Cheese

9 Annotations

First Reading

Pauline  •  Link

Suffolk Cheese
(three Google hits)

vicente  •  Link

Suffolk cheese sounds better than the mousetrap cheese [even the poor mice refused to nibble]that was available during WWII.

Wim van der Meij  •  Link

Warrington adds the following: " This prejudice extended to the days of Pope, whose country mouse entertained his courtly guest with:
'Cheese such as men in Suffolk make,
But wished it Stilton for his sake'
(Imitations of Horace, Bk ii, Sat 6)
See also Shadwell's 'Worls' vol. iv, p.350.

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Cheshire cheese is one of the oldest-recorded named cheeses in British history: it was first mentioned, along with a Shropshire cheese, by Thomas Muffet in Health's Improvement (c. 1580).

There is no earlier specific mention of a cheese from Cheshire, but the importance of Cheshire as a main dairy region of England is made by William of Malmesbury in the Chester part of the Gesta pontificum Anglorum ("History of the bishops of England": c. 1125).

In 1758 the Royal Navy ordered all ships be stocked with Cheshire and Gloucester cheeses
There are three varieties, a white, a 'red' (actually yellow) which is dyed with annatto, and a blue-veined variety (considered undesirable when it occurred accidentally).

For more information see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The Dutch navy, which in the 16th century was becoming a formidable force, issued to each sailor a weekly ration of half a pound of cheese, half a pound of butter, and a five-pound loaf of bread.

Historian Simon Schama calculated that a Dutch ship with a crew of 100 in 1636 would need among their provisions 450 pounds of cheese and one and a quarter tons of butter.

For more information about the economics of cows and dairy in general, I recommend: https://www.atlasobscura.com/arti…...

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

We think of cheese as being standardized today. We go to the supermarket and order Cheddar, Stilton or Edam and know exactly what it'll look and taste like, and what we can do with it.

Not so in Pepys' time, as explained in this article about the rebirth of Cornish Yarg cheese, inspired by The English Huswife written by Gervase Markham, a 17th-century Englishman, which contains — in addition to dozens of cheese recipes — expert advice on banqueting, brewing, baking, distillation, and preparing perfumes, wool, hemp, and flax. All the 17th-century household essentials we have forgotten.

The original cheese recipe they used was vague, but it was never intended to produce consistent results. Each 17th-century household had access to different cows and different milk, and had their own cheesemaking techniques and traditions that would influence how they interpreted The English Huswife recipes.

How a 400-Year-Old Cheese Got Its Groove Back -- The secret ingredient? Stinging nettles:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/arti…

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

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