THE CHEESE-TASTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23365, 3 December 1937, Page 16

THE CHEESE-TASTER

A GOOD NOSE NEEDED “A cheese taster has to be born. You either are one or you are not. The great secret is a good nose.” . In these words Mr J. Hugh Mackie, of Castle Cary, Somerset, a judge in the cheese section of the show at the Royal Agricultural Hall, summed up the characteristics of a good cheese taster (says the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post). Mr Mackie knows. ■ He is 70 and has spent 55 years in the trade. During that time he has judged “many, manv thousands of cheeses.” Recently the judges walked through the ranks of the thousand cheeses entered—Cheddars, Cheshires, Caerphillies, Stiltons, and the rest. Mr Mackie produced his “ iron ” from its worn leather case. The narrow metal scoop has an edge and point tempered to razor-like sharpness. First came the “ boring. Into a plump Cheddar Mr Mackie plunged the “iron.” A twist, and a roll of cheese was extracted. A quick preliminary sniff, a touch on the back of the “iron" to test for acid or deficient butter-fa+ a tiny piece crumbled appraisingly be.ween the fingers, and another sniff told him all that he wanted to know. For paradoxically, Mr Mackie never tastes a cheese, though other judges were to be seen nibbling. “Smell, touch, and taste,” he said “that is the rule for many experts, but my nose tells me nearly everything. “If the cow which provided the milk for the cheese had eaten something unusual, garlic, let us say, I could immediately detect it from the cheese aroma. It is like wine or teatasting, a specialised art. I do not think you can acquire it if it is not born in you. It is like some people being colour-blind. My father was a cheese expert nearly all his days, and I suppose I inherited it.”