TASTING CHEESE

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 August 1933, Page 7

TASTING CHEESE

SAMPLING 100 CHEDDARS DAILY. There is nothing like a little bit of cheese To have about the house. The dwelling, the apartment, Or anywhere else you please. 1 bis refrain, from th c old musical comedy, .“Miss Hock of Holland,” will certainly find an echo in the heart ot Mr William Small, who may fairly be dcsciibed as the Grand Old Man of the chuddar cheese factory (states the Somerset correspondent of the London ‘Daily Mail’). Mr William Small became an expert ihccsc-taster in 1885, and since then be reckons he- has tried on an average at least 100 cheeses a day. Mr Small is rapidly nearing his three millionth cheese with as much enthusiasm for the virtues of the real good eheddar us he did xxhen he sampled bis first. Surrounded by cheese of all sizes from one pound to one hundredweight Mr Small talked of his life’s work. It seems in some way to be an austeit occupation. He is a teetotaller and non-smoker fearing lest alcohol or tobacco should dull hid highly educated tongue. An occasional Sip of water is all lit permits himself, as. with gouge in band, he bores bis way into cheese aitei cheese, samples a morsel, and neatly plugs the hole again, tasting for quality, texture, flavour and maturity. “Do you,” I said, “ever eat cheese? “Why, certainly,” he replied, wit.li some surprise at such a question. “Good cheddar cheese is thc best meal a man can have, and there is no need for bread or biscuit with it either.” Here are. some other things the correspondent was told: The real cheddar cheese has been made in Somerset farmhouses for hundreds of years. No one, in fact, knows when the industry lirst began. Peculiarities of thc local pasture give it a nutty flavour unobtainable in cheese made elsewhere. It is still almost entirely a farmhouse industry. A mild cheddar cheese takes three mouths to mature, a medium one six mouths, and a. mature one 12 months. Gocd cheese cau be kept for four reais; one has been known to keep for 10 At present wholesale prices thc very finest cheddar cheese, should not be retailed at. more than 1/2 a pound ill London and thc Home counties. This figure will give the retailer a good profit after paying all expenses. Much so-called cheddar cheese is now made in other parts of England, notably Lancashire and Cheshire.