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Fantastic cheeses and where to find them

Antje77

Guru
Retired Moderator
There's been mouth-watering talk of Wensleydale, Shropshire Blue, yarg, Lancashire cheese, stinky French cheese, cheese hampers, Montgomery's mature cheddar truckle, Stoney Cross and more on different threads.
Most of those cheeses are unavailable in my country, and often unavailable of good quality in supermarkets.

Holidays outside my own country are a very rare thing in my household, thanks to pets, anxiety disorder, and finances, but it looks like I'll be visiting yours again next year!
Still lots of time for planning, the holiday will take place in september/october, when I'll be visiting Liverpool and likely the Lake District, maybe more, with my car and my little tent.
But it's never too early to start planning what goodies to buy and where to find them, and I think a cheese thread on the forum isn't a bad thing in general either.

So please share all your cheese secrets here!
From local farm shops to amazing supermarket finds, we want to know them all!

Tagging @Paul_ , @DJC3 , @PenguinMum , @lovinglife , @Pipp , @LivingLightly , @In Response , @Outlier , who've all posted about their love of cheeses and who might be able to advise me on what delicious contraband to take home with me when visiting the UK.
 
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These are all personal experience recommendations. The absolute best place is the Courtyard Dairy a couple of miles past Settle heading for Kirkby Lonsdale. Skipton market has a very good cheese mobile van stall. Also Airton Farm Shop, small range but all good.

Booths Supermarket has the best range for non-specialist shops IMO.

There is a decent cheese shop on Gillygate in York called Love Cheese, and another one called the Cheese Trader in Grape Lane.

Further South (much further) the Mousetrap in Ludlow. And the cheese man in a van on the market square.
 
I've developed a recent liking for 2 Swiss cheeses. Might they be available to you in the Netherlands @Antje77 ,what with being in euro zone?
Schlossberger and Bergwiese. (Latter may be known as Mountain meadow cheese)

And if anyone in UK finds them, please let me know. We bought from Truckle Truck in Dorset that only sells at markets and doesn't do mail order
 
I’ll fill you in nearer the time @Antje77
 
Ooooh I love cheese. I tend to buy mine from a local farm shop near me, but M&S sell Blacksticks Blue which is one of my favourite strong hard cheeses, as is Black Bomber which I buy from my butcher. Not a fan of mild cheeses at all.
 
ATB123 said:
which is one of my favourite strong hard cheeses, as is Black Bomber which I buy from my butcher. Not a fan of mild cheeses at all.
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Oh, it looks like this one is occasianally available from supermarkets in the Netherlands, and this is the time of year such things are sold.
I'll keep an eye out for the Black Bomber!
 
ATB123 said:
Ooooh I love cheese. I tend to buy mine from a local farm shop near me, but M&S sell Blacksticks Blue which is one of my favourite strong hard cheeses, as is Black Bomber which I buy from my butcher. Not a fan of mild cheeses at all.
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Another vote for Black Bomber. It's sold in Waitrose, plus a number of local shops such as butchers. It's made by Snowdonia Cheese, who do a number of other options too - https://www.snowdoniacheese.co.uk/product-category/cheese/

Most of my other recommendations are from the South West, but I've likely forgotten some from further afield that I'll add later:

Black Cow (their vodka is very good too) - https://www.blackcow.co.uk/products/900g-truckle-cheddar-cheese

Ford Farm Wookey Hole Cave Aged Cheddar (Asda and Waitrose) - https://www.wookey.co.uk/cave-aged-cheddar/

Dorset Blue Vinny - Available from a number of stockists - https://www.dorsetblue.com/stockists

James' cheese (highly recommend the Francis one, available by subscription or from a farm shop in Dorset) - https://jamesscheese.club/ or https://www.goldhillorganicfarm.com/

Book & Bucket Cheese do a few sheep's milk cheeses - https://www.thebookandbucketcheesecompany.co.uk/stockists. The Shakespeare is really good - https://www.thebookandbucketcheesecompany.co.uk/product-page/shakespeare-150g
 
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@Antje77 I live in the south so don’t know of good cheese shops up the country. I find farm shops often have a really good cheese counter rather than prepacked, mine certainly does BUT at a price. My favourite is Shropshire Blue but there are any number of rare small batch cheeses to explore. Waitrose cheese counters are good recently found a mature Red Leicester type called Red Storm which was wonderfully mature and crumbly, came as a big wheel wrapped in wax.
 
If you like a milder cheese, there's Scottish Dunlop cheese, or Scottish Arran cheese. Even milder there is Orkney Craboc - the very mildest of that is the younger one which is very creamy and mild, but there is a more mature one as well. The Craboc is rolled in oatmeal, but there's not much on a slice of the cheese.
 
Stoney Cross is very local (New Forest) and only seems to appear at Farmers' Markets in the Deep South, but maybe they would do mail order? It's not a strong cheese but mellow and rich. Our local Aldi has quite a range of British cheeses too, at very kind prices. I love their Burland Blue British Brie.
 
That's quite close to me; my local Aldi has British Brie, but not Burland Blue, and OH loves blue cheese. Would you mind telling me which Aldi has it, please?
 
That's quite close to me; my local Aldi has British Brie, but not Burland Blue, and OH loves blue cheese. Would you mind telling me which Aldi has it, please?
 
For Those who like strong cheese Lincolnshire Poacher can knock your socks off depending on where you buy it. I’ve noticed a big difference in strength if I buy it from a supermarket or farm shop. There is a wonderful cheese shop in Lincoln. Maybe a bit too far south for your visit @Antje77
Also a Red Leicester called Red Fox has a wonderful flavour.
 
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Every time I visit Ireland I am amazed by the cheeses I get on a local cheese platter. Sadly, my local (usually very good) cheesemongers do not sell Irish cheese apart from Cashel Blue.
I miss Cáis na Tíre (a lovely sheep's cheese) and Cnoc Dubh (pyramid goat's cheese a bit like Valncay) and Gubeen (creamy cow's cheese) in England.
 
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