Cheese Making at Home

Course outline

• Introduction to cheese, methods, equipment, theory

  In this first lesson, Marcus will guide you through the main ingredients and how to source them. You’ll learn all about cultures, rennet, the best milk to source, curds, cooking and draining.

  Marcus will then guide you through the maturing and aging process: why this is done, what to look for during maturation right through to the finished product.

  Marcus will discuss benefits of making cheese on a small scale at home-making versus professional.

  When you're making cheese at home, we recommend you use pasteurised milk.

• Camembert and Caerphilly

  This lesson will guide you through making two very impressive cheeses. You’ll start with Camembert, a mould-ripened cheese particularly suitable for making at home.

  Next, we'll learn how to make Caerphilly, a hard cheese that matures in as little as two weeks.

  Both require very similar preparation and ingredients, but small variations lead to big differences in the finished product.

• Ricotta and Labneh

  Your third cheese is Ricotta, which you’ll make from the whey left over from making the Caerphilly.

  Marcus will also show you how to make one of the simplest cheeses of all, the Middle Eastern strained yoghurt cheese called Labneh and he'll show you how to prepare a simple starter using the whey from the labneh.

• Professional tasting and making your own equipment

  Marcus will also guide you through making your own equipment - which is not only a lot cheaper but creating your own moulds is brilliant creatively and can lead to new styles of cheeses, too.

  Marcus will also guide you through aging and tasting cheeses, what to look out for and how to know when the cheeses you make on the course are at their flavourful best.