How to make the perfect lunchbox
Back to work, school, real life – it’s a drag after all that relaxed outdoor living. Experts say you can keep the holiday feeling going by employing the same habits you enjoyed over the summer. If you are anything like us, that means simple, good food with little or no preparation. Think picnic. Apple, Yarg, a chunk of good bread – job done (oh, and young children love to boast that they eat nettles for lunch!)
Stithians – as good as it’s always been
We’re busy making our Stithians cheese in the dairy at the moment (not to say we aren’t equally busy with Yarg and Kern production!) and it struck us that some of you might not be as familiar with it as you are our other cheeses.
This isn’t because it’s new – in fact, it’s a recipe that goes back almost as long as Lynher Dairies itself does – but because we only make it from time to time as a Limited Edition treat. Named after our local village, it’s a lovely fresh semi hard cheese that gains a great depth of flavour as it matures.
Some of you are already in the know, but if you aren’t and would like to try it this winter, do ask at your local deli. We’ll do our best to point them in the right direction to secure a truckle or two.
It’s not ready yet, but think pumpkins, bonfire nights and twinkly street lights and you’ll be about right!
Gold, silver and bronze!
We’re delighted with our latest haul of awards from the Great Taste Awards 2018.
Three stars for Kern, our long maturing black waxed farmhouse cheese, a silver for our nettled Yarg and a bronze for Wild Garlic.
These wins come hot on the back of another three at this year’s British Cheese Awards, again for all three cheeses, Take another bow, please, Lynher cheesemakers!
A Yarg kind of summer…
We have long been on a campaign to banish plastic cheese from the British picnic …and the British barbecue come to that. It really has no place when a cheese as delicious and easy to get hold of as Yarg is available.
Its low melting point makes it an ideal cheese to melt over burgers, and as far as popping a slice between two pieces of home made bread goes, why wouldn’t you?
We’ve been building an extensive database of stockists so if you are having any difficulty finding Yarg in your area, wherever in the UK that might be, give us a ring at the dairy on 01872 870789 or email us at sales@lynherdairies.co.uk and we will point you in the right direction.
If it’s a large party you’re planning, then buy a whole truckle or two of nettled or wild garlic straight from our dairy, by going to our Shop page. They sit too prettily on a cheeseboard to go unnoticed.
Enjoy the sunshine!
Gold, Gold, Silver, Bronze!
Nope, not a child’s playground skipping game but our latest haul of awards from the British Cheese Awards 2018.
Our nettled Yarg won not one but two Golds – one for the traditional recipe and the other for the vegetarian variety. Wild Garlic scooped a silver and our new cheese Kern was awarded a bronze. Take a bow, please, Lynher cheesemakers!
The British Cheese Awards are held in Somerset at the Royal Bath and West show ground, and showcase more than a thousand cheeses from all over the UK.
What does it take to be a cheese judge?
Lynher Dairies owner Catherine Mead knows the answer to that often asked question, having judged at both national and international level. Soon to take over as chair of the Specialist Cheese Association, Catherine’s knowledge of the many different cheesemaking processes is extensive – and her nose for a great cheese is spot on!
May and June sees the British Cheese Awards, held in Somerset, so Catherine will be away from the dairy for a few days, cutting, smelling, tasting and admiring many of the different cheeses from the one thousand entries that come in from all over the country.
“Taste, texture, aroma and appearance are four good places to start when it comes to considering a good cheese,” she explains. “A great artisan cheese has to tick all boxes. Flavour is obvious, but texture plays an important part in the enjoyment. Smell too – in some cases, the smellier the better. And not all cheeses are breathtakingly pretty, but for us, a naturally occurring mould is a beautiful thing!”
A little birdie tells us…
Maybe not a little birdie but a spot of market research has revealed something we didn’t realise and that is that quite a lot of you have heard of Yarg and would like to try it but don’t know where to go to buy it. This is a terrible state of affairs!
Yarg is actually widely stocked in the UK, from delis and fine food shops to local farm shops and Michelin starred restaurants. If it isn’t offered by your favourite artisan cheese seller, then please do ask someone behind the counter to get some in! We sell to wholesalers up and down the country so can help with supply. Yarg can also be found in Waitrose and other selected stores.
Please call us at the dairy on 01872 870789 or email us at sales@lynherdairies.co.uk if you need any further help.
Look out for us at food fairs and agricultural shows too. And if you want a beautiful baby truckle (around 900g) as soon as possible, then simply go to our Shop page, place an order and we will do the rest.
If you go down to the woods today…
…you might well see swathes of glossy, green wild garlic leaves but you probably won’t see any of our Lynher Dairies leaf-picking team at work because we forage in out-of-the-way places where we know the best leaves will have grown untouched, and mostly unseen, by human activity. We can’t use torn or trodden-on leaves, nor do we want anything that might have been exposed to any traffic fumes or other pollutants so we really do have to hike off into the great Cornish beyond. But we need to hurry – the wild garlic loses its beautiful deep colour all too quickly, and once the flowers arrive, we’ve had it.
This winter (as we all know!) has been a long and cold one, and that has an effect on the leaves we pick. Size matters, with nettle leaves in particular. Too small a leaf and the traditional concentric circle our skilled nettlers employ to wrap our Yargs in is impossible. Gathering thousands of the very best leaves in what is a fairly tight time scale is no easy task.
We owe Nature a great deal, but let’s hear it for our pickers too!
Make use of Yarg’s low melting point with this cheesy sharing bread
Yarg stuffed Flatbread
strong, white bread flour 500g
salt 10g
instant yeast 10g
unsalted butter 30g
water about 300mls
Put the flour in a large, warm mixing bowl and add the salt and the dried yeast. Add the butter and most of the water, then mix with your hands to bring the mixture together. Gradually add the remaining water until all the flour is mixed in.
Put the dough on a lightly floured board and knead for 5-10 minutes. When the dough feels smooth and silky, place it back in the mixing bowl, cover it with a warm tea towel and leave it in a warm place to rise for at least an hour until the dough has doubled in size. Tip the dough on to a floured surface, fold repeatedly until all the air is knocked out of it, then tear it into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.
Make an indentation into each ball, and push in some crumbled Yarg. Caramelised onions and semi dried tomatoes work well here too.
Put a ball of the stuffed dough on a well- floured work surface and flatten with a rolling pin into a disc or oval about 16cm in diameter. Place on a baking sheet and continue with the others.
Put the baking sheet of flatbreads in a warm place for 10-15 minutes. Warm a heavy-based frying pan over a moderate heat. Rub lightly with a little olive oil, place two or three flatbreads into the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes. Once they have darkened here and there, turn them over and cook the other side. A little blistering is good. Remove and eat immediately.
(With thanks to Nigel Slater, Paul Hollywood and the extended Lynher Dairies family – in other words, everyone had something to say!)
Twice baked Cornish Yarg soufflé
50g butter, melted
1 small onion
275ml/10fl oz whole milk
1 bay leaf
3 peppercorns
40g plain flour
150g Yarg
1 tsp English mustard
6 tbsp double cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon of thyme leaves
Preheat oven to 200C/Gas 6. Brush butter into small ramekins, make discs of baking parchment to pop in the bottom, brush butter over the discs. Place on baking tray. Heat onion, milk, bay leaf and peppercorns gently for 5 minutes and set aside. Stir flour into the remaining melted butter, return to the heat and cook for a minute, stirring. Add strained milk to make a smooth and thick sauce.
Add Yarg and mustard, cook until cheese melts. Stir in thyme and season to taste. Cool for five minutes, then beat in egg yolks one at a time until thoroughly mixed.Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks are formed. Stir dollops into the cheese mixture quite rapidly to slacken the mix, then fold the rest in gently, trying to preserve as much volume as possible while ensuring the white is properly folded in. Spoon the soufflé mixture into the ramekins until it almost reaches the top. Bake in the centre of the oven for 15-20 minutes until very well risen and golden-brown on top.
Remove the tray from the oven and leave the soufflés to cool in their ramekins. When the soufflés are cold, release them from their ramekins with a knife and turn them into your hand. Place them in an ovenproof dish upside down. Cover with cling film and chill in the fridge until needed. When ready to serve, preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Take the cling film off, sprinkle with Yarg, spoon a tablespoon of cream over the top of each souffle. Bake for 10 minutes until the soufflés are hot and the Yarg topping has melted. Serve immediately.
Go on, you can do it!