milk type
Cow
ingredients
MILK, salt, rennet
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Pasteurised
location
Near Truro, West Cornwall
milk source
Own herd
season
All year
average age
2-3 Months
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Cornish Yarg is so called for the person who invented it in the 1980s, Alan Gray, whose surname spelt backwards is Yarg.
background
our work with this cheese
Accompaniments
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Cornish Yarg
A striking, nettle-wrapped cheese whose delicately earthy rind gives way a buttery breakdown and crumbly core, with notes of lemon and yoghurt


Cornish Yarg is so called for the person who invented it in the 1980s, Alan Gray, whose surname spelt backwards is Yarg.
milk type
Cow
ingredients
MILK, salt, rennet
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Pasteurised
location
Near Truro, West Cornwall
milk source
Own herd
season
All year
average age
2-3 Months
background
At some point in the 1980s, while digging around in his attic, Cornish farmer Alan Gray stumbled across a 17th century recipe for nettle-wrapped cheese and set about recreating it. Today the cheese is produced by Catherine Mead and her team at Lynher Dairies in Ponsanooth, Cornwall. The nettles are foraged from the local hedgerows each spring and frozen so they can be used throughout the year. By the time the nettles are brushed onto the cheese, they have lost their sting, but they still play an important role in attracting the naturally occurring white moulds which contribute towards the breakdown of the cheese and its fresh, lactic taste. Made solely from milk from Lynher Dairy's own herd of Ayrshire cows, the Yarg is matured there for 21 to 28 days before coming to Neal's Yard Dairy ready to sell.
our work with this cheese
We have a longstanding relationship with Lynher Dairies, with whom we are in regular contact. Though most of the Cornish Yarg they make uses plant-based coagulant, they produce an animal rennet version especially for sale at Neal's Yard Dairy.