Alan Davidson

Wensleydale

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

Wensleydale a hard-pressed, whole-milk English cheese which is available in two versions: an expensive and prized blue kind which some consider superior to stilton; and an almost unmatured white variety which is produced and sold on a large scale.

Wensleydale is an ancient cheese. The name is that of a Yorkshire valley where formerly there were two Cistercian abbeys whose monks made the cheese. At this time sheep’s milk was used. After the dissolution of the monasteries the cheese was made on farms and from cow’s milk.