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Carolina

A pressed sheep's milk cheese. Dimensions: truckles approximately 8cm high, 5cm diameter or 14cm high, 14cm diameter. Weight: about 750g (small); 2-2.7kg (large). Colour: almost white. Flavour: well-rounded, with a mild sheep note.

An ancient origin is claimed for the recipe from which these cheeses were evolved: the monks of a Cistercian abbey near Chard, Somerset. This is not impossible; there are parallels in the north of England, where Wensleydale and related cheeses almost certainly owe their origin to monastic dairy skills. In its current form, Carolina was developed by John Norman in the Chard area; the name was taken from a field name of land he farmed. In the early 1970s, he began to make a sheep's milk cheese, continuing until ill health prevailed. Ten years later the current maker, Harold Woolley, bought the recipe and transferred production to Kent, where the cheese has been made ever since. He has since evolved 2 similar cheeses - Cecilia (plain and smoked) and Nepicar.

Carolina, Cecilia and Nepicar are all made from sheep's milk, mostly from Friesland-Romney sheep on permanent pasture. For Carolina, a home-produced starter is incubated overnight and added to the warm milk the next morning followed, about 45 minutes later, by vegetarian rennet. The milk is left for another 45 minutes for the curd to set. The curd is cut, then stirred gently by hand for about 30 minutes, allowed to settle and drained. The curd is cut in blocks and stacked for an hour to drain further. The curd is milled, salted and packed into cloth-lined moulds. The cheeses are pressed individually for 24 hours, being turned once; then they are removed from the moulds, the cloths removed, the cheeses returned to the moulds and pressed a further 24 hours. On removal from the moulds, they are brined for a day. They are matured for 60 days. Nepicar is made to the same recipe and method, using milk pasteurized by a high-temperature, short-term process, and the cheeses are matured for 90 days. Cecilia is made to a similar recipe, with slight differences in times and temperatures; it is dry-salted rather than brined, and matured in oak barrels over a bed of hops. Frozen milk is stored for use when the sheep stop milking in September.