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First officially recorded in the Doomsday Book of 1086 but made since Roman times, Cheshire Cheese is Britain's oldest named cheese. Legend has it that a Cheshire cheese-maker was put to death by the Romans for refusing to tell them how to make it. In the 16th century it was said to have been the favourite cheese of Queen Elizabeth 1. Even the French, not normally known for their enthusiasm for English food, respect our Cheshire cheese, and have a rhyme about it:

Cheshire Cheese is a crumbly, salty cheese with a nutty flavour. The salty flavour comes from the salt springs that run under most of the county. The salt enters the pasture land and thus into the cows' milk from which the cheese is made. Originally only made in the Roman garrison of Chester, production of Cheshire cheese soon spread to the surrounding farms near the River Dee.

The traditional method of making Cheshire cheese involves leaving milk from the evening milking to stand until the morning, when it is mixed with the morning's milk and a starter culture is added. When the curds form they are roughly torn into small pieces, passed through a mill and then pressed in moulds for up to two days. The cheese then takes between 4 and 8 weeks to ripen, although some are ripened for up to 15 months. The longer the cheese matures, the sharper the flavour becomes.

Enough said, now Enjoy....................