Cotherstone


Cotherstone is back. This varied cheese can range from fresh, flaky and acidic to smooth and custardy. We are expecting more variety to come with the change in cheesemaker. 

 

Portion
Price
Regular price £17.00
Regular price Sale price £17.00
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6 weeks

Pasteurised Cow's MILK, Salt, Cheese Cultures, Vegetarian Coagulant

Standard delivery is free to most postcodes in the UK for orders over £39.50. Click here for a list of postcodes where additional delivery charges apply.

For orders under £39.50, standard delivery is £8.00.

Collection from our London shops is free - choose Shop Collection at checkout.

  • Spend over £39.50 to receive free delivery (England, Wales & Central Scotland)

Made by Gordon Cross

Co. Durham

Cornerstone has been made in Teesdale for hundreds of years, and was first recorded as “Cotherstone Cheese” in the Teesdale Mercury in 1883, which praised its high quality and growing national reputation.

The Cross family began making Cotherstone in 1947, when a winter storm left their farm snowed in and the milk undeliverable. Cheesemaking offered a way to preserve the milk—and a new family tradition was born. Joan Cross carried that tradition forward for over 40 years using a cherished family recipe, with Cotherstone becoming a fixture in the Neal’s Yard Dairy selection. Joan retired in 2023, but the cheese lives on: her son Gordon revived production in 2024, becoming the third generation of the family to make the cheese. Cotherstone is a traditional Dales-style cheese, made in Teesdale, just across the river from the village that gives it its name. Similar in style to Wensleydale and Swaledale, it is a semi-hard cheese with a light, crumbly texture and a fresh, lactic flavour.

Most Cotherstone is enjoyed locally as a fresh, unripened cheese. However, at Neal’s Yard Dairy, we salt the cheese the day after it arrives at our maturing rooms in Bermondsey. This draws out excess moisture and helps form a firmer rind. The cheese is then kept in one of our cooler maturing rooms, where it's turned several times a week for about a month. Once the rind reaches the desired texture, the cheese is wrapped and moved to a cold room to further mature, allowing the texture to soften and the flavours to deepen.

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