A king amongst cheeses - big cheese indeed (Shepherds Purse)

Member Name: Highwayman

Product:	Shepherds Purse
Date:	01/05/02 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Locally made from local milk, buying direct from the producer

Disadvantages: best eaten outdoors - as if thats a disadvantage

I first tried this cheese in 1995, on holiday in Yorkshire. I was staying in a B&B in Aysgarth which had a cheese shop attached ( as you do) and decided to allow the proprietor to suggest a cheese for lunch.

We tried all of his suggestions and decided on the Shepherds Purse blue ( now seeminly the Mrs Bells Blue). It is a ewe's milk cheese, handmade in Thirsk, and well worth trying.

I'm not normally a ewe's cheese fan. I love my cheese smelly, and sharp, but there's normally something in ewe's milk cheese that I'm not sure about.......they tend to be very "farmyardy". (Either that or I'm prejudiced as my first job was on a dairy farm - and I'm married to a dairyfarmers daughter!). It's the final note that gets me.

The Shepherds blue was different though.....smooth and creamy, the blue bits slightly nutty, finishing smoothly with a lasting taste that reminds you you're alive. Take it out of the refrigerator a couple of hours before you eat, ( you should do this with most foods anyways) spread it on fresh bread rolls and you can taste the Yorkshire moors. If you also happen to have a bottle of chilled white wine beside you, and a view of the Moors in front of you there is no better way to lose an hour or so.

I have tried this cheese again and again. My daughter (11 years old, hates smelly stuff) likes it. OK - so she didn't realise the foul trick her old man had played on her by not saying it was A) sheeps milk and B) blue - but by the time she realised it was too late.

It's available at Tesco's, apparently. I dont think Ive seen it in our local Tesco's, but I don't think I would buy it anyways..............for me it's a cheese which cries out to be eaten in the fresh air, just the way I first tried it. I'm not the only person who thinks this cheese has merits - it has won many awards.

Try it for yourself though - with my emotional
baggage of time and place(and being on holiday). You'll probably love it.....but I dont think there's any way you will think it just "OK"

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