Baron Bigod

 This is the Suffolk cheese that started all the cheese tasting thing. It happened because of a comment that said it was someone's favourite which they preferred and I said I knew of it as it's made in Suffolk but had  never tasted it as it's quite expensive.  I was doing the Value Range Experiment at the time it didn't exactly fit in!

It's an Artisan Brie type cheese from Fen Farm Dairy on the Norfolk/Suffolk border which I bought from their new mini-shop on the Eye Airfield industrial estate.

I googled to find out more...........

The cheese is named after 12th century Earl of Norfolk, Baron Bigod (pronounced By-god). He was originally from Normandy, where bloomy-rinded cheeses such as Brie and Camembert are well known, but came over to Britain during the Norman invasion.

Baron Bigod is the finest traditional Brie-de-Meaux style cheese produced in the UK and one of only a handful of its type in the world to be made by the farmer on the farm. Beneath the nutty, mushroomy rind, Baron Bigod has a smooth, silky golden breakdown which will often ooze out over a delicate, fresh and citrussy centre. Baron Bigod is made by hand in small batches, very early in the morning so that we can use the fresh milk straight from the cow at the perfect temperature for cheesemaking. The mould cultures are added to the warm morning’s milk and it is gently gravity fed into small vats just a few metres from the milking parlour, where the rennet is added. The curds are carefully hand-ladled into large moulds, using traditional pelle-a-brie ladles and the young cheeses are hand salted and then aged for up to 8 weeks in a cave-like environment. It is a unique expression of the incredible milk of our free-ranging Montbeliarde cows and the diversity of our wildlife-rich grazing marshland.

Despite living among farms for most of my life I'd not heard of Montbeliarde cows - so had to google them too..... They are of Swiss/French origin from the 19th century.............

The animals are red pied with white heads and short horns, and of dairy type. Mature cows weigh 600 to 700 kg (1,300 to 1,500 lb) and stand about 145 cm (57 in) tall at the withers, and mature bulls weigh 900 to 1,200 kg (2,000 to 2,600 lb).The milk is particularly well suited to cheesemaking because of a high frequency of kappa casein BB variants, giving higher yields of cheese. Being of less extreme dairy type than modern Holsteins, the cows have lower milk yields, but better longevity and fertility and lower cell counts in the milk, indicating lower mastitis incidence.

and............. 

Photo courtesy of O.S. Montbéliarde, www.montbeliarde.org

The Montbéliarde is light red and white in colour quite similar to the red and white Holstein. They have a white head with a light muzzle and have lyra-shaped horns. The breed is renowned for tough feet and strong udders.

  

I don't usually visit the cattle area at the Suffolk Show but may have to go and see if they have any on show there this year!

I had my first piece of Baron Bigod as a meal with a pear, grapes and some home made cheese straws and it certainly is delicious.

Much more flavour than the other Brie-type cheeses I've tried.

I definitely preferred it to the Suffolk Brie from my nearest cheese producer and the Yarlington from Somerset.

If I want a brie for a cheese board next Christmas or even as a treat for just me I would choose this. 

(Apologies - yesterday I accidently deleted some comments - sorry - not sure what I was doing - not concentrating for sure) 

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Sue