Teviotdale Cheese

Teviotdale is a Brie-style, cylinder-shaped cheese made from raw milk from Jersey cows. It has a tangy, salty taste.

Teviotdale Cheese is a PGI protected name (registered 21 January 1998.) The registration for the cheese put forth the following unique qualities of it:

“The cheese is made in the area of Teviotdale. The climate and soil of the area enables certain types of grasses and herbs to flourish. The flavour the pastures impart to the milk of the Jersey breed of cow along with the microbial flora that has colonised the dairy and the unvarying cheesemaking process gives the cheese its unique characteristics. ^[1]National application No: 01313 – Teviotdale Cheese. Accessed May 2022 at https://web.archive.org/web/20140227074354/http://archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/food/industry/regional/foodname/products/registered/teviot.htm

The last time the cheese was produced is in 1998.

Production

The cheese is made from raw milk from cows. Penicillin mould and bacterial starters are added to the milk. The milk is warmed to and held at 25°C (77 F) for 90 minutes. Rennet is added to the milk, which is then let stand an hour while it curdles. The curd is cut and let stand 20 minutes. The curd is then put into a special mould that makes four cheeses at once. This is let stand 1 hour, then turned, let stand overnight, and then turned again the next day. At this point, a 680 g (1.5 lb) weight is placed on the cheeses for 24 hours while they are held at 25°C (77 F). They are turned once during this.

The cheeses are then brined for 6 hours, then sprayed with penicillin mould, and allowed to mature 14 to 15 days being turned daily.

Nutrition

48% fat.

History

Teviotdale Cheese was created in 1983 by John Curtis (born c. 1939) and his wife Christian at Bonchester Bridge in Roxburghshire in the south of Scotland.
The Curtises met while students at Wye College of Agriculture in Kent. At one point before that, John had been in the Merchant Navy.  ^[2]”The cheese… has been made by traditional methods on the same farm since 1983.” — National application No: 01313 – Teviotdale Cheese. Accessed May 2022 at https://web.archive.org/web/20140227074354/http://archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/food/industry/regional/foodname/products/registered/teviot.htm

They married in 1963, and moved to Bonchester, Scotland, in 1978 onto a farm of 40 acres, 10 of that woodland.

Their first cheese was the cheese called “Bonchester Cheese“.

They called their business “Easter Weens Enterprises”. A cheesemaker Marjory Young worked for them.

John ran unsuccessfully for the anti-Europe “British Referendum Party” in Roxburgh and Berwickshire in the May 1997 General Election.

The couple ceased production of cheeses in September 1998, selling off the herd and letting go five full-time and three part-time workers.

John said, “We find the present regulatory regime intolerable. The benefits are obscure but the suppression of enterprise and loss of freedom are obvious. We condemn parliament for its policy of appeasement to agri-business and second-rate scientists, and for lacking commonsense and resolution when confronted by food scares. We deplore the destruction of the rural economy.”

The cheese may not have had wide or reliable distribution. An Irish writer in 1988 noted that it was promised on the menu of the restaurant in the “One Devonshire Gardens” hotel, but failed to actually make an appearance:

“We were both looking forward to the selection of fine cheeses which had read very well on the menu — cindered goats, rolled oatmeal and Teviotdale. In point of fact we ended up with a rather indifferent pont l’eveque since the others were unavailable.” — Keane, Terry. Flying with Eugene. Dublin, Ireland: The Sunday Independent. 26 June 1988. Page 14, col. 6.

Sources

The Foodie’s Map of Britain. London: The Independent. 1 April 2010.

Teviotdale Cheese: Protected food name with Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). Accessed May 2022 at https://www.gov.uk/protected-food-drink-names/teviotdale-cheese