Perry's Cheese Blog

So it has happened. We say goodbye to one of our favourite cheesemakers, Innes. I can't help but feel emotional about this. It's not only our British cheese heritage that's gone, but it's also a little of mine. I've been trying their cheeses every couple of weeks for the last, well, for so long I can't remember. Innes's cheese taught me invaluable things as a cheesemonger. It's hard to explain how, but I shall try, and I am sure many fellow cheesemongers will be able to relate too. As mongers, when we taste cheese, we want to know everything about...

Over the years, I have always been mesmerised by the rind of cheeses. Thousands of microscopic organisms, all unknowingly working to one objective which is to ‘protect the paste’. When I first learnt about the flora of rinds, I couldn’t help but imagine these tiny protectors waging an ever-evolving war against good and bad bacteria. Now, my view is a little different. Balance. Ying and Yang. The dance of these communities working together to survive their own surface environmental changes. You can learn a lot about watching, smelling and tasting rinds. For me, it’s a perfect way to understand where...