Our deli counter has started a cheese club. To join all you have to do is fill in the form below, then collect your membership card from the shop when it is printed. Membership of the cheese club will entitle you to a 10% discount off any of our featured cheeses.
This month our feature cheeses have a distinct Halloween theme. The colour of the moment is of course, orange, hence Thomas Hoe Red Leicester.
The other choices however are vaguely sinister, Black Crowdie, Charcoal Cheddar and Blue Murder. As usual cheese club members will be entitled to a 10% discount.
Black Crowdie
Traditionally the Highlands was cattle country. Every small farm or croft had a house cow with which to supplement the tedious diet of mutton, neeps, tatties and road kill. Any spare milk was left by the range to stay warm after the cream had been ladled from the top to churn into butter. The natural cultures in the liquid would slowly eat the lactose and multiply throughout, souring it by releasing lactic acid. Eventually the milk would set and form a curd, a bit like yogurt. Then the curd would be scrambled like eggs and hung up in a pillow case or a muslin to drain the whey. Add some salt and you have the simplest preserved milk in the world – Crowdie. Black Crowdie is a creamy soft cheese hand rolled in Scottish pinhead oatmeal and enhanced with spicy cracked black peppercorns.
Thomas Hoe Red Leicester
Made using a traditional recipe, Thomas Hoe is buttered, cloth-bound and matured for six months to produce a flaky, open texture cheese with a slightly sweet, caramelised flavour and rich golden orange colour. It is the only pasteurised Red Leicester produced in the county of Leicestershire and is a firm favourite at Long Clawson Dairy.
Charcoal Cheddar
A creamy mature cheddar with added charcoal giving it a black colour. It has a smooth texture despite the charcoal and is something different to the norm for your cheeseboard.
Blue Murder
Like Black Crowdie Blue Murder is made by the Stone family on Blarliath Farm at Tain, Inverness. Blue Murder has a steely, yet sweet flavour and is milder than most blue cheeses with a very creamy texture. It is ivory coloured, with purple-blue streaks.