Cheeses we stock
Cashel Blue
Cashel Blue®
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Ireland
ESTABLISHED: 1984
MILK TYPE: Whole Cow’s Milk
PASTEURISED: Yes
RENNET: Vegetarian
STYLE: Semi-Soft, Blue
Characterful but not strong. Our youngest Cashel Blue® will reach you in at between 6 to 10 weeks of age and is pleasant, firm and creamy-edged with an established blue character – offset by a mouth-watering tanginess. By 3 months of maturation, your Cashel Blue® will have broken down to a richer, fuller and rounder yet not strong flavour.
With time Cashel Blue® becomes creamier and indeed more balanced in flavour as the saltiness, blueness and gentle milky elements integrate together. From 3 months a gentle touch of spice may become apparent. Cashel Blue® can age up to 6 months of age becoming increasingly unctuous in texture with age. Beyond this point, Cashel Blue® loses its way and enters the sphere of hot strong blues, an area we are not comfortable in. Here are some Pairing and Accompaniment ideas for Cashel Blue®, and also some mouthwatering recipes to try!
Crozier Blue
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Ireland
ESTABLISHED: 1992
MILK TYPE: Friesland Sheep’s Milk
PASTEURISED: Yes
RENNET: Vegetarian
STYLE: Semi-Soft, Blue
Crozier Blue is much slower to mature than Cashel Blue® and becomes ready for market at a minimum of 12 weeks. It can be matured for up to 11 months. The cheesemaking style is similar to Cashel Blue®, in that neither cheese can be described as a strong blue, however, Crozier Blue is a far more traditional blue than Cashel Blue®. A particular characteristic of Crozier Blue is its pleasing creaminess, which can be traced directly to the limestone-rich pastures which the ewes graze and which in turn contribute to a particularly lush full and sweet milk. People are often surprised by how much they like Crozier Blue, those unfamiliar with sheep’s milk cheese assume it to have a farmyard flavour which is not present. In recent years we have been very surprised by the good reception it has received in France, home to the great ewes milk blue, Roquefort. Here are some tasty Crozier Blue recipes, created and shared with us by talented chefs. You may also be interested to know of the health benefits of Ewe’s milk cheese.
Gubbeen
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Ireland
ESTABLISHED: 1992
MILK TYPE: Cow’s Milk
PASTEURISED: Yes
RENNET: Vegetarian
STYLE: Semi-Soft, Blue
At the Gubbeen Dairy, we make effectively one cheese – Gubbeen. Like the Chateaux that produces just one wine from their land, our milk produces Gubbeen Cheese – the trick is what we do in the curing processes. Cheese vintages come from aging plus the milk quality and the seasons.
The Gubbeen herd is out earlier than most Irish farms as we are influenced by the Gulf Stream bringing in warm winds and early grass. In the Summer our herd will be grazing the pasture and is out all night, coming home at 6.00 in the morning to be milked. During the winter weather, the herd is in our main shed where they feed on silage produced here at Gubbeen with supplements of nuts that Tom chooses each year.
We are very grateful to Drinagh Co-Op who make our GM Free Policy to trace feeds that are GM Free.
Large Gubbeen with Washed Rinds are pinkish with a white bloom – this rind, or crust, is actually a triple-layered bloom of different organisms. The first is yeasts which grow within 3 days of cheeses arriving in the curing rooms and having been inoculated with the microseeds of the Gubbeen Flora. Once the yeasts have arrived the brevi bacterium linens will grow rapidly giving the rind a tan and a nutty scent, this is then encouraged with not only the salt and water washes, but the addition of white wine; it balances the pH of the rind, protects and encourages the flora – within 5 days there will be a top bloom of the oxygen loving white candidum – this micro-garden traffic influences the appearance, structure, and flavour of Gubbeen as its rootstock works through the body of the cheese softening and flavouring. Age: So our Cheeses can be bought young and lactic or matured and even Extra Matured.
At ten days the Gubbeen will have its characteristic nose of mushrooms, nuts, bog and forest floor, there is also for people with good noses a long after scent of butter or leucanostoc.
By four weeks this will have evened out and the body of the cheese will have softened and there is a good “bounce” to the texture, we would consider this to be Mature now, but there is always more…
With good monitoring of temperature and humidity we bring the Extra Mature on for another month – its body is deeper so the age works its way through and the rind culture moves through the paste, it is ideal by eight weeks and can deepen in flavour for another month with good care.
Smoked Gubbeen
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Ireland
ESTABLISHED: 1992
MILK TYPE: Cow’s Milk
PASTEURISED: Yes
RENNET: Vegetarian
STYLE: Semi-Soft, Blue
We smoke our cheeses gently – it is very important to us that we make cheese with Smoked Flavour. Not a Smoked Cheese with cheese flavour!
Our smoking system is the Pinney system; Pinney’s of Orford taught our friend Chris Jepson how to smoke his salmon. He designed his smokebox from their clever and subtle design and when he finally retired he passed this skill on to Fingal. Our cheeses are now smoked at the dairy in Gubbeen. They wax the Smoked cheese in a black wax from Holland called Ceska; it keeps the smoke in and yet lets the cheeses breath as they mature.
Durrus Cheese
Milk: Cow’s milk, pasteurised
Type: Semi-soft, rind ripened
Sizes: 1.3 kilograms and 360 grams
Ready for eating: 4 weeks for the small, 6 – 10 weeks for large
The original recipe was created by Jeffa Gill in 1979. Durrus Cheese has a natural rind that is developed slowly by washing it with cultures that are specific to our dairy. These cultures develop the mottled pinkish skin as the cheeses ripen in our curing rooms. The paste is straw coloured with irregular tiny holes and a soft pliable texture. The flavour of the Durrus can range from mild, mellow, and grassy when young to rich, strong, and earthy when aged.
Durrus Cheese has won many awards, both nationally and internationally, most recently it was awarded a Gold Medal at both the 2017 Irish Food Awards and 2017 British Cheese Awards, and 2 Gold Stars at the 2016 Great Taste Awards from the Guild of Fine Foods, UK.
Dunmanus
Milk: Raw Whole Cow’s milk
Type: Semi hard, seasonal
Sizes: 3 kilograms
Ready for eating: from 6 to 14 months
Dunmanus Cheese is made from raw cow’s milk. Only the summer milk is used for the production of this hard, aged cheese. The cows graze lush meadows adjacent to Dunmanus Bay where they are washed with the salt-laden moist air from the Atlantic. This rich mixed pasture results in wonderful milk – a cheesemaker’s dream ingredient. Using Jeffa’s long perfected cheese-making skills this milk is crafted into a cheese that is pressed and aged for a minimum of 6 months in our ripening rooms.
The flavours of Dunmanus Cheese can range from gently sweet and nutty at 6 months, to more savoury, grassy and with a hint of sharpness from 10 months. We call Dunmanus a table cheese in our own house, by this we mean we keep it on the table or kitchen counter (we don’t keep it in the fridge) and we use it for everything – Ploughman’s style lunches, fantastic cheese on toast, melted in gratins, grated over pasta – the works!
Coolattin
Tom Burgess has been producing top quality milk from his pasture-fed cows in West Wicklow for twenty years. He wanted to develop a product that reflected this quality and decided it would be Mature Raw Milk Cheddar. “Pasture to Cheddar the same day”.
“The milk we use to make Coolattin Cheddar is special for a number of reasons, we process in the summer months when the cows are grazing fresh clover-rich pasture only which is the ideal diet for cheese processing milk. We use early morning milk which is high in melatonin which aids relaxation and sleep. It is pumped directly to the cheese-vat, not stored or pasteurised, this natural goodness & flavour is preserved by our traditional cheese-making process. We add beneficial Lacto-bacilli & Rennet to our milk, the curd is cut, scalded, drained & pitched the cheddar, milled, salted & mixed by hand. Following this, we place in 40b moulds and press for 2 days. It is the matured over a year at 10°C.”
During this time the unique combination of enzymes& proteins interact to create a gourmet experience of aroma, texture & full flavour which develops slowly from sweet fruit to a full butty note.
To get the best from Coolattin Cheddar, store cool and taste at room temperature. MATURE – fruity & mellow with a nutty after-taste. Matured for 1-2 years.
Saint Agur
Made from pasteurized cow’s milk
Country of origin: France
Region: Auvergne
Family: Blue
Type: soft, blue-veined
Fat content: 60%
Texture: creamy, smooth and spreadable
Colour: blue
Flavour: buttery, salty, sharp, spicy
Aroma: milky, strong
Vegetarian: yes
Producers: Savencia Fromage & Dairy
Saint Agur is a blue cheese made from pasteurised cow’s milk in the village of Beauzac from the mountainous French region of Auvergne. Since 1988, the Bongrain Cheese Company has been manufacturing this double-cream cheese.
The cheese is suitable for vegetarians, as vegetarian-based rennet is added. Ripened for 60 days, the cheese develops a stronger and spicier taste as it ages. Saint Agur comes in various sizes and consistencies to meet all desires. It has no rind but comes packed in a protective tub or portion packaging for public catering.
Saint Agur is a unique combination of smooth, creamy texture with a salty and tangy taste, though not as salty as traditional blue cheese. It is more rich and buttery with a subtle spicy taste. Due to its creaminess, it melts and spreads easily. It can be used as a dip with crunchy vegetables, or in gourmet sauce recipes. If you love the flavour, simply snack on the portions whenever you feel hungry.
Saint Agur goes perfectly with many wines like Brouilly, Jurancon, Porto, Chardonnay, Syrah or Banyuls and fruits such as walnuts, pears and figs.
This celebrated cheese has won many medals including silver at the 2014 World Cheese Awards.
Roquefort
Milk source: Sheep
Country of origin: France
Region of origin: Roquefort-sur-Soulzon
State of origin: Aveyron
Aging: 5 Months
Cheese type: Blue cheese
Roquefort, probably the world’s best known blue cheese, is made using raw ewe’s milk. All Roquefort is legally required to spend two weeks in the ‘fleurines’ or caves of Mont Combalou in Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in the zone of production. This is the natural dwelling place of the Penicillium Roqueforti, from which most strains of blue cheese moulds have been bred. After being aged in the caves the wheels are then foil wrapped and kept for further 10 weeks to give a 3-month minimum affinage. Roquefort Petite Cave is smooth, sweet, and buttery, with a pronounced, yet well-integrated blue flavour. The cheeses are of consistently high quality, and the salt level is not overly pronounced.
In short, this is a simply fabulous Roquefort. Try it with a good Sauternes and some walnut bread.
Parmigiano
Milk source: Dairy cattle
Country of origin: Italy
Region of origin: Metropolitan City of Bologna, Province of Parma, MORE
Aging: 12-36 Months
Parmigiano-Reggiano is made from unpasteurized cow’s milk. The whole milk of the morning milking is mixed with the naturally skimmed milk (which is made by keeping milk in large shallow tanks to allow the cream to separate) of the previous evening’s milking, resulting in a part skim mixture. This mixture is pumped into copper-lined vats, which heat evenly and contribute copper ions to the mix.
Copper-lined vats for the production of Parmigiano-Reggianon Starter whey (containing a mixture of certain thermophilic lactic acid bacteria) is added, and
the temperature is raised to 33–35 °C (91–95 °F). Calf rennet is added, and the mixture is left to curdle for 10–12 minutes. The curd is then broken up mechanically into small pieces (around the size of rice grains). The temperature is then raised to 55 °C (131 °F) with careful control by the cheese-maker. The curd is left to settle for 45–60 minutes. The compacted
curd is collected in a piece of muslin before being divided in two and placed in molds. There is 1100 L (291 US gallons or 250 imperial gallons) of milk per vat, producing two cheeses each. The curd making up each wheel at this point weighs around 45 kg (100 lb). The remaining whey in the vat was traditionally used to feed the pigs from which Prosciutto di Parma (cured Parma ham) was produced. The barns for these animals were usually just a few yards away from the cheese production rooms.
The cheese is put into a stainless steel round form that is pulled tight with a spring-powered buckle so the cheese retains its wheel shape. After a day or two, the buckle is released and a plastic belt imprinted numerous times with the Parmigiano-Reggiano name, the plant’s number, and month and year of production is put around the cheese and the metal form is buckled tight again. The imprints take hold on the rind of the cheese in about a day and the wheel is then put into a brine bath to absorb salt for 20–25 days. After brining, the wheels are then transferred to the aging rooms in the plant for 12 months.
Each cheese is placed on wooden shelves that can be 24 cheeses high by 90 kinds of cheese long or 2160 total wheels per aisle. Each cheese and the shelf underneath it is then cleaned manually or robotically every seven days. The cheese is also turned at this time.
A Parmigiano-Reggiano factory maturation room Product process of Parmesan cheese At 12 months, the Consorzio Parmigiano-Reggiano inspects every wheel. The cheese is tested by a master grader who taps each wheel to identify undesirable cracks and voids within the wheel. Wheels that pass the test are then heat branded on the rind with Consorzio’s logo. Those that do not pass the test used to have their rinds marked with lines or crosses all the way around to inform consumers that they are not getting top-quality
Parmigiano-Reggiano; more recent practices simply have these lesser rinds stripped of all markings.
Traditionally, cows have to be fed only on grass or hay, producing grass-fed milk. Only natural whey culture is allowed as a starter, together with calf rennet.[5] The only additive allowed is salt, which the cheese absorbs while being submerged for 20 days in brine tanks saturated to near total salinity with Mediterranean sea salt. The product is aged an average of two years.[6] The cheese is produced daily, and it can show a natural variability. True Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese has a sharp, complex fruity/nutty taste with a strong savory flavor and a slightly gritty texture. Inferior versions can impart a bitter taste.
The average Parmigiano-Reggiano wheel is about 18–24 cm (7–9 in) high, 40–45 cm (16–18 in) in diameter, and weighs 38 kg (84 lb).
Killeen Goat
The cheese we make most of at Killeen is a semi-hard cheese, made from pasteurised milk, in a goat’s milk variety, and also from cows milk. The cheese is sold at two months of age. The goats cheese is available in plain, or fenugreek. The cow’s milk cheese comes in plain, cumin seed, basil and garlic, and Italian herbs and olives.
Cheeses are around 5 kg.
Cooleeney Irish Brie
Milk: Raw cow’s milk, pasteurised.
Texture: White mould rind. Pale yellow paste, generally with some chalkiness at the centre, when fully ripened the paste is soft and smooth.
Flavour: Creamy and buttery with discernable white mushroom notes coming through on the finish, pleasant bitterness.
Age: Fully mature at 8-10 weeks
Pairings: Sparkling wines; Beaujolais
Rennet: Vegetarian
Format: 1.7kg, 200g minis
