Ireland is teeming with rolling green hillsides, centuries old castles, and that legendary warmth and hospitality. It's also, maybe most surprising, home to one of the world's greatest culinary revivals.
Renowned chefs, gastronomic tours, exquisite converted manor houses, and top tier cookery schools are all contributing to the resurrection. And at the center of it all is Ireland's famous dairy culture.
At Kerrygold, we're proud to be a part of this movement, and prouder still of our circle of foodie friends who are driving the process. Browse through the images on the left and see what our friends are up to.
In Kanturk, Mary Burns is another one of the farmers who produces extraordinary milk. A farmhouse cheese maker since the 1970s, Burns took on the added responsibility of running the dairy farm with her son Gerald, after the death of her husband in 2000. By continuing the farm, she upholds a family tradition of 150 years. All her cattle are pedigreed Friesians.
The milk from the Burns' farm, as well as from neighboring farms, is pooled and churned at the local creamery. Together with other co-operatives of dairy farmers and creameries throughout Ireland, butter and cheeses are produced and sold in the United States under the Kerrygold brand.
A visit to Mary Burns' farm would likely include an invitation to tea, where tender scones, warm and fragrant from the oven, are served with Irish butter and homemade jam. Mary shares her favorite Irish scone recipe. "Don't forget the Irish butter," she says. "It has a true creamy texture and a smooth flavor that makes these scones taste their best."
Ardrahan Farms
Mary’s Irish scone recipe
William O'Callaghan is at home in the kitchens of Longueville House. The magnificent manor house where guests come to stay and dine also happens to be his family's residence. Longueville House was opened to guests in 1967 by William's parents, Michael and Jane O'Callaghan, as one of the first Irish country manor houses to be turned into a luxury family guesthouse and restaurant. Since 1988, it has been run by the second generation of O'Callaghans, William, who presides over the restaurant, and his wife Aisling, who is guesthouse manager.
The bounty of Longueville provides inspiration for the sophisticated menu. William O'Callaghan supplies the superior talent.
Longueville House
William’s Mushroom Risotto with Ivernia Cheese recipe
To dine at Ballyvolane House located in Castlelyons, County Cork and one of Ireland's most elegant manor houses, is to have stepped into a Jane Austen novel, where pampered guests of the landed gentry arrive for a house party with liveried servants in tow. Ballyvolane House is a family hotel and restaurant, run by Justin and Jenny Green.
The menu at Ballyvolane House celebrates locally produced ingredients, including the freshest, garden-grown fruits and vegetables, as well as salmon from the famous River Blackwater and local lamb, renowned for its tenderness and flavor. Ireland also is world-famous for its green pastures, the exclusive diet of the country's dairy cows, so cheese and butter star on the Ballyvolane House menu.
Ballyvolane House
Ballyvolane House Dubliner Cheese Soufflé
If environment makes the chef, then Cathal (silent "t") Armstrong, chef-owner of Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, VA, might look no further than his boyhood to find the roots of his success. One of Food & Wine magazine's Ten Best New Chefs of 2006, Armstrong has lived a rich and stimulating life of food from a young age. The talented chef grew up in Dublin, Ireland, where his father, whom he describes as, "a great natural cook," made family meals using produce from the garden. The family traveled extensively in Europe, where Armstrong was exposed to many cuisines and cultures.
Armstrong and his wife, Meshelle, opened Restaurant Eve in 2004 in Alexandria, VA serving American regional cuisine from sustainably produced ingredients. Armstrong considered an Irish restaurant but doubted its appeal to Americans seeking serious dining.
He did use Irish butter, however. "I went shopping for butters. I tried French butters and all the top brands," he recalled. Armstrong picked Kerrygold because "It has a distinctive palate feel - a creamy texture without the typical waxy finish. I use salted Kerrygold for the table and for some baking, and unsalted for all the other cooking."
"Kerrygold has a distinctive flavor - it's a rich, creamy butter," Armstrong said, adding that high butterfat content alone doesn't necessarily produce superior butter. "What I believe is, because of Ireland's pasture - fed cattle - they're not fed on grain - it has a different taste. The soft green Irish grass gives it its distinctive flavor."
Here's a recipe from Armstrong using Irish butter. It's a dish he makes with his children, Eve and Eamonn on those precious Sundays off. It would make a delicious, good family meal, any time of the year.
Restaurant Eve
Roast Chicken with Gravy recipe
Deirdre Cronin loves her "girls," the 30 head of dairy cows she raises affectionately on a small family farm outside Mallow, County Cork, Ireland. Cronin has a personal relationship with each of her girls. "They have their own personality," she revealed with a chuckle, "and my favorite ones have names. One cow is small and dainty and a bit fussy in the milking parlor so I call her Miss Fussy."
Milk from Cronin's cows, along with that of neighboring farms, goes to the local creamery, a dairy cooperative, in Kanturk. There the milk is churned into butter for local consumption, as well as produced under the Kerrygold brand for shipment around the world.
Irish butter is a bright, natural yellow from the beta-carotene found in the rich Irish grass. "Definitely, it starts with the grass," Cronin says. "The green Irish pastures the cows graze on affect the quality and flavor of the milk produced by the cows and used in making the butter."
An accomplished cook, Deirdre likes to whip up some Colcannon, adding shredded Dubliner cheese to the traditional Irish dish of mashed potatoes and cabbage. And of course, she’ll add Kerrygold Butter for the most authentic flavor.
Deirdre’s Colcannon recipe
Camilla Baker loves to cook, and has worked as a professional chef for over eighteen years. As a working mother with two young sons, she shares her experiences of food and cooking in her blog Family of Foodies. After training in Tasmania, Australia, Camilla spent more than ten years travelling the world - living and working in London and Edinburgh in the U.K., Florence, Italy, and Chicago in the United States. Her resume includes stints in Terence Conran’s Great Eastern Hotel in London (now called Andaz) as well as Campagnola and Union Pizzeria in Chicago
After living in the US for more than six years, Camilla returned to her native Austrialia in December 2008, and now lives in Sydney with her husband and two young sons. She owns a catering company and has co-authored a book of family meals, “Family of Foodies” with U.S.-based author Jessie Knadler. She shares with us her recipe for Sticky Date Cake (Sticky Toffee Pudding) adapted from a family favorite passed to her by her mother.
Camila Baker
Sticky Date Pudding recipe
Enda Howley's story reads like a cheese lover's fairy tale. In 2001, the Irish Dairy Board held a company-wide sensory panel taste-off, searching for the next cheese grader. Only two highly skilled graders are entrusted with the maturing and aging of the company’s Kerrygold cheeses, and one was set to retire.
"To my amazement – and everyone else's – we discovered that I was a super taster. I was surprised myself when I was told I had a heightened sense of taste that enables me to pick up the most delicately nuanced flavors," Howley said. An international food marketer for the Irish Dairy Board, Howley was anointed the next cheese grader, diverting his career to an unexpected new path.
Howley plays a critical role in making natural cheese. He ensures that the right cheeses are selected for maturing and aging. Throughout the maturation process, he tastes the cheeses, and continues to grade and select, month after month, until the cheeses reach perfection.
An avowed "foodie," Howley has many creative ways to use the cheeses he so carefully nurtures. For a quick but delicious lunch, he turns Dubliner into a ploughman's sandwich, taking inspiration from the classic Irish ploughman's lunch, a meat-and-cheese salad, Howley's version packs everything onto rustic bread, ready to enjoy with a pint.
Enda’s Ploughman’s Sandwich recipe