Gloucester

What is Gloucester Cheese?

Gloucester has been made in Gloucestershire, England since the 16th century. Both varieties, Single and Double, were traditionally made from the milk of Gloucester cattle. Double Gloucester ranked alongside the best Cheddar or Cheshire and was sold outside the county, while Single Gloucester stayed close to home and was eaten within Gloucestershire.

Nobody knows for certain where the names came from. One theory says the creamy milk had to be skimmed twice for the double variety. Another says cream from the morning milk was added to the evening milk. A third points out that a Double Gloucester cheese is usually twice the height.

Both types are made in rounds, with Double Gloucester rounds the larger of the two. Each has a natural rind and a hard texture. Single Gloucester is crumblier, lighter and lower in fat. Double Gloucester is allowed to age longer, which makes it slightly firmer and gives it a stronger, more savoury flavour. Its distinctive yellow colour originally came from the wild flower Galium verum, known locally as lady's bedstraw.

Traditional Gloucester cheese from the Gloucester cow died out in the 1950s, along with most of the cattle. In 1973 Charles Martell gathered three Old Gloucester cows from a county herd of fewer than 50 and brought farmhouse Double Gloucester back; the BBC series A Taste of Britain filmed the attempt. He revived Single Gloucester in 1978. The Slow Food movement has backed traditionally made Gloucester since 2004, and six cheesemakers were producing Single Gloucester as of 2010.

Most Double Gloucester in British supermarkets is slab cheese from large creameries run by companies such as Dairy Crest, sold under store brands. That version is pasteurised but not processed. The cheese is also blended: mixed with chives and spring onions it is sold as Cotswold, and layered with Stilton it becomes Huntsman. Every spring a wheel rolls down Cooper's Hill, where it can reach at least 70 mph on the 50 percent gradient, 200 yard (180 m) slope, and the first competitor to the bottom keeps it.