Welcome to the next of our ‘Pick of the Month’ articles on the Belton Farm Award-winning Cheese Range. This month we are going to looking at our traditional Double Gloucester.

A semi-hard cheese made traditionally from the milk of Gloucester cattle since the 16th century, Double Gloucester’s smooth, creamy, practically buttery flavour has made it the cheese of choice for many. It’s relative firmness compared to other cheese has made it equally desirable for other, more unusual pursuits, which we will come to…

There are a number of theories explaining why the two types of Gloucester cheese are ‘single’ and ‘double’, but no one knows for sure why those terms caught on. Some say it’s because creamy milk has to be skimmed twice to make Double Gloucester, using the milk from both the morning and evening’s milking, while others say the two terms exist quite simply because Double Gloucester is typically twice the height of Single Gloucester.

We have also created some delicious Double Gloucester Cheese recipes!

As Saturday Kitchen’s Joe Hurd suggested in our Perfect Pairings video for Double Gloucester on Facebook, and mentioned above, pairing Double Gloucester with a British Pale Ale is tough to beat – securing its status as a ‘pub cheese’. That said, Double Gloucester pairs just as successfully with a light-bodied red in Pinot Noir or Zinfandel, and equally well with a crisp white Sancerre.

– Sancerre

– Zinfandel

– British Pale Ale