Stinking Bishop is officially Britain’s smelliest cheese

Stinking Bishop (one of our favourites), which first shot to fame after being featured in the 2005 movie ‘Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit’, has been voted the most pungent cheese in the country by a panel of expert judges at The Royal Bath and West Show.

Cheese is one of the few foods where the odour is considered to increase quality, and this cheese really demonstrates that fact. The judges apparently described the cheese as smelling like rugby club changing rooms. We have occasionally put the smell down as ‘rotting feet’, but honestly it is a great tasting cheese.

Stinking Bishop, made by Charles Martell of Martell and Son in Gloucestershire, is a soft washed-rind cheese produced since 1972. Its distinctive odour comes from the process by which the cheese is washed during its ripening.  Every four weeks, while it matures, its immersed in perry made from the local Stinking Bishop Pear.

Although this cheese is a little pricey, it is worth it and we think in this case – the smellier the better!

Cheese Rolling anyone??

Gloucestershire held its annual cheese rolling competition in fine weather this May Bank Holiday with contestants hurling themselves down the very steep Cooper’s Hill after an 8lb Double Gloucester cheese.

Cooper’s Hill is so steep it is impossible to stay on your feet; racers can reaches 70mph after the cheese so once the racing began the rolling antics were aplenty, head-over-heels falls were greeted by continual laughter from spectators – it was a fantastic day. The rolling and hurling was halted on three occasions while injured ‘cheese’ racers were carted off to hospital!

The first person over the finish line at the bottom of the hill wins the cheese. In theory, competitors are aiming to catch the cheese, but since it has a one second head start, the chances are slim, but this year local cheese chaser Chris Anderson took two of the cheese wins.

So is cheese rolling a true British extreme sport? With St John ambulance to hand and racers reaching such high speeds with no protective gear of any kind – the injuries ranging from sprained ankles to broken bones and concussions – with a rather cheesy reward at the end of it…. I think so!

Nintendo Wii hits wedding list

Apparently you will find the Wii next to the tea pot and cutlery on your friend’s wedding list!

John Lewis has announced that the best selling games console has made-it into the top 20 most popular items to appear on young couples’ wedding lists.

Most of us are fans of the Wii, but how has it ended up on the wedding list? Perhaps cooking equipment has become a bit dated and with more couples co-habiting before they get married, so the traditional wedding gifts are no longer required.  

The original point of such lists was to help young couples set up home, but as they are already ‘set up’ -  the wedding list has become the ideal wish list – especially with  high definition televisions also making an appearance on the lists for the first time.

So, has the wedding list become vulgar? Has it stopped being about the delight of giving and receiving simple gifts? In my view perhaps it has, but then again, perhaps it is just keeping up with modern times.

Getting the ‘blues’

Do you get the ‘blues’ – I mean, really ‘get’ the blues?

We let this colour dominate so much of our culture; from art to music to food.

We sing the blues – Jools Holland is such a famous name in music, even to those that don’t really follow him. Jools and the Rhythm & Blues Orchestra play to audiences in excess of 500,000 each year.

We love Picasso’s art – he is practically a household name – and his blue period is one of his most popular series of paintings. So why do we say we get the blues when we feel sad?

I say we should eat more delicious blue cheese – there is such a selection to choose from – soft, creamy and hard. So why not lift your day by creating the perfect lunch with some delicious blue cheese together with gorgeous fruit chutney. They were made for each other with a chunk of crusty bread.

Cheese Crave

Holly Willoughby, the presenter of Dancing on Ice is waiting on the birth of her first child and has recently reported she is craving cheese! She has claimed she can’t stop eating cheese slices; out of all the things women crave when pregnant, pickled onions, chips dipped in chocolate, cheese seems quite normal.

 Nine out of ten adults have eaten cheese in the past year, and a recent American study carried out by the National Cancer Institute found that women who consumed the most calcium from dairy products were 23 per cent less likely to develop cancer than women with the lowest consumption of calcium.  I say bring on the cheese!!

 Also it was found that men who have a rich calcium diet were 16 per cent more likely to have a reduced risk of cancer. The Food Standard Agency recommends that you have 700g of calcium a day – such is the British love affair with cheese.