Very Caerphilly

Welcome to Prudence Dapperling's "Mouse in a Million" BIG CHEESE Blog!

For this installment, our lactose-based delight hails from a land of great beauty in the western part of the British mainland... Wales. The cheese? A raw cow's milk variety with a heavenly buttery flavor and varied texture called--

Caerphilly

--named after the town in South Wales near which it was originally produced.


Caerphilly has an interesting history.  A simple cheese--mild, semi-firm, with a slight squishiness around the edges--Caerphilly was a staple of the diet of Welsh coal miners, who wrapped it in cabbage leaves to take down with them into the mine for their mid-day meal.

In the early 20th century, demand for this popular cheese in England overwhelmed supply in Wales, so cheesemakers across the Bristol Channel in Somerset, England, started producing it, as well. Between the World Wars and for years after the Second, traditional farm production of Caerphilly ceased entirely. A manufactured variety replaced it and, although called "Caerphilly," this mass produced cheese bore little resemblance to the original.

Since then, however, traditional farmhouse Caerphilly, with the same delightful creamy flavor and texture, has made a comeback, both in South Wales and Somerset.

The cheese comes in 8-to-9 pound wheels, 3 inches thick and 12 inches in diameter, has a natural gray rind and a paste that is creamy beige to yellow in color, and is slightly runny in the center. When buying Caerphilly,  avoid any with paste that looks dry or is moldy. The rind should be dry and gray, never black, moist, or mushy.  Because Caerphilly is not a particularly dense cheese, it will dry out and go stale after about  a week. So, buy just enough to last that long, and you'll enjoy every bite.

Caerphilly is a lovely snack cheese, good with bread, fruit, chutney, or preserves. It's also a great melter and works well sliced or shredded for a fantastic toasted cheese sandwich!

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Like Cheese? Check out America's Chevalier du Taste-Fromage Steven Jenkins' blog here.

And don't miss the latest installment from that wise and worthy cheese-loving feline, Spaulding Gray.

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