My journey with cheese started when I was just 11, some 30 years ago (which gives my age away!) Fast forward to 2015 and such was my obsession with cheese that my mother-in-law gave me a cheese-making kit for my birthday. It took me a further 12 months to pluck up the courage to actually get making it. I lived in a small flat with my wife, and I didn't think I had enough space. Turns out all I needed was a hob and pan, a sink, a bucket, a sieve and a thermometer - oh and a worktop. Four hours of back and forth with a recipe book, googling and searching for videos on YouTube (and lots of tea and biscuits!) and I had my first cheese. I remember it well, it was a Scottish Crowdie with black pepper. Crumbly, creamy with a peppery kick! Yum.
After that, I was hooked, every spare minute was spent watching 'how to make cheese' on YouTube, much to the delight of my wife (at least it wasn't video games and there was something edible at the end of it all!) I was fortunate enough to go and make cheese at Wilde's Dairy in London to learn even more and the passion for British artisan cheese continued.
I have always found making cheese very therapeutic, there's something about cutting the curds that allows you to be fully in the moment and escape somewhat. Then there's the fact that at the end of your all hard work you get to try the cheese that you made - we loved trying the different cheeses.
Not all of the cheese I made were a success, there was a lot of perfecting, but I had lots of fun along the way.
I embarked on a quest to make different types of cheese - blue cheese, soft cheese, crumbly cheese, even getting more exotic and trying cheddar in hay and coconut oil (don't ask!). It was all aged in the fridge, again much to the delight of my wife - we had some very stinky cheeses in there! If you fancy a laugh you can look back at some of my pictures and comments on my Curd Nerd Instagram account (the_curd_nerd).
Learning how to make cheese made me appreciate everything that goes into it even more and I have such a huge respect for all the cheese makers out there who do what they do so we can enjoy so many incredible cheeses.
During the pandemic I had the time and chance to refine my cheese making processes, we were lucky enough to be able to buy our own house and the cupboard under the stairs was the perfect cheese cave! I was making cheese at least once a week, working out ratios of milk to cheese as well as drying, moulding and aging times. I experimented with different types of starter culture and rennet too which was good fun (I know, I'm a huge cheese geek!).
I pinch myself now that I'm not only running my own cheese business but I am continuing to make (award winning) cheese, now for the Northampton Cheese Company thanks to Steve Reid who took me on when he bought a dairy. I absolutely love trying different recipes and flavours and nothing is better than a customer enjoying the cheese you make and coming back for more!
Another pinch-me moment... I'm hosting a cheese making masterclass at The Cheese Place (which has been open in Brackley Road, Towcester for six months now) in January - there are still spaces available and I'd love you to join me to learn how you can make cheese at home:
Hope to see some of you there!
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