Cheshire, often called chester in French, is a dense, crumbly English cheese made with cow's milk in Cheshire and four surrounding counties, Denbighshire and Flintshire in Wales and Shropshire and Staffordshire in England.
History
Cheshire is one of the oldest named cheeses in British history: it is first mentioned with Shropshire by Thomas Muffet in Health's Improvement (circa 1580). There is no trace of an earlier mention, but the Cheshire region is already mentioned as an important dairy region by William of Malmesbury in his Gesta pontificum Anglorum (“History of the bishops of England”, circa 1125) .
Cheshire was the most popular cheese in markets at the end of the 18th century. In 1758, the Royal Navy ordered ships to stockpile for their voyages from Cheshire and Gloucester. Cheshire production is estimated at 10,000 tons in 1823 and 12,000 tons in 1870.
