Crozier Blue

Surely we could say Ireland has more seasons than it did before? That Autumn’s colours are no longer found solely in crates holding cider apples crops or confined to the meandering lines of uprooted carrots and beetroot and the odd wanderer’s scarf. Nor are our summer shorts reserved for holidays abroad and those immune to reason teenagers set loose at night.

There are glorious autumn colours in our trees, thick slanted sunlight highlighting golds and yellows with occasional flashes of tropic red and ready peach, earlier there were even ripe plums.  In the summers we drank caipirinhas and had barbecues wearing shorts and loose cotton shirts – not even needing to shiver by the grill, waterproofed and smiling resilient in the rain.

Summer and caipirinha references might seem a stretch of context in this colder weather but it is deliberate. As with these brighter more illuminated seasons, we are in a new context, a new burgeoning. Ireland of recent years has had new vibes brought to its populace and their habituals through the changing of the seasons - but also through curiosity and travel, immigration and experimentation.

(How does this relate to cheese? Almost there..)

Picture from Neal’s Yard Dairy’s Site

New seasons and seasonal, Ireland is known for its mountain lamb but you would have been given the local pub its craic for the night if you had tried to milk ones of those poor craitures… sure you might as well have gone for the ram. Ireland was not known for milking sheep breeds or sheep milk cheese - until recently. To name a few we have: Cratloe Hills, Cais na Tiré, Knockdrinna Meadow and one (and only one) mighty Blue – Crozier, from Tipperary. 

Curiosity and experimentation: In 1993 Cashel Blue makers Jane and Louie Grubb brought over just enough sheep milk from the English Berswell herd to make one sheep interpolation of Cashel Blue.  It tasted like we need to make another round.

from the Tipptatler… who knew?

Immigration and travel: the Grubb’s cousins, the Clifton Brownes brought over a small number of milking Friesland Sheep and crossed them with some of their own. Add a few years, an adventurous learning curve and there is now a herd of 400 milking Sheep grazing the grass above the rich limestone beds of Ballinamona Farm within sight of the Rock of Cashel. It is a great site.

It is a fabulous sheep cheese. They have even managed to sell it to the French. Crozier (named after the Shepherd’s staff) is not as assertive as Roquefort but when it is ripe, it is rich, piquant from the blue with a light fattiness and saltiness that I love to find in Sheep’s milk.  Ireland produces wonderful sheep milk – it is no wonder that our lamb has always been so good. When it the cheese is young or not quite as in season, it can be a little saltier and drier without the richness of the matured in season milk curd to carry it through, but seasons come (for some cheese it can be a couple of times each year) and the good news is that Crozier Blue is coming into one of its peak periods of the year right now.  Summer milk, long maturation…and we into our cooler nights, it is time for some of this heartening and not for the faint hearted cheese.

Steve McQueen

Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue 

(…it fitted to well, I had to).

Beloved libations and pairings:

Cider: I do not mean Bulmers, try fruity, light Normandie style cider, Craigie’s Dalliance or Ballyhook Flyer or Longueville House’s - I would love to try it with the Longueville Apple Brandy.

Wine: Sauternes, Vin Santo, Port or, for the younger cheese, a Reisling with a little sweetness. Cashel Blue's new generation, Sarah (née Grubb) and Sergio Furno have a background in wine and give some excellent suggestions.

For eating, I always like it straight up on a board.

luscious image from WiseGeek

It works well with:

Medjool dates sliced, stuffed generously with the cheese and sealed to disguise the content (you could eek it out with some cream) and popped into a warm oven for 1 min 32 seconds. Some chopped toasted hazelnuts or walnuts could work well here.

Or with momentarily seared fruit  (slices of pear or halved figs) and the cheese, with an eye to beauty, crumbled on top

**n.b. Aesthetic note: Blue cheese does not look pretty when it is heated, so either add it after the other ingredients have been warmed or don’t make its warmed addition visible to eye.