“The art of cheesemaking is about person, place, product and passion. The magic of cheese making is genius allied to geography.”
At the Gubbeen Dairy we make two cheeses the rindwashed Gubbeen and the smoked Cheese, using the milk from our herd one of a very few dairys that is family based using the milk from its own herd
The Gubbeen herd is out earlier than most Irish farms as we are influenced by the Gulf Stream bringing in warm winds and early grass.
Gubbeen Cheese
These all come from our farm, and are all made from our own herd's milk.
Traditional rennet, Salt, Lactic cultures, (not vegitarian rennet)
We have 3 sizes, Large, Small and the Extra Matures
400gs or the Small
1.4kg aka Large
3.5Kg or as we call it the XL or Mature
Large Gubbeen with Washed Rinds are pinkish with a white bloom - this rind, or crust, is actually a triple layered bloom of different organisms. The first being yeasts which grow within 3 days of cheeses arriving in the curing rooms and having been inoculated with the micoseeds of the Gubbeen Flora.
Once the yeasts have arrived the brevibacterium linens will grow rapidly giving the rind a tan and a nutty scent, this is then encouraged with not only the salt and water washes, but the addition of white wine; it balances the pH of the rind, protects and encourages the flora - within 5 days there will be a top bloom of the oxygen loving white candidum - this micro-garden traffic influences the appearance, structure and flavour of Gubbeen as its root stock works through the body of the cheese softening and flavouring.
Age
At ten days the Gubbeen will have its characteristic nose of mushrooms, nuts, bog and forest floor, there is also for people with good noses a long after scent of butter
By four weeks this will have evened out and the body of the cheese will have softened and there is a good "bounce" to the texture, we would consider this to be Mature now, but there is always more …
With good monitoring of temperature and humidity we bring the Extra Mature on for another month - its body is deeper so the age works its way through and the rind culture moves through the paste, it is ideal by eight weeks and can deepen in flavour for another month with good care.
Use by
One of the traps we fall into in the modern market is the Use-By system - putting an accurate date on the cheese, TRICKY!
To support the labelling laws for shops we suggest 60 days, from date of packing. When a customer buys a cheese with 60 days on its use-by guide it can be far from the case - at 60 days the cheese might just be coming into its best if it has been cared for by professional cheesemongers. Equally a cheese of one week old can be ruined by putting it in the Freezer!
Smoked Cheese
Traditional rennet, Salt, Lactic cultures, (not vegitarian rennet)
Size: We have 3 sizes, Large, Small and the Extra Matures
400gs (average)
1.4kg
3.5Kg
We smoke our cheeses gently - it is very important to us that we make a cheese with Smoked Flavour. Not a Smoked Cheese with cheese flavour!
Our smoking system is the Pinney system; Pinney's of Orford taught our friend Chris Jepson how to smoke his salmon. He designed his smoke box from their clever and subtle design and when he finally retired he passed this skill on to Fingal. Our cheeses are now smoked here at the dairy in Gubbeen.
We wax the Smoked cheese in a black wax from Holland called Ceska; it keeps the smoke in and yet lets the cheeses breath as they mature.