Making Traditional Farmhouse Cheese

Basic Cheesemaking (for a hard cheese)

1. Choose your milk – cow, goat, ewe, buffalo (or even camel and horse in some countries).  Milk must be very clean and preferably very fresh.
   
   
2. Warm milk up to blood heat 30ºC, stirring gently so it’s evenly warm throughout.  Add starter culture.  Stir the culture in thoroughly then leave for 45 minutes or so.   Starter culture is what ripens the milk.  It is basically lactic acid bacteria (not harmful bacteria at all!)  Starter cultures come in many strains and forms.  We use a freeze dried brand that comes in a sachet.  It is sprinkled onto the milk and is stirred in thoroughly for even distribution.  Choosing your strain of starter depends on the finished result you want to achieve.
   
   
3. Renneting
   Stir in rennet – two types, animal (from calf stomachs) or microbial (vegetarian, an enzyme that is protein based).  Most cheeses in the UK are now made with vegetarian rennet.  Some of the very traditional cheesemakers still use animal rennet.  Its thought that microbial rennet cheeses do not mature as well after a year or so. 
   
   
4. Setting
   Leave to set – carefully keeping it at 30ºC throughout – takes about 45 minutes to one hour.  Will set into a coagulum or junket.
   
   
5. When firm enough the coagulum can be cut with special cheese knives.  It’s at this point that you get your curds and whey – the coagulum or junket is the curds and the clearish liquid that comes out of it is the whey.
   
   
6. Scalding
   Scald the curds next.  Stir the curds in the whey gently (they are still fragile at the start of this)  whilst raising the temperature slowly over a period of time.  For Double Worcester cheese we raise the temperature for about an hour from 30º up to a 40ºC.  If we wanted to make a different type of cheese we would alter the times and temperatures of scalding.
   
   
7. Pitching
   After scalding stop stirring and leave curds to settle to the bottom of vat.  The whey will rise to the top.  This process ‘ages’ the curd, the acidity will continue to rise.  It is left like this until the cheesemaker wants to draw off the whey (this depends on the acidity the cheesemaker is looking for at this stage and also the type of cheese being made).
   
   
8. Draining off whey
   Whey is drawn off the pitched curds which by now are knitting together in the bottom of the vat.  They are still very warm but much firmer than at the cutting stage.
   
   
9. Texturing
   The resultant curds can now be removed from the vat and textured or cheddared according to the type of cheese.  Acidity will continue to rise throughout this and will be monitored by the cheesemaker.
   
   
10. Milling
    Textured/cheddared curds are then milled – broken down into smaller pieces – usually the size of a walnut.  Milled curds resemble firmly cooked scrambled eggs.  Double Worcester curd is milled twice to make a finer curd.
    
    
11. Salting
    Salt is the preservative in cheesemaking mixed thoroughly through curds.
    
    
12. Moulding
    Salted curds packed into moulds according to what shape and size you want.
13. Pressing
    Careful constant pressure required over a period of a day or two to achieve a hard pressed cheese.
14. Hot Dipping/Capping and Bandaging
    Done by traditional cheesemakers like Ansteys – all cheese is dipped into hot water for 30 seconds or so.  This seals the outside fats of the cheese and is the start of a fantastic farmhouse rind.  A calico cap is pressed onto the top and bottom of the cheese after hot dipping.  Then a strip of calico bandage is bound around the finished cheese.  This is known as ‘clothbound’ cheese and again is very traditional.  Most cheeses in the UK tend to be mass produced and vac-packed instead of being clothbound.  The calico lets the cheese breath and ripen naturally and will have a much better rind.
    
    
15. Maturing
    The cheeses then go off to be ripened for a period of time depending on the type of cheese.  Our Old Worcester White cheese is matured for 12 months and Double Worcester is matured for a minimum of 6 months.  Temperature control of ripening rooms is very important as is air flow.  Cheeses are turned weekly to ripen evenly.
    
    
16. Selection
    Cheeses are microbiologically tested before release for sale.  They are brushed, packed, weighed and labelled then dispatched for sale.
17. Simple!  Enjoy your cheese.

Read about our different traditional farmhouse cheese.

See our Hampers and Cheeseboards featuring our farmhouse cheeses.