Wensleydale cheese is a cheese produced in Wensleydale, Yorkshire. There are two types. White Wensleydale is usually shaped into a flat disc that is highly pressed, and has a honey flavour to it. Blue Wensleydale has blue veins and comes in large drums. Both are suitable for vegetarians. Wensleydale is a dale, or valley, of the east side of the Pennines in the North Riding of Yorkshire, in England. ... Yorkshire as a traditional county. ... Pasteurization is the process of heating food for the purpose of killing harmful organisms such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa, molds, and yeasts. ... Cheese is a solid food made from the curdled milk of various animals—most commonly cows but sometimes goats, sheep, reindeer, and water buffalo. ... Wensleydale is a dale, or valley, of the east side of the Pennines in the North Riding of Yorkshire, in England. ... Yorkshire as a traditional county. ... Blue cheese is a generic type of cheese in which veins of Penicillium mold run through the crumbly texture. ... For animals adapted to eat primarily plants, sometimes referred to as vegetarian animals, see Herbivore. ...

Flavour and texture

The Wensleydale pastures give the cheese the unique flavour for which it is renowned. Good Wensleydale has a supple, crumbly, moist texture and resembles a young Caerphilly. The flavour suggests wild honey balanced with a fresh acidity. See also: List of cheeses, List of British cheeses Categories: Food and drink stubs | British cheeses ...

History

Wensleydale cheese was first made by French Cistercian monks from the Roquefort region settled in Wensleydale, Yorkshire. They built a monastery at Fors, but some years later the monks moved to Jervaulx in Lower Wensleydale. They brought with them a recipe for making cheese from ewes' milk. During the 1300s cows' milk began to be used instead of ewes' and the character of the cheese began to change. A little ewes' milk was still mixed in since it gave a more open texture and allowed the development of the blue mould. At that time Wensleydale was almost always blue with the white 'un-blue' variety almost unknown. Nowadays, the opposite is true, with blue Wensleydale rarely seen. When the monastery was dissolved in 1540 the local farmers continued making the cheese right up until the Second World War, during which most milk in the country was used for the making of 'Government Cheddar'. Even after rationing ceased in 1954, cheese making did not return to pre-war levels. Cistercians (OCist) (Latin Cistercenses), otherwise Gimey or White Monks (from the colour of the habit, over which is worn a black Catholic order of monks. ... Roquefort can have one of several meanings: Roquefort cheese Roquefort, the mouse in Disneys The Aristocats Roquefort is the name or part of the name of several communes in France: Roquefort, in the Gers département Roquefort, in the Landes département Roquefort, in the Lot-et-Garonne département Roquefort-de... Wensleydale is a dale, or valley, of the east side of the Pennines in the North Riding of Yorkshire, in England. ... Yorkshire as a traditional county. ... Binomial name Ovis aries Linnaeus, 1758 A sheep is any of several woolly ruminant quadrupeds, but most commonly the Domestic Sheep (Ovis aries), which probably descends from the wild moufflon of south-central and south-west Asia. ... Centuries: 13th century - 14th century - 15th century Decades: 1250s 1260s 1270s 1280s 1290s - 1300s - 1310s 1320s 1330s 1340s 1350s Years: 1300 1301 1302 1303 1304 1305 1306 1307 1308 1309 Events and Trends MARF Categories: 1300s ... Events January 6 - King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves, his fourth Queen consort. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... 1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Dairy Crest and the Management Buy Out

In May 1992 Dairy Crest, a subsidiary of the Milk Marketing Board, closed the Hawes creamery, the only one in the dale, and transferred production of Wensleydale cheese to Lancashire! Hawes is a small market town in the Yorkshire Dales. ... Lancashire (archaically, the County of Lancaster) is a county palatine of England, lying on the Irish Sea. ...

The ex-managers took up the fight and, against the odds, eventually persuaded the owners to sell the creamery to them. A management buy-out was agreed in November 1992. November is the eleventh month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with the length of 30 days. ... 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Wallace and Gromit

In the 1990s, sales had fallen so low that production was at risk of being suspended. Fortunately, inspiration struck when the popular Wallace and Gromit short, A Close Shave, had Wallace mention Wensleydale as being a particularly favourite cheese. The company contacted Aardman Animations about a license for a special brand of "Wallace and Gromit Wensleydale" cheese, which proved to be an enormous success. // Events and trends The 1990s are generally classified as having moved slightly away from the more conservative 1980s, but keeping the same mind-set. ... Wallace and Gromit are the main characters in a series of three British animated films by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. ... A Close Shave is a 1995 animated film directed by Nick Park at Aardman Animations in Bristol, featuring his characters Wallace and Gromit. ... Aardman Animations is a British stop motion animation studio founded by Peter Lord and David Sproxton in 1972. ...

Other pop culture references

The owner of Monty Python's Cheese Shop is called Henry Wensleydale (played by Michael Palin), who ironically has no Wensleydale cheese - or any other varieties - for sale. Popular culture, or pop culture, is the vernacular (peoples) culture that prevails in a modern society. ... Monty Pythons Flying Circus (aka Flying Circus or MPFC, known during the fourth season as Monty Python) was the popular BBC sketch comedy show from Monty Python. ... The Cheese Shop sketch is a famous sketch from Monty Pythons Flying Circus. ... Michael Edward Palin (born May 5, 1943 in Sheffield, Yorkshire) is a British comedian and television presenter. ... // Defining irony Irony is a form of speech in which the real meaning is concealed or contradicted by the words used. ...

See also

• List of cheeses
• List of British cheeses

Cheese by place of origin: // Africa Egypt Sardo cheese Testouri cheese South Africa Bokmakiri cheese Kwaito cheese Wookie cheese Asia Middle East Ackawi cheese Basket cheese Labneh Jibneh Arabieh cheese Kenafa cheese Naboulsi cheese India Paneer Europe Austria Affineur Bergkäse Brimsen Dachsteiner Tyrolean grey cheese Luneberg Belgium Beauvoorde cheese... Blue Stilton cheese. ...

External links

• Wensleydale Dairy