milk type
Goat
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Pasteurised
location
Dorstone, Herefordshire
milk source
Bought-in
season
All year
average age
3-4 Weeks
cheesemakers
Charlie Westhead
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A version of Ragstone is also made in Uganda, thanks to Conan, the son of Ragstone's creator Charlie Westhead. While working in a disabled children's foundation in Uganda, he helped to establish a goat farm to raise funds for the project and taught them how to make cheese in the style of Ragstone and Dorstone.
background
our work with this cheese
Accompaniments
Serving Suggestions
Slice some leeks lengthways and griddle with a little oil. Finish with a scattering of Ragstone, pine nuts and a drizzle of balsamic oil for an elegant side dish.Recipes
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Ragstone
A soft, matured goat’s cheese with a densely fudgy texture and lactic, lemony flavours reminiscent of crème fraiche


A version of Ragstone is also made in Uganda, thanks to Conan, the son of Ragstone's creator Charlie Westhead. While working in a disabled children's foundation in Uganda, he helped to establish a goat farm to raise funds for the project and taught them how to make cheese in the style of Ragstone and Dorstone.
milk type
Goat
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Pasteurised
location
Dorstone, Herefordshire
milk source
Bought-in
season
All year
average age
3-4 Weeks
cheesemakers
Charlie Westhead
background
Ragstone, one of the first cheeses developed by Charlie Westhead for Neal's Yard Dairy, is inspired by the French goat's cheese Sainte Maure, although Ragstone is very much its own cheese. For a start, Charlie uses a white mould, rather than the blue-grey of Sainte Maure, and he has recently adapted the recipe to produce a smoother, creamier cheese, with less acidity and more complexity. After setting overnight, the curds are hand-ladled into log-shaped moulds – a slower, gentler process that contributes toward the cheese's smooth texture and rounded flavour. The cheeses are matured for two to four weeks, during which time they develop a bloomy-white rind and a bright, lactic taste. Though it is named for the Ragstone ridge near Sevenoaks where it was first created, this popular goat's cheese log has been produced in the Golden Valley in Herefordshire since the Westheads moved there in 1996. With windmills and solar panels generating most of their energy and drain water being purified through a wetland system of willows and reeds, Neal's Yard Creamery is a model of sustainability.
our work with this cheese
Ragstone is made at Neal's Yard Creamery by Charlie Westhead – one of Neal's Yard Dairy's earliest employees. Neal's Yard Dairy started life as an actual dairy in Covent Garden, making yoghurts and crème fraiche and a few young cheeses. As we expanded into selling cheeses made elsewhere and it became apparent that the cheesemaking and cheese selling activities made more sense as separate businesses, the Creamery was established and moved to Kent. While the business has been independent from us since 1996, we continue to work closely together and Charlie remains a valued friend and supplier. The Ragstone cheeses that we sell at the Dairy are specially selected at a young age, before the bloomy-white rind has established. They arrive with us when seven days old and are carefully matured in the cold rooms of our Bermondsey arches for a further two or three weeks.
pairing suggestion
Slice some leeks lengthways and griddle with a little oil. Finish with a scattering of Ragstone, pine nuts and a drizzle of balsamic oil for an elegant side dish.