Cheese

This is the low point of the year for English cheeses, with a few noble exceptions. Blue Cheshire is good and some of the farmhouse Cheddars that were made around last April should now be fine eating – often tasting more mature than examples from the months just before, when the weather was colder and the grass poor or non-existent. Some Cotherstone, a cheese from the Yorkshire Dales, may now have ripened into unusual succulence (it can be rather bland and soapy).

Parisian cheese authorities say that the situation is similar in France. The French idea of a poor season, however, is somewhat grander than ours. Look in specialist shops for Beaufort, Bleu des Causses, Brie de Meaux, Brie de Melun, Laguiole, Langres, Maroilles, Mimolette, Neufchâtel, Pont-l’Evêque, Roquefort, Saint-Marcellin and Tomme Arlésienne. Goat’s milk cheeses are not good in the winter months, apart from ones that have been kept macerating in oil, herbs and aromatics since the end of their last season. Vâcherin Mont d’Or disappears around the end of the month.