Well here it is again, my love affair with cheese, and another one of my favourites.
Butlers Cheeses.
I have been buying the cheese for some while and I love the quality.
They are fresh, creamy, tasty and never have let my cheeseboard down.
Blue cheese was for me a solo journey, Chris ate everything bar liver and blue cheese and veal. He eats so many strong flavoured and varied foods, that when it came to blue cheese I never understood it.
I was always trying to tempt him and after 17 years finally made a Beef Wellington with Stilton and he was converted. I regret this conversion as my cheese stash now gets sabotaged.
Therein lies a cautionary tale if you have a favourite food and nobody else likes it, sometimes that's best!!
Our Butlers Cheese Fest on Saturday!
Sorry back to Butlers, Blacksticks Blue is the cheese I marvel at most, the orange blue cheese as Paige calls it, she is another blue fan since last Christmas and Blacksticks Blue was her first journey into mouldy cheese as she termed it then.
It has such a depth to the flavour its strong without bitterness, great with biscuits, superb as part of a ploughman's or a ham salad. Just great to nibble on as you pop to the fridge for something else.
The newest to me Butlers Cheese I have a liking for is the Creamy Lancashire.
Being part of my sandwiches since tiny, family born in Lancashire so its a requirement.
I hadn't actually tried Butlers Creamy, its so light, as described, creamy and mellow.
perfect with apple.
The Ravens Oak Goat is perfect on a biscuit, so nice that to eat as it is I wouldn't cook it in a filo case or in a quiche as I like to with some goat's cheese. Its too fresh and flavoursome.
I could not taste the almond taste mentioned in Butlers description, I was glad of this as not a favourite flavour for me. I did pick up the the wine taste.
Butlers have produced some lovely Christmas gifts this year, I think my favourite if I could have one is the Slate gift pack.
Blacksticks Blue is new cheese on the block this Christmas
This Christmas, lovers of the blue upstart from Lancashire - Blacksticks Blue - will be delighted as for the first time, the amber-hued blue cheese is available in a mini truckle. Making a stunning centre piece for any cheese board, this relative new comer is threatening to take the crown of traditional King of the Christmas blues - our old favourite Stilton.
Blacksticks Blue was created just in 2003, at the Butlers’ family dairy at Inglewhite, Lancashire. For some time, this modern blue - tangy, soft and subtly veined - was a closely guarded secret in the north. But thanks to the support of supermarkets - especially M&S, a raft of awards and local chefs such as Simon Rimmer and Nigel Haworth - who’ve sung the praises of this plucky outsider - Blacksticks Blue is now available all over the UK.
All of the cheeses in the Blacksticks range* are hand-crafted in small batches. Curds are hand cut, stirred and then gently poured into individual moulds before resting, allowing the cheeses adequate time to drain naturally, resulting in the characteristic soft texture. Each cheese is then pierced to develop the veins and then carefully hand wrapped prior to being nurtured and turned for five to eight weeks whilst it matures to its optimum taste and texture.
Alongside the Blacksticks Blue truckle will be two gift selections - featuring other stars from the Butlers’ formidable stable. Presented on a slab of slate is Blacksticks Blue, Butlers Creamy Lancashire, Ravens Oak Goat and Rothbury Red Leicester. Or on an wooden cheese board - Blacksticks Blue, Rothbury Red and Creamy Lancashire.
Creamy Lancashire
This mild Lancashire cheese is very versatile and popular locally as an everyday cheese. It is hand made at the Inglewhite Dairy to a time honoured Butler’s family recipe from 1932. Each cheese is hand made from cows milk - from cows which live no more than 14 miles away from the Inglewhite Dairy. Cheeses are individually cloth bound and matured for three months to achieve the characteristic open, firm and creamy texture. Creamy Lancashire cheese makes fantastic cheese on toast, or maybe make a special Christmas breakfast of Welsh rarebit as a treat!
Rothbury Red
An outstanding flavour of delicate butterscotch followed by a subtle nutty aftertaste defines this firm, traditional rinded cheese. Each cheese is hand wrapped in muslin and slowly matured in the barn at Throstle Nest Farm, using the unique natural flora which lives there, ensuring steady development of the natural rind and specific flavour profile. Try crumbled over large open field mushrooms, with breadcrumbs and garden herbs, popped under a grill for a few minutes - ideal starter or light lunch on Boxing Day?
Ravens Oak
A smooth and soft goats cheese, made in small rounds like a Camembert. Handmade in small batches at Butler’s tiny Ravens Oak Dairy in Cheshire, this distinctive cheese offers a subtle flavour of almonds and white wine, developing a greater depth as the cheese naturally matures. This goat’s cheese is delightful with fresh fruit, so consider it for a cheese board but get creative and serve with plums, quince jelly or even sweet satsumas.
The Butlers family has been has been making cheese in Lancashire for three generations now. They are obsessive about their cheeses, paying attention to every small detail, from the best ingredients, to the ideal maturation time and the best possible presentation for each cheese. With two rural dairies - Ravens Oak and Inglewhite under their stewardship, they create a raft of artisan cheeses which scoop awards year after year due to their quality.
Slate gift pack £25
Oak cheese board gift pack £7
For further stockists details please visit http://www.butlerscheeses.co.uk/
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Butlers Regional Cheese Selection on Wooden Cheese Board
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