Isle of Mull is a dense, hard farmhouse cheese with some occasional blue veins.
The cheese is made by a Jeff Reade at Sgriob-ruadh [1] Farm on the Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland. It is the only dairy farm on the island.
Isle of Mull Cheese uses unpasteurized milk from Friesian, Ayrshire, Jersey and Brown Swiss cows, who during the winter are fed hay and used malt grain from the Tobermory Distillery (also on the island.) Milk from the herd goes directly to the cheese making buildings.
The milk is curdled using calf’s rennet. The cheeses are wrapped in cloth and aged for up to 12 months. Its pale yellow rind shows the cloth marks.
Isle of Mull Cheese made in the winter will be paler as no colouring is added to make it look the same as the summer cheese.
It is made in 55 pound (25 kg) cylinders.
Cooking Tips
Isle of Mull Cheese can be grated.
History Notes
Jeff Reade started making Isle of Mull Cheese in 1985. The cheese used to be matured at the Tobermory distillery. By 1999, the farm had acquired its own cheese cellar at the front of the buildings.
Language Notes
[1] The farm’s name, pronounced “Ski-brooah”, means “Red Furrow.”