But ewes’ milk isn’t available all year. so they also make this 250g mould-ripened cheese with organic Jersey cows’ milk. Firmer when young, it develops a squishy (their word, not mine!) texture after about 3½ weeks.

A tangy, chalky centre, with a soft rim like melted butter, encased in a delicate rind with a smidgeon of bite – this is a king among cheeses, an emperor to a camembert citizenry.

Y Fenni is a variety of Welsh cheese, consisting of Cheddar cheese blended with mustard seed and ale. It takes its name from the Welsh language name of Abergavenny, a market town in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. Y Fenni, when coated in red wax, is also known as ‘Red Dragon’, a name derived from the dragon on the Flag of Wales.

Red Leicester, sometimes called Leicester, is an English cheese, made in a similar manner to Cheddar cheese, although it is crumblier; it is coloured orange by adding annatto extract during manufacture. Its mild flavour goes well with most food and wine or beer, and is good for Welsh rarebit

.Red Leicester is a cow’s milk cheese, originally from Leicestershire, England, and is named after the city of Leicester. It has a firm texture, which makes it suitable for grating, and it is a good choice for use in cheese on toast or with a baked potato.

The taste compliments fruit, pasta, and crackers and is often used in tarts or quiches. At its best, it has a slightly nutty taste. Even though it is called Red Leicester, there is no white or purple or yellow Leicester — all Leicester is red. The rind is reddish-orange with a powdery mould on it.

Although Red Leicester can be young or “old”, aged anywhere from four to nine months, the young Leicesters at the start of that range will be very mild: they often require at least six months to develop a tang. Farmhouse versions are also available. Farmhouse makers will mature it in cloth, the old way, to allow better flavour development.Versions of Red Leicester are also made in America.

Red Windsor is a pale cream, English cheddar cheese, made using pasteurized cow’s milk marbled with a wine, often a Bordeaux wine or a blend of port wine and brandy.

Sage Derby is a mild, mottled green, semi-hard cheese with a sage flavour. The colour is from sage and sometimes other colouring added to the curds, producing a marbling effect and the subtle herb flavour. The colour is from mixing sage leaves in the curd before it is pressed or by the addition of “green curd” from green corn or spinach juice. In the latter case, the flavour has to be created with colourless sage extract. The sage gives the cheese an almost minty flavour. Parsley, spinach and marigold leaves, bruised and steeped before use, can also be included instead of the sage leaves.

The first production began in the seventeenth century in England. Sage Derby was only made for festive occasions such as harvest and Christmas, but it is now available all year.

Gloucester is a traditional, unpasteurised, semi-hard cheese which has been made in Gloucestershire, England, since the 16th century, at one time made only with the milk of the now nearly-extinct Gloucester cow.There are two types of Gloucester cheese: Single and Double.

The main difference is that Single Gloucester is made with skimmed milk combined with a small amount of whole milk. Double Gloucester is made from only whole milk.Both types have a natural rind and a hard texture, but Single Gloucester is more crumbly, lighter in texture and lower in fat.

Double Gloucester is allowed to age for longer periods than Single, and it has a stronger and more savoury flavour. It is also slightly firmer. Both types are produced in round shapes, but Double Gloucester rounds are larger. Traditionally whereas the Double Gloucester was a prized cheese comparable in quality to the best Cheddar or Cheshire, and was exported out of the County, Single Gloucester tended to be consumed within the County.

Huntsman cheese is made with alternating layers of Double Gloucester and Stilton.

Stinking Bishop is a soft washed-rind cheese produced since 1972 by Charles Martell and Son at Laurel Farm, Dymock, Gloucestershire in the South West of England. It is made from the milk of Gloucester cattle, which in 1972 consisted of only 68 Gloucester breed heifers. The breed has been revived to make production of the cheese possible, though it is often combined and pasteurised with the milk of Friesian cattle from a nearby county.

The fat content is 48%.The colour ranges from white/yellow to beige, with an orange to grey rind. It is moulded into wheels 2 kg (4.4 lb) in weight, 20 cm (8 inch) in diameter, and 4 cm (1.5 inch) deep. Though only about 20 tonnes are produced each year,Stinking Bishop’s notorious odour, which is said to be similar to unwashed socks and wet towels, keeps it popular in the UK and abroad.

The distinctive odour comes from the process with which the cheese is washed during its ripening; it is immersed in perry made from the local Stinking Bishop pear (from which the cheese gets its name) every four weeks while it matures. The process is said to have links with that used by local Cistercian monks who have long been associated with the production of washed rind cheeses.

As with the French cheese Epoisses de Bourgogne, the odour of Stinking Bishop is often found offensive.To increase the moisture content and to encourage bacterial activity, salt is not added until the cheese is removed from its mould. Air bubbles form in the mould, giving the finished cheese an Emmental-like appearance when sliced.

The cheese was brought to international attention by a brief but important role in the Oscar-winning 2005 animated film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, in which it was used to revive Wallace from the dead. Demand for the cheese subsequently rose by 500%.Most recently Stinking Bishop cheese appeared in Big Brother 2009 UK, when housemate David Ramsden was tasked with brushing his teeth for 60 seconds using the cheese as toothpaste. (Big Brother, Channel 4, August 24 2009)

Swaledale is a full fat hard cheese produced in the town of Richmond in Swaledale, North Yorkshire, England. The cheese is produced from cows milk, Swaledale sheep’s milk and goats milk.

The cheeses are round in shape with an average weight for the cheese wheel of 2.25 kilograms (5 lb) and are made with unpasteurized milk. The animals whose milk is used to make Swaledale cheese, all graze on land in Swaledale which makes their milk characteristic of the area as a particular mixture of herbs and grasses grow there due to its soil and climate and this give the cheese distinctive properties. The cheese has a moist medium firm texture and its flavour is described as having “the freshness of the misty Dales and wild bracken, with the sweet caramel undertone of ewes’ milk”.

Swaledale cheese is handmade to a recipe from Swaledale, the knowledge of which is limited to a few people. Milk from farms in Swaledale is collected and, in the first stage of the cheesemaking process, heated to 28 °C with microbiological culture. After being left for two hours rennet is added to the milk. The mixture is then left to curdle for an hour after which time the resulting curd is heated to 28 °C, cut up and stirred. It is then cut up again, drained and the resulting cubes stacked up, before the blocks are broken up and then put into moulds lined with muslin. The moulds are then lightly pressed during storage at 28 °C for 18 hours, and are turned once after four hours. Once the cheese has finished being pressed it is removed from the moulds and is soaked in a solution of 85% brine for 24 hours.

After being made Swaledale cheese is stored in humid cellars. While the cheese is maturing, if it is not covered in natural wax, a grey-blue mould grows on its rind. The cheese takes between three to four weeks to mature.

Legends about the Yorkshire Dales, the area that includes Swaledale, say the origin of cheese making lie with Cistercian monks from Normandy who settled in the area in the 11th century. Their techniques were passed on to local farmers in Swaledale who continued to produce cheese, although the monks left during the dissolution of the monasteries. In 18th century cheese was produced at farmhouses within Swaledale and sold fresh with a white colour or ripe once they had developed a blue colouration. These cheese’s high moisture content and open texture allowed them to blue easily when they were matured in damp conditions. Cheese making started to decline in Swaledale at the start of the 20th century and by 1980 only one farm in Swaledale, Harkerside above Reeth, was still making cheese. In the early 1980s this cheese stopped being produced as well, until Mrs. Longstaff gave the original recipe for Swaledale Cheese to David and Mandy Reeds who founded the Swaledale Cheese company in February 1987 to produce the cheese.

Tintern is a blended mature creamy Cheddar cheese flavoured with fresh chives and shallots, made by Abergavenny Fine Foods. Typically produced in wheels of 2.25kg, it is sold in a distinctive lime green wax covering.

It takes its name from the village of Tintern on the River Wye, in Monmouthshire, Wales. The monks of Tintern Abbey are said to have farmed shallots in the abbey gardens in the grounds.Welsh cheeses

Waterloo is a semi-soft, off-white British cheese originating from the Duke of Wellington’s estate. It is produced by Village Maid Cheese in Riseley, Berkshire.