Meet the producer, St Quintin's Creamery
St Quintin's Creamery The crème de la crème

Being amongst the crème de la crème of restaurants, the Pipe and Glass likes to use only the best and most local producers.

So when James is ordering in his weekly supply of around 200 litres of cream and 100 or so litres of milk, it makes sense that it travels just 15 miles down the road from St Quintin’s Creamery in Harpham, near Driffield. Dairy farmer Peter Burdass is the third generation of tenants at the picturesque farm – he took on the running of the creamery when he was just 21, on the death of his father.

For many years he and his wife, Sarah, and daughters Lizzie, now nearly 18, and 16-year-old Emily, continued to run the farm as his father had – producing raw milk for sale to the big milk processors. But in 2008, the couple decided they wanted to oversee their product from cow to bottle – all 4,000 litres a week, on average, of it.

As Sarah points out, milk doesn't have a long shelf life, so the business had to be viable from the word go. “It’s not a slow process: we really had to hit the ground running,” she says. “We had to very quickly learn about not just the processing and bottling end of things, but environmental health, distribution, marketing and sales.” The result is a dairy churning out milk that’s decidedly richer and tastier than the average. “The big boys skim their milk to the lowest allowable percentage, taking out every drop of cream they possibly can,” explains Sarah. “We can’t be that precise, and our product goes through fewer processes – the result is that our milk is much creamier, and our cream is a lot thicker. People comment on it a lot – especially those with cappuccino machines!” As well as the Pipe and Glass, Peter and Sarah supply shops and good old-fashioned milkmen right across East Yorkshire, including Hull.

Being a small operator can bring its own very particular problems. Peter points out that many of their outlets are on the coast, so subject to seasonal fluctuations – even the fact that Easter this year is a few weeks later than usual has meant that he’s had to adjust his calving times. And the recent ‘milk wars’ with huge retailers offering the white stuff for as little as 24p a pint caused problems. “The supermarkets are just using milk farmers as fodder for their price wars,” says Sarah. “We can’t compete with those prices.

But our milk is tastier, and fresher. We employ 12 local people, who all live only a few minutes away from the dairy. And in the winter, when the big suppliers can’t get through to small shops – we’re there.” And the Burdasses are fighting back – they’re currently investigating additions to their product range, including clotted cream, cheese, and a range of puddings, from rice to crème caramel.

On the day The Pantry visits, they pick James’ brain for advice on the flavour of the moment – salted caramel. James uses St Quintin’s cream for many of his award-winning recipes, both sweet and savoury. “It’s local, it’s delicious, and it’s ultra-fresh,” he says. “I’m safe in the knowledge that their cream and milk has gone through a lot fewer processes, and a lot fewer moves in terms of distance travelled, than supermarket milk.”

For more information on St Quintin’s Creamery, please visit:
www.stquintinscreamery.co.uk


PUBLISHED :April 2014
TAGS : MEET THE PRODUCER
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food served

monday 
closed all day
tuesday
12 – 14.00 / 17.30 – 21.30 pm
wednesday
12 – 14.00 / 17.30 – 21.30 pm
thursday
12 – 14.00 / 17.30 – 21.30 pm
friday
12 – 14.00 / 17.30 – 21.30 pm
saturday
12 – 14.00 / 17.30 – 21.30 pm
sunday
12 – 16.00 pm
(TUES-SAT 2-4pm: afternoon savouries menu served in the bar area)

BAR OPEN

monday 
closed all day
tuesday
12 - 23.00 pm
wednesday
12 - 23.00 pm
thursday
12 - 23.00 pm
friday
12 - 23.00 pm
saturday
12 - 23.00 PM
sunday
12 - 18.00 PM

WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND PRE-BOOKING FOR THE RESTAURANT HOWEVER, WE DO NOT TAKE RESERVATIONS FOR THE BAR, WHERE GUESTS ARE WELCOME TO ‘WALK-IN’ FOR BOTH DRINKS AND DINING.

We will be closed for our annual spring break from 8th April 2024, re-opening on the evening of 16th April 2024

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CONTACT

01430 810 246
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DIRECTIONS

pipe and glass
west end
south dalton
beverley
east yorkshire
hu17 7pn