Blue cheese with honey jelly, apples and walnut bread toast Good cheese is one of life’s great pleasures. Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to visit many artisan cheesemakers and fully appreciate the work that goes into producing this age old product. Making cheese is a labour of love — a millionaire cheesemaker is a bit of an oxymoron.
The process hasn’t really changed since the beginning. Rennet is added to warmed milk, curds form and they’re pressed into moulds. The cheese can be aged or in the case of blue cheese, bacteria injected to add veins of blue.
Time is an essential ingredient — ageing adds flavour and value. On a recent trip to Modena I got to witness the art of making parmesan. Milk is warmed in copper vats and then the curds scooped into a big piece of muslin.
Two people then shape the curds, in a hammock like action, into a round that’s then pressed into a large mould. It’s aged in a large warehouse known as the cathedral of cheese. A wheel of parmesan can cost anything from £600.
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