How To Make Cheese – A Beginners' Workshop

Making cheese at home is easy, after all every milkmaid worth her salt could do it not so very long ago.

But home cheesemaking is a bit of a lost art these days.

No longer here at Smith Towers!!

I treated myself to a one day soft cheese workshop recently, and absolutely loved it.  It was a totally novel way to spend a school day and I got home laden with the feta, mascarpone, ricotta, quark and Greek yoghurt we’d been taught how to make.

But I left my ready-to-grow-mould camembert behind, knowing I could never give it the few weeks of TLC it’d need to reach its fuzzy best.  Boo hoo.

The other attendees took theirs home though and I imagine they are maturing nicely. 

Each of the cheeses we made has it’s own very specific method. But here’s a very brief and general visual overview of how feta and camembert are made.

First milk is heated and then a starter is added.  The milk is put into a large container which is in a styrofoam box to keep it warm.  The milk then splits into curds and whey.

The curds are sliced through to release more whey, then gently turned over a few hours.

 Then the whey is gently placed into cheese hoops and inverted several times over a few hours.

The very soft cheeses are made in a different way, by using a special starters to make a sort of thick yoghurt which is then drained through muslin.

All this happened at The Cheesemaking Workshop in Northbridge, Sydney.  The soft cheeses workshop is held over 6 hours, during which a delicious lunch is made and eaten.

This was a special treat for me, I actually signed up during the Sydney Good Food Show when the workshop cost was on special for $150.  Well worth it for me, I love a new experience, love to learn new stuff and this was certainly new.

This would make such a great Christmas present!!

The Cheesemaking Workshop sells beginners’ packs so you can leave the course and start making cheese at home straight away.

I’ve made cream cheese so far.  Next I will post a simple ‘how to make ricotta‘ post and Kitchenware Direct will be offering a giveaway of a few bits of equipment that make it easier.

Stay tuned for that.

 Have you ever made cheese at home?

Would you like to try?