This collaboration is the perfect fit: two like-minded artisanal food producers, at the top of their game, who’ve got together to create this luxurious Mud pie.
Introducing our Steak and Tunworth Cheese Pie. Tender chunks of hand-cut steak in a smooth béchamel sauce, combined with the multi-award winning Tunworth Cheese, which is known for its creamy consistency and distinct aroma. It's a star among cheeses. This divine pie is a melt-in-the-mouth experience, quite literally.
Fellow artisans
Christian first met Stacey Hedges from Hampshire Cheese Company many years ago, when they were both working at the farmers' markets. They admired the quality of each other's products and often talked about a collaboration. Now that idea has finally come to fruition!
Tunworth was created by Stacey in her family kitchen and she set up in business in 2005. She quickly brought her friend Charlotte Spruce on board, who has remained by her side ever since. In the early days, their lofty ambition was to make 3,000 cheeses a week, never dreaming they would be where they are now: these days, at Christmas, they can be turning out 12,000 a week!
The cheese-making process
From the first ladle of milk from the local farm, brought in fresh daily and pasteurised on site, to the paper wrap and box packaging, every cheese is made by hand, using traditional methods and in French-style ‘bassines’, with expert skill and true passion. Click here to see a short video of the cheese-making process.
Stacey now has a small specialist team who work in her dairy nestled in the heart of the green valleys of Hampshire, and she is in no doubt that Tunworth is markedly different thanks to the lush grazing of the rural area. The finished 250g cheese has a soft, thin and wrinkled rind, a rich and earthy mushroom fragrance, and a long-lasting sweet and nutty flavour. It's a very British camembert, wonderfully reminiscent of its French cousin.
Cheese with celebrity status
Christian adores the quality of this multi-award winning cheese. And is in very good company:
"My favourite melting cheese is a ripe Tunworth."
Nigel Slater
and
“The best Camembert in the world!”
Raymond Blanc
Like Mud, who have won countless awards, including many Class Champions at the British Pie Awards, the Hampshire Cheese Company have scooped the most prestigious cheese awards, from Supreme Champion in the British Cheese Awards, and Super Gold Medal at the World Cheese Awards to Supreme Champion Waitrose Small Producer Award. They provide Tunworth, and their other superb cheese Winslade, to Michelin-starred restaurants throughout the world, including Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, The Ritz, L’Enclume and Hawksmoor.
Quality hand-cut steak and Tunworth Cheese - the perfect match
It was an absolute pleasure to work together with Hampshire Cheese Company to realise this sublimely luxurious pie recipe. And we couldn't agree more with Stacey when she said, "We are delighted to have collaborated with the team at Mud Pies to create the Steak and Tunworth Cheese Pie. We share a similar ethos - a real dedication to artisan food production by small teams passionately producing carefully crafted handmade produce.”
“Tunworth is a staple ingredient of my kitchen – because it is a world-class cheese with a well-deserved international reputation.”
Simon Rogan
