Good Afternoon Cheesy1’s,

Welcome to 2017! I have lots of exciting events planned for the year and cannot wait for the year to progress so I can share them all with you. I hope you all had a restful festive season and enjoyed the wonderful delights of cheese over Christmas. I know I did and thats why I’m amending this particular post. During the 1/3 off promotion at Waitrose I had two Customers allow me to taste this cheese with them and wow! It was quite simply stunning. That one mouthful was packed full of nutty & buttery deliciousness that had me salivating for more. So much so that I ended up buying a complete one to take home that evening. The apology comes in because I gave this cheese an injustice last time I wrote about it, but having tried that taster I was completely won over. So A brief history on Petit Basque is that it’s a ewes milk cheese from the Pyrenees created by the Lactalis Mclelland company. Who are they? Well you have probably heard of them if not bought something from Seriously Strong, Rachel’s Organic, Ski or Capricorn who are all under the Lactalis Mclelland umbrella. When the company wanted to create a new traditional style sheep’s cheese in 1997 they took inspiration from the French & Spanish with the nuttiness flavours of a French cheese and the appearance cues of a very well known Spanish cheese Manchego. So this is what I meant by Fool’s gold it is a premium cheese but hidden beneath is a very different story of how it started. The cheese is matured for just 70 days and develops a light, nutty flavour with a golden colouration, the contributing factor for the colour is the fact it is 45% fat; high but very indulgent. It is a premium cheese that I do actually find the taste pleasant without the farmyard/ bitterness that is sometimes found with sheep’s milk cheeses. It was absolutely delicious and is always A staple on the Waitrose cheese counters for many years. The cheese’s popularity is always increasing with a good following within the connoisseur cheese eaters, with the added benefit of being a better alternative to cow’s milk this is all the more reason to try it.

This cheese would simply get lost in any cooking so I would suggest that it is used as part of a cheese board for the best serving suggestion. I actually grated it on pasta dishes and was simply sublime. The next time you’re out pop along to your local Waitrose or Cheesemonger to try a piece of Petit Basque.

The Cheesy1