FANCY CHEESES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 113, 6 February 1936, Page 5

FANCY CHEESES

Testing New Zealanders’

Tastes

EXPERT’S CONCLUSIONS

The palates of New Zealanders have

been tested over a period of three years by a cheese expert who, with a university training and practical experience in Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe, has pursued the business of making such kinds of fancy cheeses as he can sell. In his search for exact knowledge, this expert has invited

-people congregated at beaches to sample his wares and give their opinions as to the cheese they prefer. Mr. 'J. I’. Elwood, formerly of Calcutta and later of Zurich, Switzerland, .where he graduated at the agricultural college, is the expert who, after three years’ testing of New Zealand tastes, has established himself in an up-to-date factory near to the farm where he produces the milk and cream. In a special interview with “The Dominion,” he described the way he had .worked liis'business up. Leaving Calcutta at the age of 12, he proceeded to Switzerland, and at Zurich graduated in dairy science. He travelled extensively after that and proceeded to New Zealand via Australia. He was appointed temporary assistant in ■ soil chemistry and field husbandry at Massey College in 1927 and later took over the work of research herd-testing at the Dairy Research Institute in Palmerston North. He always had an idea of setting up as a cheese-maker because he had learned to make fifteen to sixteen varieties of cheese of differing national origin. What he wished to learn was something of'New Zealand conditions. He gaine_d- further experience at the Aramoho casein laboratory and as a testing officer of the New Zealand Cooperative Herd Testing Association in the Waikato district. y Swiss Cheese Not Liked. Ou a farm he purchased at Otaki he began the business of making cheeses to suit New Zealand tastes. He found that the main Swiss cheese Gruyere, or Emmental, after the valley where it was first made, was not suitable for New Zealand. There was only a small demand for It. It was different from the ordinary Cheddar cheese and only overseas visitors or settlers, perhaps, would appreciate it. Profiting from his experience of the demand for the fancy cheeses made at Massey College, and from his own experience since then, Mr. Elwood learned that the most popular fancy cheeses in New Zealand are.: (1), Cream cheese, or Gervais; (2) Dutch, cheese or Gouda; (3) Pout I’Evegue; end club cheese of Dutch origin, but containing such flavouring ingredients as curry, celery and tomato.

The flavouring of ordinary Cheddar

cheese with such ingredients and others like banana and pineapple had just begun in New Zealand, said Mr. Elwood. It really was quite an old idea. For instance, an old French cheese, neuchatel, was flavoured with the pimento nut. “I somehow doubt that the consumption of cheese in New Zealand will be greatly increased because of the introduction of various flavours,” said Mr. Elwood, in answer to questions. “It’s a funny thing, the public taste! They take on a new thing. If they don't like it they leave it. If they like it they eat it and come for more. During the three years I have been making cheeses there has been a steady demand and

a tendency to increase output. I am i beginning to concentrate on what I now judge to be the main taste. I’ve narrowed it down to three or four. “Mild cheese is definitely the predominant requirement in New Zealand. That’s my experience. On the other hand, there is a considerable minority that prefers a matured, piquant cheese—something ’with a bite’ in it.”