Perry's Cheese Blog

You may or may not know, that all across Europe some cheeses have protected status, such as; Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC), ‘Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)’ or ‘Protected Geographical Indication (PGI)’. These protections have been in place since 1992 and you will have seen their logos on the packaging of certain cheese, wine and other food items. They’re only granted for European products that are produced to exacting quality standards, to protect certain cheeses from being copied or imitated. In total, there are four levels of protection but in this blog, I want to focus on one, AOC. This type...

About a month ago, I received a very special cheese. A three-month-old Quickes Cheese! Why was is it special you may ask, as it's part of an initiative put on by our friends over at the @cheese_academy & @quickescheese to establish the Affineur of the Year! To be honest, it is a competition but it will be quite fascinating the direction that each maturer takes. So what's my maturing plan, I think I'll be pushing some of the temperature and humidity norms of maturing cheddar cheese, just to see what happens. Looking at the cheesy stats, PH, water content and weight, I think this cheese...

My inspiration for writing this was sparked when I read an advert that had been following me around on socials for a few days. The advert in question was called the “Artisan Wheel of Cheese” - four to six cheeses blended with various fruits and other unconventional ingredients. It got me thinking, can that actually be artisan? You see, when it comes to cheese, I hold the term “artisan” very dearly. At Rennet & Rind, all of our cheeses come from what I consider to be artisan producers based on family-run farms or from independent cheesemakers. None of their cheeses...