"I Breathe In..."

“Between affection and contempt, disgust and lust, love and hate”, I present a selection of the finest fragrances for National Fragrance Day.

“Odours have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words… it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.” (Patrick Suskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer)

Scent is an unequivocal reminder of a time long gone, a time we no longer can hold. Rustle the pages of a book, and I am brought back to the excitement and eagerness I felt as a child when treasuring the latest Harry Potter book in my arms. Cut into a Panettone and the sweet, candied, citrusy aroma fills me with flashbacks of Christmas, and the accompaniment of bubbling coffee. We cannot switch off the recollections that scent brings, and whether a blessing or a curse, “there is no remedy for it”.

Perhaps that is why when I saw National Fragrance Day coming up, I was keen to explore the power of fragrance in the world of food, and specifically, cheese. “Between affection and contempt, disgust and lust, love and hate”, I present to you a selection of my personal number-ones.

Taleggio

When Lombardy is mentioned at the moment, it is a subject far removed, and far bleaker, than what they have long been famed and prized for: their cheeses. Gorgonzola and Grana Padano go down a treat for many, yet it is their understated and more unusual cousin, Taleggio, that, take a whiff, I’m rather partial to.

It was the High Middle Ages, in the 11th century, that Taleggio first made its appearance. Originally made in the Val Taleggio in the province of Bergamo from cow’s milk, it found itself maturing and fining in the caves of Valsassina, perfectly suited for the natural production of moulds in its rind. Washed lovingly in brine, Taleggio develops aromas of butter and fruit, and over the next 3-5 weeks or so, becomes increasingly meaty, brothy, and funky.

The Taleggio eau de toilette has long reminded me of cabbage. Not that I find it displeasing. But the connection has always sprung to mind. Juliet Harbutt in ‘The World Cheese Book’ describing it in a somewhat more attractive way as a "rich Cream of Broccoli soup", assures me that it is not my nose alone that seeks out this vegetal aroma.

N.B. My picture, I confess, is not of Taleggio teasing me at its finest. When it is almost a buttery texture that melts with every morsel, it is tantalising joy.

St. Cera

Take a drive through the English countryside, and overriding the fresh smell of grass and mushrooms in the woodland, might be the irrepressible smell of manure. Place your nose in front of a St. Cera, and you might be greeted with a similar fragrance. Tenacious & mouth-puckering, Julie Cheyney’s cheese from Suffolk is the older and daredevil sister of St. Jude. Along with our teasing Taleggio who we’ve already encountered, it is another who is washed (in brine). Young Jude undergoes this washing and maturation for around a month, develops into a feisty Cera, and then is consumed by the likes of you and me. My exclamation of “I’ve got my head up a cow’s bottom and it’s so good” is a more crude than attractive image, yet the farmyardy, slightly sour and fierce hit of a St. Cera is exceptional. Perhaps Neal’s Yard Dairy sum her up the best with their warning; “oozy and unctuous” she “may leak slightly whilst en route to you”.

Ossau-Iraty

Ossau-Iraty, a ewe’s milk cheese as beautiful in taste as the surroundings in which it finds itself. Produced in the Pays-Basque region in the French Pyrenees, its name derives from the Ossau Valley where it resides, and the Iraty hills. The Manech and Basco-Béarnaise breeds of sheep contribute to its subtly sweet, slightly nutty, condensed milk aroma. Surely this is reason enough for Ossau’s entry on the National Fragrance Day selection? However, there is another smell that emerges. It is not always present, but both my nostrils, plus another, far more experienced set of nostrils, have also detected it. Cut into an Iraty, and it is not impossible that you will be greeted with a scent, that dare I say it, reminds me slightly of genitals. It is not common-place that this aroma surfaces, but having made its appearance more than once, Ossau Iraty rightly deserves a place on my National Fragrance Day board.

Gorwydd’s Caerphilly

“Then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils”. No cheese reminds me of the British landscape - its lush, green meadows, the fresh smell of grass after the rain, mushrooms in the woodland - more so than Caerphilly. Hailing originally from Wales, but being produced increasingly in the late 19th century by Somerset cheddar-makers (due to its shorter maturation, and thus, economic advantages over cheddar), Caerphilly bears an interesting past. Its production flailing during the First World War, and then ceasing a year into the Second World War, the artisan farmhouse-style Caerphilly saw itself reignited and entering out of its dormant period in the 1980s.

Part of the territorial family, and one of the ‘crumblies’, the Caerphilly I hold in my hand is, in fact, aged for a month or 2 longer than the usual 8 weeks. Made by the Trethowan family, its understated and indirect scent is key to its ingenuity. It is not bold, not in-your-face, but its lactic, mushroomy, cave-like, lemony, and ultimately fresh aroma, is what makes it take pride of place in my National Fragrance Day cheeseboard.