Various sized cut pieces sat on a whole Cornish Yarg cow’s milk cheese, showing the green nettle-wrapped, edible rind and buttery, creamy paste

Close up image of the creamy paste and nettle-wrapped rind of Cornish Kern cow's milk cheese

Close up of the mould-flecked green nettle-wrapped rind of a Cornish Yarg cow’s milk cheese

Neal's Yard Dairy Selection Box packaging

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.

PORTION

Sixteenth

MINIMUM 230 g

Eighth

MINIMUM 460 g

Quarter

MINIMUM 920 g

Half

MINIMUM 1845 g

Whole

MINIMUM 3695 g

Regular price £8.50 Sale

Quantity

- +

Spend over £29.50 to receive free delivery (England, Wales & Central Scotland)

Delivery Information

Standard delivery is free to most postcodes in the UK for orders over £29.50. Click here for a list of postcodes where additional delivery charges apply.

For orders under £29.50, standard delivery is £6.00.

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

Choose your preferred delivery date at checkout. As we use third party couriers (typically DPD) we cannot guarantee the arrival day of your order but we will do our best to ensure that it arrives as close as possible to your chosen date. To be sure it arrives in time, we recommend choosing a date a couple of days ahead of when you would like to eat your cheese.

Download Crib Sheet

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

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.

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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 rennet, they produce an animal rennet versio...

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Accompaniments

Biscuit Selection
£7.50

Damson Paste - 200g Slice
£8.20

Rosebud Piccalilli Chutney
£5.15

FAQs

How much cheese to buy?

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.

How should I store my cheese?

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.