Family run cheesemongers Cryer & Stott have revived an iconic 100 year old cheese recipe.
Coverdale cheese was founded in the idyllic area of the Yorkshire Dales of the same name in 1912 when Alfred Rowntree opened his dairy in nearby Masham.
The cheese then fell out of favour in the 1920’s with the dairy itself eventually ending up with the Milk Marketing Board who later closed it down in 1980’s. The recipe was then recreated by another local company, Fountains Dairy Products Ltd at Kirkby Malzeard near Ripon and latterly by Wensleydale Dairy who took over the company in 2000.
After being discontinued again earlier this year, the Cryer and Stott team recognised a demand from their customers, and so the Castleford based cheesemongers set about making the cheese one again.
Recreating the cheese in its traditional small scale format with their own modern, innovative twist, Cryer and Stott are now working closely with small artisan dairy, Home Farmer and together have produced an unpasteurised 6-week-old crumbly cheese with a traditional natural rind.
The reimagined cheese has a spongy textured mould rind, which is slightly crumbly with a subtle tang making it the perfect all-rounder on a cheeseboard, deli counter or even as a wedding cake.
Jemma Ladwitch, Business Development Manager at Cryer & Stott said: ‘’We couldn’t let this amazing cheese steeped in years of Yorkshire history disappear! Home Farmer are a fairly new artisan dairy based in the heart of the dales with their own herd of cows so they were the obvious choice to partner with to make the newly revived authentic Coverdale for us.’’
‘We’re proud to be investing in collaborations to keep these skills and recipes alive in Yorkshire.
We’ve been making the new Coverdale in small batches of twenty every 2 weeks and already have a waiting list to supply restaurants and retail shops around the region.
For more information on Cryer & Stott and their range of award winning cheeses visit their website www.cryerandstott.co.uk