Beenleigh Blue Cheese

Beenleigh Blue Cheese is pale yellow with greenish-blue veins, and has a taste that is salty, sweet and tangy.

Website: https://ticklemorecheesedairy.wordpress.com/

See also: Devon Blue Cheese, Harbourne Blue Cheese

Production

Beenleigh Blue is made from January to July in Totnes, Devon, England from sheep’s milk.

The sheep’s milk is curdled with vegetarian rennet. The curd is then cut, let stand for 15 minutes, packed in moulds for 2 days, then unmoulded. The surface is salted, and after a few days holes are poked in it to allow air into the cheese. When blue mould has started, the cheese is wrapped in foil to stop a rind developing any further.

Beenleigh blue cheese is then aged for up to 7 months.

The cheeses will be 14 cm wide by 12 cm tall (5 ½ inches x 4 ¾ inches), and weigh 2.5 to 3 kg (5 ½ to 6 ½ pounds).

History Notes

Beenleigh blue cheese was developed by Robin Congdon in 1978. It was the first sheep’s milk blue cheese made in Devon in a long time. It was named after the hamlet where he first made it. He started with milk from two flocks of Dorset & Friesland cross sheep next door to his dairy.

At the 2019 Artisan Cheese Awards, Beenleigh Blue won a Gold award in the sheep category. ^[1]Accessed April 2022 at https://ticklemorecheesedairy.wordpress.com/beenleigh-blue/

Since at least 2020, it has been made by Ben Harris at Ticklemore Cheese Dairy. ^[2]”Made by Ben Harris who took over from Robin Congdon, this is one of the superb family of Ticklemore cheeses that includes Devon and Beenleigh Blues.” The Cheese Shed. Accessed April 2022 at https://www.thecheeseshed.com/products/cheese/goat/item/harbourne-blue