OGLESHIELD CHEESE FROM HARVEY & BROCKLESS

You may not be familiar with Ogleshield, but if you’ve tried the Hippo burger you may have noticed it’s not the usual cheddar cheese we use. We’re putting all you cheese connoisseurs to the test using the more obscure Ogleshield cheese. Ogleshield is a superb West Country equivalent to Raclette with a soft hint of wine.

Ogleshield cheese is made by The Montgomery Family in Somerset, but the recipe was developed by American cheesemakers, Caroline Smialek and Peter Kindel. The American duo helped the Montgomery’s develop a recipe using their Jersey milk. This cheese was named ‘Shield’ due to its appearance and size. Then, cheese maturer William Oglethorpe at Neal’s Yard Dairy theorised, if he washed the rind it would lock in more of the moisture and would mature very differently.  He washed young batches of the Shield cheese in salt water. Over time a sticky orange rind began to grow. The cheeses were moister, softer and the flavours rich, fruity and wine-like, not dissimilar to Raclette. To distinguish them from the Shield, an amalgam of the two names was derived and we got: Ogleshield.

We work with Harvey & Brockless to source this wonderful British Cheese. Established in 1975, Harvey & Brockless has the largest collection of British farmhouse cheeses in the UK.