Stonebeck Wensleydale
milk type
Cow
ingredients
Raw Cow's MILK, Salt, Cheese Cultures, Animal Rennet
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Raw
location
Nidderdale, Yorkshire
milk source
Own herd
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milk type
Cow
ingredients
Raw Cow's MILK, Salt, Cheese Cultures, Animal Rennet
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Raw
location
Nidderdale, Yorkshire
milk source
Own herd
cheesemakers
Andrew and Sally Hattan
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Stonebeck is made on a truly biodiverse farm in a remote part of North Yorkshire. To get to the farm, we park in the nearby village and the Hattans collect us in their four-wheel drive.
Background
Andrew and Sally Hattan’s Low Riggs farm is located in the Yorkshire Dales, where for hundreds of years the production of Wensleydale-style cheese played a vital role in the rural economy. The Hatt...
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Andrew and Sally Hattan’s Low Riggs farm is located in the Yorkshire Dales, where for hundreds of years the production of Wensleydale-style cheese played a vital role in the rural economy. The Hattan family are first generation farmers. When they embarked on their quest to make a farmhouse Wensleydale cheese of their own, they made use of cheesemaking books from 1917 and 1947, together with interviews with a 101-year-old local cheesemaker.
The milk for the cheese comes from a herd of just 30 Northern Dairy Shorthorn cows – a breed native to the Dales that is critically endangered. They subsist on almost exclusively pasture and are milked just once a day between Spring and Autumn which makes this cheese truly seasonal. The cheese is truly handmade: the curds cut and hung up in cloth bags to allow the whey to drain away, after which they are milled by a hand-turned peg mill ready for moulding and pressing in a traditional cast iron press. The next day the cheese is bound with locally made, unbleached calico and hand-sewn with a long stitch before being pressed for a final time before maturation. Over the course of the ensuing weeks, the rind will develop and the characteristically buttery flavour will intensify. The Hattans are eventually hoping to encourage the natural blueing reminiscent of the pre-war Wensleydale that inspired their recipe, though this aspect of maturation is still at the trial phase.
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Our Work
Andrew and Sally Hattan came to visit Neal’s Yard Dairy when they were just beginning their cheesemaking journey, and we have worked with them every step of the way: from helping to develop the rec...
Read More
Andrew and Sally Hattan came to visit Neal’s Yard Dairy when they were just beginning their cheesemaking journey, and we have worked with them every step of the way: from helping to develop the recipe for their cheese, to the decision to call it a Wensleydale – a name they were reluctant to use at first, but which we convinced them to adopt on account of the cheese’s geography and style.
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FAQs
As a general rule of thumb, we would recommend roughly between 100 and 150 grams per person for after dinner, and a bit more if cheese is the focus of the meal. If you are buying cheese to serve over a couple of days or as part of a buffet, it is advisable to buy a few larger pieces. This will both look better and keep better than many small bits. To help visualise weights, a good tip is to consider that a regular supermarket pat of butter weighs between 200 and 250 grams. If you are at all unsure please give us a call for some advice.
The best option is to keep your cheese wrapped in its paper within a box in the fridge. This will prevent the cheese from drying out and absorbing other flavours. Your cheese will arrive wrapped in waxed cheese paper, which achieves the best possible balance between maintaining humidity around the cheese and allowing it to breathe. We are happy to provide some free extra cheese paper, just search for "cheese paper" and add it to your basket. We don't recommend cling film or foil as it can cause the cheese to sweat which will negatively affect the flavour.
Stonebeck Wensleydale
This cheese truly reflects the biodiversity of its origins both in terms of the breed of cows and the pastures they graze
Stonebeck is made on a truly biodiverse farm in a remote part of North Yorkshire. To get to the farm, we park in the nearby village and the Hattans collect us in their four-wheel drive.
milk type
Cow
ingredients
Raw Cow's MILK, Salt, Cheese Cultures, Animal Rennet
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Raw
location
Nidderdale, Yorkshire
milk source
Own herd
cheesemakers
Andrew and Sally Hattan
background
Andrew and Sally Hattan’s Low Riggs farm is located in the Yorkshire Dales, where for hundreds of years the production of Wensleydale-style cheese played a vital role in the rural economy. The Hattan family are first generation farmers. When they embarked on their quest to make a farmhouse Wensleydale cheese of their own, they made use of cheesemaking books from 1917 and 1947, together with interviews with a 101-year-old local cheesemaker. The milk for the cheese comes from a herd of just 30 Northern Dairy Shorthorn cows – a breed native to the Dales that is critically endangered. They subsist on almost exclusively pasture and are milked just once a day between Spring and Autumn which makes this cheese truly seasonal. The cheese is truly handmade: the curds cut and hung up in cloth bags to allow the whey to drain away, after which they are milled by a hand-turned peg mill ready for moulding and pressing in a traditional cast iron press. The next day the cheese is bound with locally made, unbleached calico and hand-sewn with a long stitch before being pressed for a final time before maturation. Over the course of the ensuing weeks, the rind will develop and the characteristically buttery flavour will intensify. The Hattans are eventually hoping to encourage the natural blueing reminiscent of the pre-war Wensleydale that inspired their recipe, though this aspect of maturation is still at the trial phase.
our work with this cheese
Andrew and Sally Hattan came to visit Neal’s Yard Dairy when they were just beginning their cheesemaking journey, and we have worked with them every step of the way: from helping to develop the recipe for their cheese, to the decision to call it a Wensleydale – a name they were reluctant to use at first, but which we convinced them to adopt on account of the cheese’s geography and style.
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