Kitchen Dictionary: Cornish Yarg cheese

This delicious semi-hard cheese cheese from the British Isles is deliciously creamy under the rind and slightly crumbly in the core. It has a young, fresh, slightly tangy taste and is made by hand in open round vats. After pressing and brining, the cheese is wrapped in nettle leaves picked wild from neighboring properties and frozen for use throughout the year. The leaves are carefully brushed onto the cheese in a traditional pattern and they attract wonderful naturally occurring molds of various colors, which help the cheese ripen. As the cheese matures, these edible nettles impart a delicate, slightly mushroom taste. The final product has an attractive, lacy pattern of leaves in blue and green, giving the finished cheese a very unique appearance.

Ethnicity: British Ingredient

Season: available year-round