milk type
Sheep
ingredients
Pasteurised Sheep's MILK, Salt, Cheese Cultures, Vegetarian Coagulant, Penicillium roqueforti
coagulant
Vegetarian Coagulant
milk treatment
Pasteurised
location
Totnes, Devon
milk source
Bought-in
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milk type
Sheep
ingredients
Pasteurised Sheep's MILK, Salt, Cheese Cultures, Vegetarian Coagulant, Penicillium roqueforti
coagulant
Vegetarian Coagulant
milk treatment
Pasteurised
location
Totnes, Devon
milk source
Bought-in
season
All year
average age
6-12 Months
cheesemakers
Ben Harris
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Beenleigh Blue was the first blue cheese created by pioneering cheesemaker Robin Congdon, who utilised similar techniques to those used to make Roquefort, though the resulting cheese is quite different in taste.
Background
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Our Work
Randolph Hodgson started Neal's Yard Dairy at around the same time as Robin Congdon started Ticklemore Cheese Dairy, and we've worked closely together from the beginning – with Robin and now wit...
Read More
Randolph Hodgson started Neal's Yard Dairy at around the same time as Robin Congdon started Ticklemore Cheese Dairy, and we've worked closely together from the beginning – with Robin and now with Ben Harris who took over the cheesemaking in the early 2000s. We visit twice a year to taste and select cheese with Ben, and twice a year he comes to visit us at our Bermondsey arches. This dialogue is essential, as Ben's cheeses are matured on the farm and delivered to Neal's Yard Dairy ready to sell. More recently, we have been keeping some of Ben's younger Beenleigh Blues and maturing them in our maturing rooms to create Brunswick Blue: a more dense and biscuity blue cheese with a natural rind.
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Accompaniments
Serving Suggestions
After pan frying a steak, melt some Beenleigh Blue into the juices for a delicious and simple sauce.
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.
Beenleigh Blue
A delicately blue sheep’s milk cheese from Devon, with a lemony sweetness and moist, crumbly texture
Beenleigh Blue was the first blue cheese created by pioneering cheesemaker Robin Congdon, who utilised similar techniques to those used to make Roquefort, though the resulting cheese is quite different in taste.
milk type
Sheep
ingredients
Pasteurised Sheep's MILK, Salt, Cheese Cultures, Vegetarian Coagulant, Penicillium roqueforti
coagulant
Vegetarian Coagulant
milk treatment
Pasteurised
location
Totnes, Devon
milk source
Bought-in
season
All year
average age
6-12 Months
cheesemakers
Ben Harris
background
Beenleigh Blue is one of three cheeses created by Robin Congdon and now made by Ben Harris and his team at Ticklemore Cheese Dairy in Totnes, Devon. The milk comes from Tom and Helen Garland, who farm locally in Devon, and contributes to the production of consistently high quality cheeses. After being moulded and pierced to allow the blue mould to form, the cheese is wrapped at a few weeks of age to prevent the development of a rind.
our work with this cheese
Randolph Hodgson started Neal's Yard Dairy at around the same time as Robin Congdon started Ticklemore Cheese Dairy, and we've worked closely together from the beginning – with Robin and now with Ben Harris who took over the cheesemaking in the early 2000s. We visit twice a year to taste and select cheese with Ben, and twice a year he comes to visit us at our Bermondsey arches. This dialogue is essential, as Ben's cheeses are matured on the farm and delivered to Neal's Yard Dairy ready to sell. More recently, we have been keeping some of Ben's younger Beenleigh Blues and maturing them in our maturing rooms to create Brunswick Blue: a more dense and biscuity blue cheese with a natural rind.
pairing suggestion
After pan frying a steak, melt some Beenleigh Blue into the juices for a delicious and simple sauce.