Vegetarian – Suitable
Winner: 2009 Feline Foodie Awards: Cheese Closest in Taste to White, Grade School Paste
The description card in the Cheese Kiosk calls this English cheese a Cheddar; but according to one of The Lady’s customers, “it is NOT a cheddar; Caerphilly is a cheese all its own.” Because I love Cheddars, I am quite thankful that Caerphilly is “NOT a cheddar”.
This chalky white, dry, salty, crumbly Welsh Cheese tastes like paste; the kind humankind kids use for their crafts in school. Why anyone eats this cheese is beyond my feline brain function; but The Lady sells a lot of it…go figure.
There is a cheese legend (not to be confused with an urban legend) that this cheese was developed to be salty in order to replenish the salt lost by the local coal miners during their difficult, ten-hour, underground shifts.
Production of this cheese ceased during World War II when all milk allocated for cheese went to the cheddar factories. In my humble opinion, perhaps this would have been a good time to let Caerphilly’s memory go gently into the night and take its place in the Akashic Records (cheese section). But alas, that was not to be…
At the end of the war (and here’s where that pesky “follow the money” thingy comes in), those same cheddar factories began making Caerphilly to get the cash flowing. Why you ask…Caerphilly matures more quickly than Cheddar. With humankind, it’s pretty much always about the dollar or in this case, the quid…but I digress.
The Town of Caerphilly has an annual festival celebrating their contribution to the world of cheese. Ironically it’s called “The Big Cheese”.
Another bit of trivia about Caerphilly, it is one of the cheeses mentioned in the Monty Python “Cheese Shop” sketch. Note: mention is made of a certain feline foodie eating the Camembert in the shoppe…
This is one cheese that would benefit from the addition of anything that improves its taste…and I mean anything.
I give Caerphilly one Paw out of four Paws (cause that’s all I’ve got); and because it won’t kill you if you eat it.
Serving Suggestions: Don’t.
Wine and Beer Pairings: Anything that will kill the taste of the cheese.
Source: Cow’s Milk
1 thought on “Caerphilly”
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You really must try some authentic Caerphilly. Caerphilly production stopped during WWII because all of the milk was diverted to the production of cheddar for the war effort. After the end of the war many larger producers began producing “Caerphilly” cheese but it is nothing like the original farmstead cheese. It is like comparing Singleton’s Wensleydale to that of Borough Market or Neal’s Yard. The former is crumbly and bland and damn near inedible, whereas the latter is reminiscent of a wonderful farmhouse cheddar. There are a couple of small production Caerphilly producers out there but they are hard to find.