Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Claudia Romeo: In the family of smelly cheeses,

  • there are probably only a few

  • that will really make you go --

  • uh, ooh!

  • Well, I have no doubt.

  • For me, Stinking Bishop beats them all.

  • Crowned the smelliest cheese in the UK,

  • Stinking Bishop gets its distinctive smell

  • thanks to perry, which is a pear cider

  • used to wash the rind of the cheese.

  • The result? A moldy exterior, a squidgy texture,

  • and an everlasting pungent smell.

  • We're in the pear orchards

  • of Dymock, Gloucestershire, England,

  • at the home of Stinking Bishop.

  • It is from the fruits of these trees

  • that the infamous perry cider is made.

  • But while the perry gives the cheese

  • its distinctive smell, I'm curious,

  • will the cheese taste as strong as it smells?

  • We're here to find out.

  • There is only one farm in the world that makes this cheese:

  • Charles Martell & Son.

  • And just like Stinking Bishop is a semisoft cheese,

  • its recipe is semisecret.

  • We know it starts with pasteurized cow's milk

  • that is left in a vat for four hours

  • with ferments and rennet.

  • We also know that the rennet used is a vegetable rennet.

  • This helps coagulate the milk

  • without interfering with the flavor of the cheese,

  • which an animal rennet would do.

  • The milk comes from the local Gloucester cattle.

  • The milk from this breed

  • is particularly suited for cheesemaking

  • because during the coagulation process,

  • its cream doesn't rise to the surface

  • and get lost within the whey.

  • Rather, it stays down in the milk,

  • and it will make the final cheese much richer.

  • When the curd has reached the size of a nut,

  • it is transferred into molds.

  • This is the first secret step of the process.

  • At the end of the molding,

  • this tower of empty molds that you see behind me

  • will be full of curd,

  • and, after a certain amount of time that is also secret,

  • the cheeses will be moved to the maturing room.

  • OK, this is the moment of the truth.

  • Let's see.

  • Justyna Burford: Smelly?

  • Claudia: Uh, ooh!

  • Mm! It --

  • [laughs]

  • Wow.

  • Well, it's not as bad as I thought.

  • It doesn't smell bad,

  • it just has a strong smell, I think.

  • Yeah, that's pungent.

  • Justyna: Lots of people describe it as old, smelly socks.

  • And they say, "Ugh, disgusting."

  • But actually, when you eat the cheese, it's really nice.

  • And you can't taste the smell,

  • you can just taste the cheese,

  • which is nice and smooth.

  • Claudia: It fills up your nostrils and just stays there.

  • [laughing]

  • With that smell still very much up in my nostrils,

  • Justyna talks me through the most important step

  • of the making of Stinking Bishop:

  • washing it in perry.

  • [pouring liquid]

  • This is done when the cheese is one day old.

  • Old enough to hold its shape,

  • but young enough to absorb the flavors of the perry.

  • How often do you do this?

  • How often do you wash it in perry?

  • Justyna: Only once.

  • Claudia: Only once?

  • Oh, and that's enough just to make everything

  • that the cheese is. Justyna: Yes.

  • Claudia: All right.

  • Justyna: Well, it's alcohol.

  • And, also, you can smell the aroma of the perry.

  • So you don't want to

  • have this too strong at the same time.

  • Claudia: And this washing, is there a method to it?

  • Or it's just, you know, [laughs] you caressing the cheese?

  • Justyna: Yes.

  • Claudia: And enjoying the work.

  • Justyna: Putting my love to it.

  • Claudia: Yesterday's work. Justyna: Yes.

  • Claudia: The molds around the cheese

  • are made of beech wood.

  • You may ask, why?

  • We don't know.

  • That's another secret that the makers wouldn't share.

  • My guess is that this helps the cheese keep its shape,

  • of course, without being too rigid,

  • and thus allowing the cheese to retain some moisture.

  • Like other semisoft cheeses -- and this we know for sure --

  • Stinking Bishop wheels age for two to three weeks,

  • and they are turned regularly

  • to ensure both sides mature equally.

  • So, this is the finished cheese that still smells,

  • even though it's packaged.

  • Justyna: Yes, the cheese always smells, yes.

  • So this is the ready cheese.

  • Claudia: Oh, wow.

  • Oh, that's quite beautiful actually, no?

  • Justyna: Yeah.

  • Claudia: It looks like one of those eye-shadow palettes

  • or something. [Justyna laughs]

  • It has nice shades of yellow and red.

  • Justyna: Yellow, red, yes. A bit of orange.

  • Claudia: Yeah, it's kind of sparkly, no?

  • So, all this is because of the washing in perry,

  • plus your secrets. [laughs]

  • Justyna: Yes, yes.

  • Claudia: I mean, is it a coincidence

  • that the perry itself, it's kind of reddish?

  • Justyna: Yeah, it's probably coming a bit

  • from the perry itself.

  • Claudia: So, what's the deal with this perry?

  • Well, around Gloucestershire,

  • there are over 100 varieties of perry pears,

  • which are smaller than your average pear.

  • I know, these are blossoms,

  • but pears were not in season when we visited.

  • Anyway, turning them into perry

  • is quite a common thing here.

  • The pear that Stinking Bishop bathes in is called ...

  • Stinking Bishop.

  • Unlike what you may think, this pear doesn't stink.

  • Most perry pears are little hard things like that.

  • You know, if you threw it at somebody

  • and hit them, it'd hurt,

  • because it's so heavy and dense little tiny things.

  • But the Stinking Bishop pear is more pear shaped

  • and more juicy and makes a good early perry.

  • Because it's got high sugar, it ferments very quickly.

  • And so it's got a reputation of being a very strong pear.

  • Claudia: All right.

  • Charles: Named after Mr. Bishop.

  • Mr. Bishop was rather an unsavory character,

  • and so he earned the name Stinking Bishop.

  • Claudia: All right, so that has nothing to do

  • with actual bishops? Charles: With bishops, no.

  • But bishops love it.

  • Lots of bishops give each other presents

  • of Stinking Bishop because they,

  • they think it's funny. And it is, you know.

  • Claudia: Jokes, secrets, and smell aside,

  • the story of Stinking Bishop is not really about

  • making a cheese that will make headlines.

  • Rather, it is about making something

  • that could save its very source:

  • the milk from Gloucester cattle, which risked disappearing.

  • Charles: Notice you got a black head and black legs,

  • but the body's brown?

  • That's the mark of the breed,

  • and they've got this white stripe and a white tail.

  • Claudia: OK, so all Gloucester cows have a white tail?

  • Charles: White tail, yeah, little white strip

  • and a white belly.

  • Well, when I started here 50 years ago,

  • there were 68 left in the world.

  • Claudia: In the world?

  • Charles: And I thought, gosh, you know,

  • they can't be let to become extinct.

  • How can I help them?

  • I managed to get hold of three, which I milked by hand.

  • And I thought, I know,

  • they're originally a cheesemaking breed.

  • We'll make cheese.

  • It was my way of helping the breed survive.

  • Not just by breeding them, but by using them.

  • And that's the way they'll survive: if we use them.

  • Claudia: Oh, thank you.

  • So, do you eat the rind?

  • Yes. That's where the most intense part of the flavor is.

  • Oh, all right.

  • So let's just have ...

  • Claudia: Oh. Charles: A bit cold.

  • I love it.

  • It's really nice.

  • Flavor's gone in, isn't it?

  • Yeah. No smell at all.

  • Charles: No? Claudia: No, I mean --

  • Charles: Not supposed to say that.

  • Claudia: You know, like when you say

  • you can't taste the smell

  • because the smell can put you off,

  • but this taste, I really love it.

  • I don't know, it reminds me of some cheese

  • that I used to eat when I was a child.

  • It's just the texture in your mouth.

  • A bit creamy, but not too runny.

  • So not too messy. [laughs]

  • Charles: The flavor goes in from the rind, obviously.

  • 'Cause on the rind is the culture,

  • which is where you get the flavor.

  • Claudia: Yeah.

  • The building where we're tasting the cheese

  • is a distillery,

  • and, yes, you guessed it,

  • this is where perry is made.

  • Charles tells me that his distillery is 400 years old.

  • He even showed me some property documents from 1810.

  • Built in 1650.

  • So it's the oldest original distilling house

  • still working in the British Isles.

  • Claudia: Oh, is it?

  • We know of no other older.

  • Claudia: The pear cider, or perry,

  • that is used to wash the rind of the cheese

  • is later turned into this sweet pear spirit called Poireau,

  • which is made out of perry and fresh pear juice.

  • Cheers. [laughs]

  • How do you say it in Italian?

  • Claudia: Salute. Charles: Salute.

  • Sweet.

  • It's sweet, but not sugar sweet, that's a pear sweet.

  • Charles: I know, baby, I know.

  • [birds chirping]

  • Claudia: It's so peaceful here.

  • Charles: Yeah. Yes.

  • Those are the peace. [Claudia laughs]

  • They're peaceful.

Claudia Romeo: In the family of smelly cheeses,

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it