Serious Eats
The Cheese-Rolling Phenomenon
Roll down this hill and you too may be victorious! Photographs courtesy of cheese-rolling-co.uk
Leave it to the Brits to come up with an annual event as nuts as Cheese-Rolling: every year on the Monday that corresponds with the American holiday of Memorial Day (Spring Bank Holiday in England), dozens of crazy people line up on a steep slope in Gloucestershire, England and propel themselves head-over-heels downhill, chasing after a wheel of cheese. Whoever makes it down the hill first wins. And what is this lucky winner's prize? Cheese!
According to the BBC, which has also published an amazing video of the event, the tradition of chasing after a rolling wheel of hand-made Double Gloucester is centuries old, which just means to me that these folks will never learn.
For the past 20 years, Diana Smart of Churcham has made the Double Gloucester cheese used in the event from the milk of her herd of Brown Swiss, Holstein and Gloucester cows. According to the official Cheese-Rolling Website, "she is the only person in Gloucestershire now making Double Gloucester cheeses by hand, using traditional methods." Single and Double Gloucester are fairly mild, semi-firm cheeses, similar to Cheddar. Single Gloucester is made from skimmed milk, whereas Double Gloucester is made from whole milk and additional cream.
This year's cheese-rolling winner, 19-year-old Christopher Anderson, was carried off in a neck brace and given oxygen after the event, apparently injured from the treacherous tumbling. Apparently the weather was really rough too (lots of rain), turning the hill into a steep Slip 'n Slide, and leading to 19 injuries among dozens of entrants. Full results of the race are posted here.
About the author: Jamie Forrest publishes Curdnerds.com from his apartment in Brooklyn, New York, where he lives with his wife, his daughter, and his cheese.