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Durrus

About This Cheese

Semi-soft, washed-rind Irish Farmhouse cheese with a delicately pungent flavour. The aroma is one of hay, undergrowth and wet soil, in short it smells of the hillside in Coomkeen. The flavour is long, round and earthy, a flavour which is uniquely and unmistakably Durrus.  

9.8044.80

TypeSoft

Rennettraditional

RegionDurrus, co Cork

ProducerJeffa Gill

Milkcow

Rindwashed

Story

The Durrus rind varies from smooth and pale with a pinkish bloom to slightly gnarled with mottled pinks, ochres, browns and blacks. The variations depend on the season and age of the cheese but always the rind is complex and beautiful of itself. Under the rind, the paste is moist, elastic and slightly bulging. The aroma varies in intensity but is consistently of earthy wet soil, fresh hay and yoghurt. The flavour varies with age, the development of the rind and the size of cheese being tasted – there are earthy, rich, savoury flavours alongside a sweet milk. With age and particularly with the raw milk cheeses, the flavour and aroma grow more complex, deepening and developing more meaty elements. This is what Jeffa describes as ‘a deep, complex flavour which captures the elemental nature of this part of Ireland.’ Jeffa reckons the cheese is best at around 6 weeks old and is not overly affected by seasonality because the milk comes from staggered breeding.

Producer

Jeffa Gill has been making Durrus at her hillside farmhouse in West Cork since 1979. She has been more recently joined by her daughter Sarah. West Cork has long been associated with milk production in Ireland, thus making it an ideal location for cheesemakers; whilst the wet, saline sea air makes the area eminently suited to washed rind production. Durrus is one of those true artisanal products which reflect the environment in which they are produced. The milk comes from two local famers whose cattle graze around the edges of Dunmanus Bay

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Nutritional Information

Ingredients, allergens in bold

  • Pasteurised cow’s milk
  • Starter cultures
  • Standard rennet
  • Salt

 

Nutritional Values

Per 100g
Energetic value 1607 KJ= 388 Kcal
Fat 33.0g
Saturated fat 20.8g
Unsaturates fat 10.7g
Carbohydrates 1.5g
Sugar <0.1g
Protein 21.2g
Salt 1.4g
Sodium 576mg
Fibres <0.5g

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