milk type
Cow
ingredients
Pasteurised Cow's MILK, Salt, Animal Rennet, Cheese Cultures
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Pasteurised
location
Bungay, Suffolk
milk source
Own herd
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milk type
Cow
ingredients
Pasteurised Cow's MILK, Salt, Animal Rennet, Cheese Cultures
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Pasteurised
location
Bungay, Suffolk
milk source
Own herd
breed
Montbeliarde; Holstein
season
All year
average age
2 Months
cheesemakers
Jonny Crickmore
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In the early days of Neal's Yard Dairy, the only Brie we sold was imported from across the Channel. Today, the only Brie we sell is Baron Bigod, and for the past few years French retailers have been buying this cheese from us.
Our Work
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Serving Suggestions
Slice Baron Bigod over warm, roasted vegetables.
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.
Baby Baron Bigod
The smaller sister to one of our most popular cheeses, perfect as a centrepiece to a cheeseboard
In the early days of Neal's Yard Dairy, the only Brie we sold was imported from across the Channel. Today, the only Brie we sell is Baron Bigod, and for the past few years French retailers have been buying this cheese from us.
milk type
Cow
ingredients
Pasteurised Cow's MILK, Salt, Animal Rennet, Cheese Cultures
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Pasteurised
location
Bungay, Suffolk
milk source
Own herd
breed
Montbeliarde; Holstein
season
All year
average age
2 Months
cheesemakers
Jonny Crickmore
background
Baron Bigod was the creation of Jonny Crickmore at Fen Farm dairy. Made in small batches to a Brie de Meaux recipe passed on by a French cheesemaker, it is the only traditional Brie-style cheese currently being produced in the UK. In fact, it is arguably more authentic than the majority of French Brie in that it's made on a farm as opposed to a creamery, using the very freshest of milk from Jonny's own herd of Montbéliarde cows. The curds are hand ladled into large moulds using traditional pelle-à-brie ladles, and the young cheeses are salted, wrapped in paper and aged for up to eight weeks in cave-like conditions, first at Fen Farm, then at our Bermondsey arches.
our work with this cheese
We keep the cheeses in our cold room at the arches, and turn them regularly. The goal is to prevent the rind from growing too thick and to keep breakdown of the paste even – without over-ripening it to the point where it's running away. We've continued to work closely with Jonny and his team over the years, and every three months they visit us to taste the cheese and evaluate its progress. The conversations that result help to inform their selection for us back at their farm.
pairing suggestion
Slice Baron Bigod over warm, roasted vegetables.