Eating:

Both Cashel Blue and Crozier Blue are characterful cheeses with flavour and a pleasing creamy element, yet not overpowering strength, as such they represent good cheeseboard options, appealing to both blue cheese lovers and those who may be a little concerned to dare the blues! To enjoy Cashel Blue or Crozier Blue at their prime it is important that they be served at room temperature to allow the gentle creaminess and subtle range of flavours sing through!

Cashel Blue is widely used by chefs both at home and abroad and has graced the tables of Dublin Castle, The White House and Downing Street. Dishes including Cashel Blue over the years include among others:

• Eden Restaurant Dublin: Seared Beef Carpaccio With rocket leaves, Cashel Blue™ & Red Onion Marmalade
• Kevin Thornton’s Michelin starred Dublin restaurant Thornton’s: Cashel Blue with Grapes, Apple and Mulled Wine
• Dennis Cotter’s, Café Paradiso, Cork: Roast Aubergine gremolada of Cashel Blue Cheese & Kale with balsamic butter, polenta chips, and lentil, sweet pepper & coriander salsa
• The Pantry “farmers fare” London: Christmas mess, Ginger Parkin with clotted cream, Cashel Blue with rhubarb chutney, quince jelly and oatcakes
• The Taproom No 307, Manhattan: Fig and Cashel Blue Cheese Pizza

At home we enjoy Cashel Blue a little more simply however!

A Beechmount Farm Cheese Plate:
Our family preference is for pure and simple flavours which can capture the length of flavour of each food element. A simple family lunch at the kitchen table might represent a half wheel of Cashel Blue cut on the diagonal, left out for a few hours to allow the milky flavours and gentle creaminess break down, served, depending on the season and occasion with:

A medium rare juicy steak

Gently melted (low heat) over new season potatoes and salad leaves fresh from the garden accompanied by a fillet of local baked ham, plenty of salted Irish Butter and homemade rhubarb or apple chutney.

A tasty open sandwich made from a slice of batch loaf warmed a top the Aga, topped with caramelised onions (Louis Grubb grows some particularly sweet, juicy onions), and Cashel Blue.

Soup (a family staple), spinach, celeriac, sprouting broccoli, lettuce, depending on the season with a little Cashel Blue and the cream from the top of the milk jug, included at the end of cooking

A morning walk in the autumn may offer up the treat of open cap Field mushrooms, which we bake in the oven with a mixture of our Cashel Blue, cream cheese and a small spoonful of red onion marmalade.

At Christmas we’ve been known to enjoy leftover Christmas pudding (Plum pudding), heated up and served with a little Cashel Blue!

Cheeseboard Accompaniments:

• Fresh figs or pears, alternatively good quality dried dates and apricots
• Nuts: Walnuts and Pecans are our favourites
• A light mixed flower natural honey
• Water biscuits, fruit bread, raisin toast, good quality French Baguette

Drinking:
When it comes to finding something to drink with either your Cashel Blue or Crozier Blue, the classic combinations would be with dessert wines such as Sauternes from Bordeaux, Vin Santo from Italy, Tokaji Aszú from Hungary and Port from Portugal (an aged Tawny would be our Port of choice). Of course there are also many “New World” sweet wines, coming from California and Australia in particular, that also work well.

The sweeter wines work better with a more mature piece of blue cheese. When it comes to the younger, more acidic Cashel Blue or Crozier Blue it is necessary to find a wine that compliments the cheese with acidity of its own. For example, Cashel Blue works well when enjoying Gewurztraminer as an aperitif. Crozier Blue, which when young is more acidic than Cashel Blue, stands up well to super-zingy Riesling wines, especially if these have a touch of sweetness as can be found in the wonderful Mosel wines from Germany. However, if you want to eat your cheese with a salad, why not give a Sancerre or a Vouvray from the Loire Valley in France of a Pinot Grigio from Veneto in Italy a go.

Finding a red to match with a blue cheese can be a bit more of a challenge, and one that I would argue the “Old World” wines of France, Italy and Spain are more suited to tackle, as they tend to be earthier, less fruity, less alcoholic and slightly sharper. For Crozier Blue try the more acidic Syrah-based Northern Rhone wines or the Nebbiolo wines of Piedmont in Northern Italy. With Cashel Blue a slightly flatter, riper Southern Rhone can work well, as can a Merlot-based St Emilion (France), a Tempranillo dominated blend from Rioja (Spain) or a mainly Sangiovese mix Chianti (Italy). A note of warning, reds should have a bit of age to them and not have too many of the vanilla tones derived from new American oak in order to not overwhelm your Cashel Blue or Crozier Blue.

The joys of matching Cashel Blue or Crozier Blue to drink are not all about wine. Over the years we have had the fortune of discovering the following matchings:

• Beer: Chimay Blue, the well-known Belgium Trappist beer works well with Cashel Blue
• Chimay
• Whiskey:
• Connemara Whiskey from Ireland
• Non-alcoholic: Pear Juice

If you have any particularly favoured pairings, please let us know as finding a good combination can be an extremely pleasurable experience.