Huntsman Cheese - or - Why I am an Anglophile

I had been eyeing the cheese in the pricey gourmet section of our local food store for weeks... an audacious, hybrid cheese, an unnatural chimera of the dairy world called "Huntsman Cheese". The romantic old-world name was no enticement to me. The whole idea rubbed me the wrong way, in fact, to mix together two flavors so perfectly complete in their own right. Why the devil layer Double Gloucester (a good, solid, cheddar-like cheese) and Stilton, the buttery English blue? It seemed the equivalent of mixing an ale and a lager, or wrapping a New York Strip in hard Salami (each exquisite in its own way, but not meant at all to mingle on the palate).

It struck me as a possibility on a cheese tray for guests, though, if only for the visual interest... the creamy white-and-turquoise-veined Stilton layered with the deep golden Double Gloucester, and the whole wrapped in more Double Gloucester. It was a shameless tart of a cheese, in that regard. I sprung for a good sized wedge to test it out before feeding it to guests at some undetermined later date (a practice I wish I had learned long ago).

Needless to say, I recognized the need to clear my palate for the exercise, and Stilton being a fairly strong, tangy flavor, my palate would take a fair amount of clearing, if I wanted to be able to really vouch for this cheese. I eventually settled on Foster's Lager for this.

What can I say? I was wrong about Huntsman. The Double Gloucester (mild as it is) doesn't impinge at all on the enjoyment of the Stilton, and in fact seems to wrap the tangy poetry of the Roquefort in a warm, fuzzy yellow blanket of solid English prose. No, I would not say either the Stilton or the Double Gloucester is exactly improved by the presence of the other, but neither do they clash or struggle on the tongue. They complement very well... Huntsman is really yummy, is what I'm sayin'.

In doing a little research on this (and cheese research is becoming a favorite hobby) I came on the Wikipedia entry on Huntsman Cheese, and found the history as rich as the cheese is tangy. We have our share of colorful local traditions in America, but dangerous cheese festivals are a rarity.  The Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake (in which contestants race a wheel of Double Gloucester down hill at speeds that become hazardous to spectators) is the kind of village festival that, of course, should be nurtured here in the States, but they've been doing it in England for two hundred years.

And then, to my everlasting joy, I discovered on the Stilton Cheese entry an ode to Stilton composed by G.K. Chesterton;

Stilton, thou shouldst be living at this hour
And so thou art. Nor losest grace thereby;
England has need of thee, and so have I--
She is a Fen. Far as the eye can scour,
League after grassy league from Lincoln tower
To Stilton in the fields, she is a Fen.
Yet this high cheese, by choice of fenland men,
Like a tall green volcano rose in power.
Plain living and long drinking are no more,
And pure religion reading "Household Words",
And sturdy manhood sitting still all day
Shrink, like this cheese that crumbles to its core;
While my digestion, like the House of Lords,
The heaviest burdens on herself doth lay.

Shoot, that ought to be reason enough to make Stilton a regular part of a healthy diet. Stilton conjures images of green fields and stone fences, rustic public houses and ruddy-cheeked farm girls. Okay, so the England of which I'm so enamored is largely a myth. I know that. The America I love is, too. Both Chesterton's England and my America ought to be loved not only for what they are, with eyes wide open and no illusions, but also for what they may be. We shape our myths, yes, and our myths shape us.

Comments

[The Aesthetic Elevator]

Mmmmmm, cheese!

[freddy]

Ahh, lovely! Beauty is best enjoyed for what it truly is -- and what it is is what it echoes -- the haunting ephemeral shadow of elusive heaven.

"Don't forget the crackers, Grommit!" (my 3-yr. old often quotes)

[marysienka]

There is a whole short story, written in something like dream form (if I remember correctly), in which GKC's Ode lies. I read it when I need cheering up.

[Joy]

Hi, just came across your page. I would like you to know that my father invented this cheese. And my mother and father (collectively) came up with the name for it whilst lying in bed one morning. Enjoy !

[Tim J.]

I have no reason to disbelieve you, Joy. What an intriguing image. Thank you.