Go on a course: making farmhouse cheese

Where better to learn cheese-making than in the home of Double Gloucester? By Kitty Corrigan

Our teacher, Judy King, instructs groups of five at Hartpury College, set in 360 hectares of beautiful countryside near Gloucester. The British Saanen goats that she has kept for 30 years provided the milk for our lesson.

At the end of a one-day course you can make a simple cheese using unpasteurised milk. You would not be allowed to sell it without conforming to Environmental Health and DEFRA rules, but this course is about dairying for your own consumption.

"Cheese-making is part science and part craft," Judy explained, as we donned mobcaps and white coats, but not gloves, as bare hands are better to feel the curds and whey. Any thoughts of Little Miss Muffet and spiders were dispelled as we sterilised the equipment and covered containers when not in use so that no unwelcome visitors dropped in.

First, we each lowered a plastic bucket filled with two gallons of fresh goat's milk into a sink of very hot water, which acts as a bain-marie. After stirring in the starter culture, we added rennet (vegetarian, extracted from a fungus) to set the mixture. This concoction is junket, which has to be gently sliced to release the lemon-yellow whey that forms on top.

Synchronising buckets, we poured off the whey, taking care not to let the curds escape down the plughole. I learned a new term: ‘cheddaring'. This does not mean making Cheddar cheese, but cutting the curds in two, folding one half on top of the other and testing the acidity until it has turned solid and rubbery; too rubbery in my case, but I was pleased that although two fellow students were a chef and a cheesemonger, our cheeses were equally average. Judy reassuringly put this down to the hot weather, not conducive to dairying. All that was left to do was cut the slabs into cubes, add salt, pack them into moulds lined with cheesecloth and then into a cheese press. We all agreed that we had learned enough to experiment at home.

My cheese will mature for five months in Judy King's dairy, and I have high hopes that next May I could enter the Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling Championships in Brockworth - though I may need a little more practice first.

For details on cheese-making courses at Hartpury College, Gloucester, call 01452 702132 or visit www.hartpury.ac.uk.

 Click here for the full Country Living course directory 

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