Dora Saker

Dora Glover Saker (1888 – 1 July 1926) was an instructor in cheese-making for Somerset County Council.

[4] Bronwen Percival and Randolph Hodgson describe Saker as working during a period when methods of dairy production were becoming more scientific with farmers, colleges and instructors co-operating to ensure that local cheese producers were able to make a consistently high-quality product.

She advocated farmhouse over factory production, as in her view, the former allowed a better control to be kept over the quality of the ingredients and the cheese-making process.

[7] In that year she held the position of Superintendent of Dairy Poultry and Domestic Science to the Somerset Agricultural Instruction Committee.

According to Percival and Hodgson, the book has "quickly acquired cult status amongst farmhouse cheese-makers,"[1] but they caution against seeing her advice as the rediscovery of a lost traditional way of cheese-making, arguing that there is no such thing and that Saker was actually very progressive in her views and seeking to improve the quality of the product through the application of scientific techniques.