First Alpine cheese from Northern Ireland artisan producer

Artisan producer Dart Mountain Cheese has recently produced Northern Ireland's first Alpine-style hand crafted speciality cheese.

The small company, based in the rugged Sperrin Mountains near Dungiven in county Derry, has named the cheese Kilcreen after a local town land and is the third speciality cheese produced in less than two years from cows milk.

Formed in 2012, Dart Mountain, also named after a local mountain, already has two semi-hard blue cheeses on sale in Northern Ireland - Sperrin Blue and Dart Mountain Dusk.

The latest cheese has also been created by cheese maker Julie Hickey, originally from Lincoln in Massachusetts, who runs the artisan business with husband Kevin. Producing an Alpine cheese has been a longstanding ambition of Julie, who studied cheese making techniques before starting the business.

The cheese is produced in small batches to ensure consistent quality in a purpose-build unit on a small rural estate owned by the family.

Commenting on the new cheese, Julie says: "Our Kilcreen cheese is made to an Emmental recipe. It's a pasteurized cheese. At some point soon, I plan to move into raw milk production once I build up proof of a safe process of cheese making through regular testing with an accredited lab.

"In the Kilcreen process the milk is scalded to a high temperature which helps to expel more whey. A variety of cultures are added into the milk including a propionic bacteria which is gas producing and is what causes the holes or 'eyes' that are characteristic of Alpine-style cheeses.

"Originally I began making the cheese in large 50 pound wheels but in the most recent batch I scaled them down to a more manageable size which is handier since they are turned and washed very regularly.

"They are washed with a mixture of brine and whey which helps to build up a natural rind and contributes to flavour. We are ageing them anywhere from four months on to eight to nine months and beyond.

"The flavour I would describe as nutty and, at four months, relatively mild," she adds.

The husband and wife team also own Tamnagh Foods which has won Great Taste Awards for its handmade granolas that are now being stocked by Harrods in London.