|  |  | The Big Cheese |
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This weeks featureSelling 'Italian-style' cheese to the Italians might appear as problematic as shipping coals to Newcastle used to be...
...but deep in the heart of Sussex, an English farm has been doing just that for the past 17 years. |
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Twineham Grange Farm, near Haywards Heath, is the sole producer in the UK of this 'Italian-style' cheese, and its premium brand has won countless awards over the years, including a silver at the 2000 World Cheese Awards and the prize for 'Best Modern Cheese' and the 'Gold Standard' Award at The British Cheese Awards.
The Twineham Grange cheese - which is produced using only locally sourced ingredients - has proved equally popular in Italy, where it is marketed as a vegetarian cheese. The Italian-owned company cannot, however, call its cheese 'Parmesan' as that particular brand name is now protected in law as a trademark. |
| Twineham Grange
Twineham Grange is part of the family-owned Stabiumi company, which bought the farm in 1975, initially as a holiday home, converting it into a cheese-making concern in 1985. Set in 400 acres, the farm produces and markets a range of other Italian cheeses, as well as its flagship premium brand. |
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It takes up to 18 months to produce the parmesan-style cheese, and the process begins with the delivery of milk from selected farms in the Sussex Weald. On arrival at the creamery the milk is left to stand while the cream rises. The cream is then siphoned off and used to make butter, which is sold in bulk to the food trade, while the remaining milk is then heat-treated.
Vegetable rennet (not the animal variety - Twineham Grange cheese is Vegetarian Society approved) is added, but the real art of cheese making lies in the cooking of the resulting mixture. It is at this stage that human instinct and experience determine if the cheese is ready for the next process - when it is placed in moulds and immersed for 21 days in a large brine bath similar in size to an Olympic swimming pool. The responsibility for that decision falls on John Barba, who is Twineham's sole designated cheese maker.
John started out as a general hand before learning the craft from his predecessor and he has been keeping a watchful eye on cheese production at the farm for the past 14 years. His brother, Mario, looks after the sales aspect of the company. | A mix of English and Italian
At present the farm has only limited storage facilities so, for the later stages of production, most of the cheeses are shipped to Italy, where they are matured by the parent company. However, it has already secured planning permission for another storage centre, which would enable Twineham to keep more of this aspect of its cheese production in house. |
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It's this mixture of Italian techniques and top quality English ingredients that, Mario Barba believes, makes Twineham Grange's premium cheese unique. 'We're proud to be keeping alive the traditional art of Italian cheese-making here, in the heart of the English countryside,' he says.
Twineham has recently launched a vegetarian pesto sauce, made by another company but using Twineham's cheese. Twineham Grange premium cheese is available from branches of Sainsbury's, or visit www.tgfonline.com |
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