Cleary Catherine - Sheridans guide to cheese: a guide to high-quality artisan farmhouse cheeses

www.sheridanscheesemongers.com

Copyright 2016 by Kevin and Seamus Sheridan

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Brian Peterson

Cover photo credit Reg Gordan

Print ISBN: 978-1-63220-631-2

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63220-777-7

Printed in China

Seamus and Kevin

For

Our parents, Seamus and Maura Sheridan

Our partners, Miriam and Rachel

The next generation: Shane, Molly, Aoifa, Ian, Freddie, Manus, Juno, Cass, Donagh and Alexander

Catherine

For Liam, Shane, Peter and Isaac. May you never tire of cheese jokes.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For sharing your knowledge, thank you to archaeologists Peter Bogucki, Seamus Caulfield, Pam Crabtree and Jessica Smyth, microbiologist Rachel Dutton and UCCs dairy expert Alan Kelly.

For sharing your story, thank you to Anna LEveque, Breda Maher, Eamonn Lonergan, Bill Hogan, Quinlan Steele, Jeffa Gill, Giorgio Cravero, Sarah and Sergio Furno, Jane and Louis Grubb.

Thank you to our friends in cheese who contributed notes on their favourite cheeses.

Thank you to Dan Fennelly and Elisabeth Ryan for advice on cheese and wine notes and to Franck Le Moenner for help with the photography.

Thank you to Catherine Cleary, for putting up with usit has been a true pleasure sharing thoughts and working with you.

Thank you to our agent, Sharon Bowers, who encouraged us to write this book. Thank you to the team at Transworld: Henry Vines, Eoin McHugh, Micaela Alcaino, Becky Wright, Peter Ward, Katrina Whone, Phil Lord and Alison Martin.

Catherine would also like to thank Ger Siggins for thinking of her when someone said cheese, and her parents Joan and Shane, who provided a much-needed writers retreat.

The story of Sheridans Cheesemongers is a story of the many wonderful people who have been a part of this small company over the past twenty years. We would like to thank all of the people who have worked with us. It is impossible to mention every one of you but a few we must thank in particular. Fiona Corbett, a partner for many years and a big part of the Sheridans story. Finn OSullivan who supported us for many years and sadly passed away. Those in our team who have stayed with us for so longMark Booker, Gerry Flynn, Paula le Moenner, Elisabeth Ryan, Sharon Bagnall and John Leverrier.

To those who have supported us down through the yearsthank you, John and Sally McKenna, Derek Ryan, Phillip Caswell, Peter Dunne, the Jephson Family, Keith Newman, David Byers, Roisin Coyle, Niall Sweeny and Simon Phelan.

Every cheesemaker we work with in Ireland or abroad has a fascinating story to tell. However, we had space in this book to give a window to only a few. Thank you to all those we have worked with down through the years.

Most of all, thank you to our customers. To those who have supported our shops and market stalls in Galway, Dublin, Ardkeen and Meath. And to the chefs and shopkeepers who have been so loyal.

INTRODUCTION

W e love cheese. Chances are you do too. In this book wed like to share some of what two decades working as cheesemongers has taught us. Weve learned patience, determination and respect for the ingenuity of people. We know what makes a great cheesepeople working with their landscape and their animals to transform the milk of here and now into a chunk of there and then. Great cheese cant be faked. It is the antithesis of a modern food culture in which the relationship between people and the land and its animals has been destroyed.

When we visit cheesemakers, were always struck by the sense of rhythm in their lives. They talk to you as they stir, cut and scoop, explaining things but never breaking the rhythm. Theres a rhythm to the milking, the cleaning, the cheesemaking, the turning and wiping of the cheeses. Although cheesemakers approach their craft in all kinds of different ways, they all share the same steady tempo, set by the daily rhythm of milking and making. The other surprise that you cant help but notice is the hard physical work of cheesemaking. In warm, humid dairies arms are stretched and backs are bent. There is a weight of dripping curd to be stirred and lifted and turned in the moulds. After the cheesemaking, there is the scouring and scrubbing, washing and mopping of every inch. This is not work carried out in flowery shirts and sandalscheesemaking requires white coats, rubber boots and tough aprons. When the washing is done, the cheeses of yesterday, last week and sometimes the previous summer need to be looked after, pressed, turned, wiped, washed, packed. This is work done by men and women who get up early and go to bed tired.

We at Sheridans are proud of our role as cheesemongers. We are the bridge between farmers and cheesemakers on one side, and the Michelin-starred chef or the home cook on the other. The quest for the next delicious thing to put in our mouths has taken us from small Irish farms down tiny country roads, to cheese cellars hidden behind kitchens high in the French Alps. We have listened, smelled, tasted and learned. And it is those experiences we want to share in this book.

I t is mind-boggling to think that everything in a cheese shop like ours comes from the same simple honest starting point: milk.

Cheeses of every shape and size line our shelves like blocks from a childs shape game. Some of them are wrapped, others have light coatings that feel like human skin. Some are marbled and mouldy, others a pure vibrant colourthe whitest of whites or the creamiest of yellows. There are cheeses you could slide into a matchbox and ones that would need several people to heft on to a table. Some of our cheeses look like theyve been hewn out of a landscape, saved from the ashes of a fire or sliced out of the side of a cliff face.

The milk might be yaks or sheeps or goats, buffaloes or cows. But all cheese starts with the same magical white liquid produced by an animal to nourish its offspring. It is the ingenuity of the men and women who make the cheese that gives us the riot of choice. Its food with personality. And yet, cheesemakers arent all a common type. They have no single set of values. Some come to cheesemaking from traditionthey are born into a way of life. Some are misled entrepreneurs. Some are farmers looking for more than they can get in an anonymous market place. Some are people in search of another way to live, looking for a connection with the land and the thrill that comes from creating something beautiful. Some are restless and creative. Some dont even like cheese that much.