Cheese Box: Extra Mature Comté, Sparkenhoe, Tome
from £62.00
We have put together selections of our cheeses that go perfectly together to help create your cheeseboard or fill your fridge with some of our favourite cheeses.
This box contains our Extra Mature Comté,Sparkenhoe Blue, Tome Fort St. Antoine
All our cheese boxes also include a pack of Sheridans Mixed Seed Crackers and a seasonal Kitchen Garden Chutney to match perfectly to your selection.
Comté was the first and only cheese we sold when we started the business over 15 years ago. Over that time, through countless trips to France, we have perfected our selection to find cheeses that we believe best encapsulate Comté.
Our Comté is produced by small fruitières across the Jura and Doubs mountains within the Franche-Comté region of Eastern France. Comté is a hard cows’ milk cheese with a salted rind. Milk used in the production of Comté comes from local Montbelliarde or French Simmental cows.
Our Comté is aged by Marcel Petite, at Fort St Antoine, until it reaches perfect maturity. Marcel Petite engages in a philosophy of affinage lent, or slow maturation, with the cheeses kept at a cool temperature, surrounded by the thick stone walls of the fort. Over time, this setting allows the cheeses to develop well-balanced sweet, nutty flavours and a smooth, creamy texture.
Each December we import an older cheese for Christmas. They are aged for longer at Marcel Petite by virtue of their balance of flavours and good structure. The extra maturity develops the texture and gives it a richness and depth. Intense flavours, roasted and sweet emerge from the ever-present nuttiness that characterise the best Comte cheese.When we select our cheeses, we are looking for length and depth of flavour; sweet caramelised onion, rich nuttiness balanced with subtle meaty and vegetal notes. The texture is creamy, dense and smooth. Some other suppliers prefer Comte that has aged for longer, but in our view, it is at this stage that it tastes at its best.
Comté is a perfect table cheese; served on fresh bread or crackers, accompanied by fruits, sweet pickles and walnuts. It can also be melted for fondue or used for a traditional cheese souffle.
Tome is a semi-soft cows’ milk cheese made by a small dairy cooperative in Évillers in the Doubs region of Franche-Comté. Using unpasteurised milk from local Montbelliarde cows, these un-pressed cheeses are matured for four to five months by Marcel Petite (*link to Marcel Petite page) at Fort St. Antoine. Tome is not salted during affinage so micro-flora can cultivate on the outside of the cheese giving the cheese its characteristic white-grey mould rind, which itself helps develop the cheese’s flavour.
Tome has a cream to light yellow appearance depending on the season. The texture is creamy with a supple and smooth mouth-feel. As Tome ages, stronger earthy mushroom flavours and herbaceous, citrus notes develop in this savoury and well-balanced cheese. Oatcakes compliment the earthy flavours of the Tome when enjoyed as a table cheese. The semi-soft texture softens beautifully when added to a potato bake and its flavours are accentuated when paired with mushroom or sausage dishes.
David and Jo Clarke have been making cheese on their Leicestershire family farm since 2005. They use unpasteurised milk from their own closed pedigree herd for their cheese-making. The cows are fed on the farm’s lush pastures and calving takes place all year round to keep the milk supply as consistent as possible.
Following in his parent’s footsteps, Will Clarke began making a new stilton recipe cheese in 2017 as part of the farm’s continued diversification. Sparkenhoe Blue is made using the same unpasteurised milk from his family’s herd and showcases the benefits of traditional farmhouse blue cheese that uses raw milk. Although made in within the geographical region of Stilton, as a raw milk cheese, Sparkenhoe Blue does not meet the specifications of the Stilton PDO which requires the use of pasteurised cows’ milk. However, the Clarke family found such favourable flavour results in using their own raw milk they decided not to pasteurise and make a very traditional Leicestershire blue cheese.
The cheese has a dense and crumbly texture with a fine blue veining. The cheeses are pierced (a process where oxygen is allowed to enter the cheese and activates the mould in the inoculated milk) later than in many blue cheeses, giving the cheese a distinctive sharpness of blue cheese without overpowering any other flavours. The cheese has a tangy apple acidity and mellow savoury finish.
We visit Sparkenhoe farm every few months to taste recent batches of Sparkenhoe Blue that have been carefully matured for three to four months.
Serve with Bath Oliver biscuits with walnuts and sweet pickles for a classic English table cheese. Or melt onto a beef steak or mushrooms to elevate a dinner.
| Size | Large, Medium |
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When serving cheese for a dinner party or at an occasion, it can be difficult to know how much to buy. As a guide, we suggest approximately 150g of cheese per person if you are serving an after dinner cheeseboard or 250g if your cheese will be your main course along with charcuterie etc.
Typically, a 250g piece of cheese will last at least two weeks kept in the fridge. Larger pieces with last longer.
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