So my cheese making is well and truly under-whey… (sorry, it had to be said.) Just made my fourth batch of feta, and experimenting with different brands of milk. We’re lucky to have four dairies in our region that sell non-homogenised milk.

I’ve also made one batch of camembert which went fairly well. Here is my first attempt at blue cheese. The cultures are from Mad Millie but we buy them in Hahndorf at the Udder Delights Cheeses Shop, with whom I did my cheese-making session back in February. But I also have supplies from GreenLiving Australia…. 

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Yesterday I went to a cheese-making class organised by WEA and run by Sheree Sullivan who is the co-owner of Udder Delights, a local company and award-winning Australian cheese-maker. A very enjoyable and interesting morning making my first batch of feta.

I learned a bunch of things that are probably well-known to others but not to me (such as what is rennet). Much of it was not technical, but with enough understanding of procedures to get started.

We started with 4 litres of non-homogenised milk, which is easy to get here in the Adelaide Hills. Mesophilic starter culture was added. We heated the milk to 35 C and then put it into a warmed Esky for half an hour while our teacher talked about the origins of cheeses (Egyptian tribes, animal stomachs as ‘wineskins’, rennet in the stomachs…)

We then added liquid rennet mixed with some distilled water and left the mixture for 50 minutes. During this time we had a tasting of local and imported cheeses and talked about the difference between brie and camembert. Wish someone had brought the wine…… 

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