Renegade Monk is made from organic, pasteurised cows’ milk and then hand-washed in ale every few days as the cheese matures. Maturation takes no more than four weeks.
The cheesemaker, Marcus Fergusson, deliberately created a cheese of a style not traditionally found in Britain – but rather a cheese inspired by a range of Continental cheeses. The milk comes from Bruton Organic Dairy and the ale – Funky Monkey – from the Milk Street Brewery in Frome.
When the cheese is firmer, the rind tends to be darker but the interior is milder on the palate; when the cheese is soft – and it can be encouraged into liquidity – the rind is pale with a scatter of blue, with a pungent, almost goaty inner core.
Renegade Monk is a hybrid, combining as the attributes of soft white cheese, blue cheese and rind-washed cheese. Some purists may object to this untraditional combination – hence the Renegade in the name.
Renegade Monk is washed in ale, a technique that originated in the Franciscan monasteries of France and Belgium. The name also evokes the Knights Templar, the original renegade monks. Feltham’s Farm is near the village of Templecombe, where a Templar Preceptory was established in 1185.
Credits: Feltham’s Farm