Our Cheese

We produce our cheese using age old artisanal methods, with a Swiss cheese ‘harp’ to cut the curd by hand in a traditional copper lined cheese vat. The curds drain in their molds as they are turned by hand to gently form their shape.

Following a bath in briny water to absorb the salt they are then gently washed, wiped and turned each day in our ripening rooms in order to develop their characteristic mottled pinky grey rinds.

The original recipe created by Jeffa Gill in 1979. Durrus Cheese has a natural rind that is developed slowly by washing it with cultures that are specific to our dairy. These cultures develop the mottled pinkish skin as the cheeses ripen in our curing rooms.

The paste is straw coloured with irregular tiny holes and a soft pliable texture. The flavour of the Durrus can range from mild, mellow and grassy when young to rich, strong and earthy when aged.

Durrus Cheese has won many awards, both nationally and internationally, most recently it was awarded a Gold Medal at both the 2017 Irish Food Awards and 2017 British Cheese Awards, and 2 Gold Stars at the 2016 Great Taste Awards from the Guild of Fine Foods, UK.

Durrus Óg is a soft, young cheese that has a thin pinkish rind. The Durrus Óg was created in 2008 while tinkering around with sizes and maturity of our cheese. Having always melted the Durrus in one of our favourite dishes Tartiflette which would traditionally be made with French Reblochon, we were curious to see if we could create a version of our cheese that would more closely resemble this French classic. Hence Durrus Óg was launched and received a Silver Medal from the World Cheese Awards at it’s debut outing that year.

Durrus Óg continues to be highly acclaimed having been judged as the Best Semi Soft Cheese at the Artisan Cheese Awards in 2018 & 2019 as well as Best Irish Cheese at the British Cheese Awards, 2017. In 2016, Durrus Óg recieved the prestigious 3 Gold Stars Great Taste Award.

Durrus Óg is ideal on a cheeseboard, it also melts incredibly well in cooking and offers a great alternative to Reblochon in dishes such as tartiflette, pasta dishes, baked tartlets and more.

Our smoked cheese is made in small rounds and gently oak smoked. This is the newest cheese to our range and benefits from the gentle addition of the smoke without over powering the sweet creaminess of the young cheese.

Dunmanus Cheese is made from raw cow's milk. Only the summer milk is used for the production of this hard, aged cheese. The cows graze lush meadows adjacent to Dunmanus Bay where they are washed with the salt laden moist air from the Atlantic. This rich mixed pasture results in wonderful milk – a cheesemaker's dream ingredient. Using Jeffa’s long perfected cheese making skills this milk is crafted into a cheese that is pressed and aged for a minimum of 6 months in our ripening rooms.

The flavours of Dunmanus Cheese can range from gently sweet and nutty at 6 months, to more savoury, grassy and with a hint of sharpness from 10 months. We call Dunmanus a table cheese in our own house, by this we mean we keep it on the table or kitchen counter (we don’t keep it in the fridge) and we use it for everything – Ploughman's style lunches, fantastic cheese on toast, melted in gratins, grated over pasta – the works!