Wensleydale is a style of
cheese originally produced in
Wensleydale
Wensleydale is the dale or upper valley of the River Ure on the east side of the Pennines, one of the Yorkshire Dales in North Yorkshire, England.
It is one of only a few Yorkshire Dales not currently named after its principal river, but th ...
,
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...
, England, but now mostly made in large commercial
creameries throughout the United Kingdom. The term "
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
Wensleydale" can only be used for cheese that is made in Wensleydale.
Flavour and texture
Wensleydale is a medium cheese that is supple and crumbly. It has a slight
honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...
aroma.
Common flavour combinations
The flavour of Wensleydale is suited to
combination
In mathematics, a combination is a selection of items from a set that has distinct members, such that the order of selection does not matter (unlike permutations). For example, given three fruits, say an apple, an orange and a pear, there are th ...
with sweeter produce, such as
fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...
like sweet
apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
s. A popular combination available in many restaurants and delicatessens is
cranberry
Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus ''Oxycoccus'' of the genus '' Vaccinium''. In Britain, cranberry may refer to the native species '' Vaccinium oxycoccos'', while in North America, cranberry ...
Wensleydale, which contains cranberries in the cheese.
In
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
and
North East England it is often eaten with fruit cake or
Christmas cake
Christmas cake is a type of cake, often fruitcake, served at Christmas time in many countries.
British variations
Christmas cake is an English tradition that began as plum porridge. A traditional English Christmas cake is made with moist Zant ...
.
History
Wensleydale cheese was first made by
French Cistercian monks from the
Roquefort
Roquefort is a sheep milk cheese from Southern France, and is one of the world's best known blue cheeses. Though similar cheeses are produced elsewhere, EU law dictates that only those cheeses aged in the natural Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur ...
region, who had settled in Wensleydale. 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
sheep's milk. During the 14th century cows' milk began to be used instead, 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 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
until the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, during which most milk in the country was used for the making of "Government
Cheddar
Cheddar most often refers to either:
*Cheddar cheese
*Cheddar, Somerset, the village after which Cheddar cheese is named
Cheddar may also refer to:
Places
* Cheddar, Ontario, Canada
* Cheddar Yeo, a river which flows through Cheddar Gorge and t ...
". Even after rationing ceased in 1954, cheese making did not return to pre-war levels.
The first creamery to produce Wensleydale commercially was established in 1897 in the town of
Hawes. Wensleydale Dairy Products, who bought the
Wensleydale Creamery in 1992, sought to protect the name ''Yorkshire Wensleydale'' under an EU regulation;
PGI status was awarded in 2013.
References in culture
In his essay "In Defence of English Cooking",
George Orwell rates Wensleydale as second only to
Stilton
Stilton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England, about north of Huntingdon in Huntingdonshire, which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as a historic county of England.
History
There is evidence of Neo ...
among British cheese varieties.
In the popular 1962 novel ''
Hornblower and the Hotspur'' (set in 1803) the title character makes "an epoch-making discovery, that Wensleydale cheese and port were a pair of heavenly twins".
Author
James Herriot
James Alfred Wight (3 October 1916 – 23 February 1995), better known by his pen name James Herriot, was a British veterinary surgeon and author.
Born in Sunderland, Wight graduated from Glasgow Veterinary College in 1939, returning to Eng ...
makes frequent reference to Wensleydale cheese in his books including ''
All Creatures Great and Small''.
Wensleydale was one of the cheeses named by
John Cleese in the
Monty Python sketch "
The Cheese Shop", which originally appeared in a 1972 episode of ''
Monty Python's Flying Circus''. In addition, the shop owner, played by
Michael Palin
Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, television presenter, and public speaker. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. Since 1980, he has made a number of travel documentaries.
Palin w ...
, was named 'Henry Wensleydale', which caused some confusion between the two when the cheese was mentioned.
In the 1990s, sales of Wensleydale cheese from the
Wensleydale Creamery had fallen so low that production in Wensleydale itself was at risk of being suspended. Thanks to the popular
Wallace and Gromit
''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British stop-motion comedy franchise created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and one feature-length film, and has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series ce ...
clay-animated shorts ''
A Grand Day Out'', ''
The Wrong Trousers
''The Wrong Trousers'' is a 1993 British stop-motion animated short film co-written and directed by Nick Park, featuring his characters Wallace and Gromit, and was produced by Aardman Animations in association with Wallace and Gromit Ltd., BBC ...
'', and ''
A Close Shave
''Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave'' is a 1995 British stop-motion animated short film co-written and directed by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations with Wallace and Gromit Ltd., BBC Bristol and BBC Children's International. It is ...
'', the company survived. The main character of the series, Wallace, a cheese
connoisseur
A connoisseur (French traditional, pre-1835, spelling of , from Middle-French , then meaning 'to be acquainted with' or 'to know somebody/something') is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts; who is a keen appreciator o ...
, and inventor, mentions Wensleydale as a particularly favourite cheese. Animator and creator
Nick Park
Nicholas Wulstan Park (born 6 December 1958) is a British animator who created ''Wallace and Gromit'', ''Creature Comforts'', ''Chicken Run'', ''Shaun the Sheep'', and '' Early Man''. Park has been nominated for an Academy Award a total of ...
chose it solely because it had a good name that would be interesting to animate the lip sync to rather than due to its origins in
northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...
where the shorts were set. He was also unaware of the financial difficulties that the company was experiencing. The company contacted
Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations Limited (also known as Aardman Studios, simply Aardman or Aardman Animation and stylised as AARDMAN as of 2022) is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England. It is known for films made using stop-motion and clay ani ...
about a license for a special brand of Wensleydale cheese called, "Wallace and Gromit Wensleydale", which proved to be an enormous success.
When the 2005 full-length Wallace and Gromit film, ''
The Curse of the Were-Rabbit'', was released, sales of Wensleydale cheeses increased by 23%.
See also
*
List of cheeses
This is a list of cheeses by place of origin. Cheese is a milk-based food that is produced in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms. Hundreds of types of cheese from various countries are produced. Their styles, textures and flavors dep ...
*
List of British cheeses
*
Wallace and Gromit
''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British stop-motion comedy franchise created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and one feature-length film, and has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series ce ...
References
External links
Wensleydale Creamery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wensleydale Cheese
English cheeses
Yorkshire cuisine
Cow's-milk cheeses
Sheep's-milk cheeses
Blue cheeses
Wensleydale
Mixed-milk cheeses
British products with protected designation of origin
Cheeses with designation of origin protected in the European Union