddar, chopped bacon, onion & dollop a few teaspoons of cranberry sauce through it."

I perused other suggestions and I have to say the red onion pairing sounds like a good one - the cranberry sauce too, although WAslett on reddit did have this cautionary bit of advice:

"from experience, wensleydale is not very nice cooked, it doesn't go goey, just greasy. You could maybe blitz it up with some cream cheese and cream to make a topping for a cheese cake."

I might just crumble a bit into my next quiche. It might go well with beetroot too?

I just wish you could buy straight Wensleydale without having to travel into the City.

YEARS GONE BY

July 29

2024 - Ambience over food

2023 - Chinese-American - kung pao

2022 - World lasagne day

2021 - Your onion bhaji is really a pakora

2020 - Missing

2019 - The vegetarian thing

2018 - Holiday tummy troubles

2017 - Nothing

2016 - Food and religion