Good afternoon everybody,
Apparently it's Wensleydale week. Not in any official sense, you understand, just because we love it and are featuring two of our faves. The cheddar and chutney sandwich has been a staple at the bakery since the very early days. For quite some time the cheese was always Lincolnshire Poacher. Probably because one of Hugo's formative farmhouse cheese experiences was arriving at his aunt and uncle's house in rural Nottinghamshire back in the 90s, starving hungry in the way he so often was in those days, possessing a quite frankly formidable appetite that would frequently see him demolish whole loves of bread, multiple takeaways, tubs of ice cream etc. and somehow retain a waif like waistline - oh to be young - and upon asking for something to eat being directed to the fridge wherein he found and laid into (somewhat to his aunt's chagrin - I suspect she thought it wasted on him) a considerable slab of Lincolnshire Poacher, accompanied by many slices of soft, sliced granary bread. And there was born his love of Lincolnshire Poacher, the name carrying an appealing suggestion of transgressiveness, and the cheese itself savoury and sweet with a smooth, buttery texture.
So, Poacher it was in the Hamblin cheese sandwiches, until we spread our wings and began to explore the full range of cheddars from Westcombe to Hafod to Monty's to Mull to Pitchfork and so on. All of this to say that it has nearly always been cheddar. And nearly always with our take on the St John chutney, in all it's malt vinegar and brown sugar glory. It strikes me that if you're anything like me, reading a description of a farmhouse cheddar and English chutney sandwich just makes you want to eat one, which is counter to the purpose of this piece, as what I actually wanted to say is that we don't have cheddar and St John chutney this week. If you remember, we started with Wensleydale, and that's what I've been getting to. So, at last, this week it's Yoredale Wensleydale, a comparatively new addition to the roster of raw-milk Wensleydales, that will be in our sandwiches. Yoredale is less assertive than most cheddars so rather than the full on attack of the St John, we're going with our lesser-spotted Roast Tomato Chutney. This is one of those pleasingly simple formulations that punches well above it's weight: Roast whole tomatoes until they collapse and colour, then combine with half the weight of the tomatoes' worth of vinegar and sugar and cook down. Done. Sometimes we add a little ginger. Worth also noting that we blend this same chutney until smooth to make the ketchup for our breakfast sandwiches in the Covered Market. So there we are.
The Wensleydale we are cutting and wrapping next week is Stonebeck, undoubtedly one of the jewels in the crown of British farmhouse cheeses. The following is from the Neal's Yard Dairy website:
Andrew and Sally Hattan’s Low Riggs farm is located in the Yorkshire Dales, where for hundreds of years the production of Wensleydale-style cheese played a vital role in the rural economy. The Hattan family are first generation farmers. When they embarked on their quest to make a farmhouse Wensleydale cheese of their own, they made use of cheesemaking books from 1917 and 1947, together with interviews with a 101-year-old local cheesemaker.
The milk for the cheese comes from a herd of just 30 Northern Dairy Shorthorn cows – a breed native to the Dales that is critically endangered. They subsist on almost exclusively pasture and are milked just once a day between Spring and Autumn which makes this cheese truly seasonal. The cheese is truly handmade: the curds cut and hung up in cloth bags to allow the whey to drain away, after which they are milled by a hand-turned peg mill ready for moulding and pressing in a traditional cast iron press. The next day the cheese is bound with locally made, unbleached calico and hand-sewn with a long stitch before being pressed for a final time before maturation.
Top trumps on the pastry counter this week must surely be raspberry karpatka, a cream cake inspired by the snowy peaks of the Carpathian mountains, consisting of crisp choux pastry sandwiches lightly whipped vanilla cream and a raspberry compote. We also have our Vêra's favourite chocolate and almond bun, and the financier is roasted Piedmontese hazelnuts with the last of the season Styan plums.
Well, that's all for this week folks, thanks if you've stayed til the end or even if you haven't and we wish you a very happy Sunday,
Hugo and Kate