RED FOX

Rarebit is a classic Welsh winter warmer, especially popular at Christmas, made by baking a hot cheese sauce deep into layers of toasted bread. For this ready-to-heat seasonal special from Waitrose, the cheese in question is Red Fox, which takes its name from the landmark 19th-century weathervane over Belton Farm in Shropshire, England. It’s a distinctive Red Leicester with an optimal balance of sweet and savoury flavours, and a signature crunchy texture derived from naturally occurring calcium lactate crystals.

MILK: Pasteurised cow’s milk

AROMA: Mild, sweet, faintly acidic

TEXTURE: Firm, crumbly

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS: Chutneys, pickles, dried fruits, dark chocolate

SNOWDONIA – TOWER OF CHEESE

The word “cheesecake” naturally evokes images of the classic biscuit-based dessert, but the family-owned Snowdonia Cheese Company offers something more literal with this tiered tower of varied cheese wheels. An ideal party piece, it features a base of the company’s award-winning Black Bomber extra mature Cheddar and a middle layer with Red Storm (an 18-month vintage Red Leicester that’s nutty and refined). It’s topped with a mini Truffle Trove – an extra mature Cheddar with black summer truffle that’s earthy and balanced. 

CROPWELL BISHOP BLUE STILTON

First made in the 17th century, this particularly smooth and tangy blue Stilton comes from the archives of Cropwell Bishop’s former creamery in the East Midlands of England, which shut down in the 1980s. The Skailes family revived their recipe decades later, and it has since been garlanded with local and national cheese awards. The modern version is still made with animal rennet to much the same painstaking traditional formula as it ever was – the curd hand-ladled by an in-house veteran named Mario, and the blue mould adding a little lingering spice to the velvety finish.

MILK: Pasteurised cow’s milk

AROMA: Mild, sweet, faintly acidic

TEXTURE: Firm, crumbly

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS: Chutneys, pickles, dried fruits,  dark chocolate