Cornish Yarg Toastie

Today we were toasting in the wild, inflicting our New Year’s resolution on my brother and his girlfriend, who were both delightful hosts and willing but helpfully critical guinea pigs, who kindly placed their toastie press at our disposal. We didn’t have our usual fridge full of random ingredients to draw on, so experiments had to be improvised while wondering around the local Waitrose, but the basis was to be the creamy, smooth and altogether delicious Cornish Yarg toastie, which we’ve been wanting to use since a chance encounter with the cheese in the reduced to clear section of the wholesalers.

Starting with a cheese doesn’t give you a lot of hints about ingredients, so our combinations are mostly guesswork. Any good results are a bonus.

Cornish Yarg Toastie Uno

– Sliced Beef
– Pickled beetroot
– Cornish Yarg

Cornish Yarg Toastie Due

– Sliced Beef
– Boiled carrots and swede, finely chopped
– Cornish Yarg
– Finely chopped, sautéed onions

Taste.
Rather than our usual panel of two tasters, we had four, so brace yourselves for extra opinions. Uno: Beetroot is an under-loved flavour, but it works well with beef. Alas, the Yarg was lost, although that may be in part due to the proper old fashioned toastie press. Scores suggested it was missing something. The average was 6/10.

And for Due: The thinkers amongst you may have noticed that this is reminiscent of a Cornish pasty. We figured it was worth a try, and as it happens, the rather gentle veggie flavours worked well with Yarg, and the beef holds it all together nicely. Feedback suggested a small amount of gravy would help, but scores were right up, averaging 8/10.

Appeal
The beetroot is a hard sell here, because even our resident beetroot fan confessed she would not have ordered it. An average score of 4.25/10 – it isn’t looking great. The Cornish toastie came out higher at 6.5/10, so this one might just get taken further, and is great for a quick lunch if you have leftover roast dinner.

Difficulty Rating
The Beetroot, Beef and Cornish Yarg toastie is easy, as long as you’re not trying to squeeze it inside a conventional toastie press. Pro tip: Slice the beetroot thinly. The Cornish Toastie does require actual cooking, as those veggies could not go in raw, and unless you can brunoise vegetables quickly (or have a handy chef who will do it for you), there’s a fair bit of chopping involved.

I was surprised the Cornish Pasty toastie turned out as well as it did, but the Yarg is a tasty tasty cheese, and I was pleased with the outcome. The beetroot was too strong, but I think we have at least found a starting point.