Breaking The Mould! Bringing Back British Cheeses

Breaking The Mould! Bringing Back British Cheeses

Britain has always had an ideal climate for cheese-making; the high levels of rainfall we so often complain about make the land fertile, and the grass luscious and green – i.e. perfect for raising livestock. Cheese has been made in Britain for over 2000 years, in a variety of settings from farms and homesteads to monasteries. So why do we import up to two-thirds of our cheese?

Our traditional methods of cheese-making originated from the Celts, who would simply allow milk to sour. This led to a huge variety of cheeses which would vary from region to region, due to the different types of bacterial colonies which would form on the milk.

While the Romans introduced rennet to the cheese-making process, leading to the creation of harder cheeses such as Cheddar, traditional British cheeses, and cheeses from the North (which was uncolonised by the Romans), were soft, and the process often produced blue cheeses similar to Wensleydale and Stilton.

There were a number of changes to British politics that affected the cheese industry. One of the earliest and most notable changes to the cheese industry was the English Reformation. When Henry VIII announced England’s split from Rome and the Catholic Church, he closed all the monasteries in the country from 1530.

The monasteries had previously been large producers of British cheeses, and cheese production had been at an all-time high in British history. Following the closure of the monasteries, there was a large drop in cheese production. Farms and smallholdings took over a certain amount of cheese manufacturing, and in the 18th century, the cheese business had started to recover.

However, at the turn of the century, the Industrial Revolution led many people to move to the cities, and cheese demand increased in the cities. Excess milk was transported by rail from local farms to industrialised areas, and factories introduced ‘starter cultures’, which commercialised the cheeses by making them more consistent. However, this also removed much of the variety that was previously found on local farms and homesteads.

Traditional recipes for British cheeses began to die out, and cheese production began to become less profitable for farmers.

However, it was the World Wars that were the final nail in the coffin of British cheese production; over the course of both wars, the number of cheese producers fell from 3,500 to little over 100. There were two major factors in this; the introduction of the Milk Marketing Board (MMB) in 1933, and cheese rationing from 1941-1954.

The Milk Marketing Board was initially set up to encourage British milk production, as the British government realised that imports of milk and cheese were unsustainable in the political situation.

The MMB would offer farmers a fixed price for their liquid milk and ensured regular sales. However, this meant that many farmers ceased production of cheese, as they would only be paid for milk in its liquid form.

When the MMB started to regulate dairy production, it also took on the responsibility of using surplus milk; selling it back to the farmers, which made it uneconomical for them, while the MMB established its own cheese-makers and dairies.

Rationing also had its effect; during the Second World War, the MMB only allowed certain types of cheese that were the cheapest and most efficient to make.

This led to more variants falling out of popularity, or even out of popular knowledge, until cheeses were reduced to regional variations that were often homogenous and had little difference between them. As a result, much of our current most popular cheeses are relatively young, with Cheddar, Wensleydale and Lancashire cheeses all under 200 years old.

During the 1980s, there was a move towards traditional methods of food manufacturing, which encouraged some smaller producers to start making cheese again. However, it wasn’t until the 1990s when the MMB was shut down that British cheese production began to flourish again.

Now, we have over 750 varieties of British cheeses; from Cheshire to Wensleydale to sheep and goats’ cheeses, but factory production is still the predominant method of cheese production; making up to 90% of British cheese sales. Cheddar is also still the most popular cheese and constitutes 55% of cheese sold in the UK, and 41.8% of global cheese sales, though variety in British cheese is still lacking in comparison with producers such as France.

So, what is next for British cheese-making?

We’ve had a good couple of years for cheese; but there is a rocky horizon ahead. In 2017, cheese exports from the UK rose by as much as 57% and in the first quarter of 2019, British cheese exports rose by 22%. However, over the lockdown period, the sales of British cheese has dropped by as much as 30% and a no-deal Brexit could cause tariffs as high as 57% on cheddar to be put in place (tariffs are currently at 0%).

So how do we support our local industries and ensure our food quality remains high? By buying British, but also by buying small. Even through the lockdown, many small producers are still selling online, so instead of doing your shop at Tesco, why not simply try a different website?

Cheese-making is an expensive process, but by buying from small nearby farms, we can ensure more variety of cheese, and healthier local economies.

Article by Caterquip