Learn About Cheese
Buckwheat Crumpet, St James, ramson oil and truffle (by The Forest Side head-chef Kevin Tickle)
Kevin Tickle, head-chef of Michelin-starred The Forest Side Hotel, Grasmere, uses St James in this newly-created spring dish. Try his recipe below. Makes about 8 crumpets, enough for eight people…
Jerusalem artichoke with Baron Bigod custard (by The Black Swan at Oldstead head-chef Will Lockwood)
Will Lookwood, head chef of renowned Michelin-starred The Black Swan at Oldstead has created a fabulous dish using Jerusalem artichokes and Baron Bigod Brie. You can recreate this at home…
Twice baked Sparkenhoe red Leicester soufflé (by Le Caveau head-chef Mark Byron)
Mark Byron, chef-owner Le Caveau, Skipton, uses one of his favourite cheeses, Sparkenhoe red Leicester, on his menu to create these fabulous twice-baked soufflés. You can recreate his dish by…
St Andrews Cheddar, haggis and bacon potato-cake (by Le Caveau head-chef Mark Byron)
Mark Byron, chef-owner of Le Caveau, Skipton, gives the secret recipe to his Cheddar, haggis and bacon filled potato-cakes that feature regularly on his menu. Makes four potato cakes, enough…
The Courtyard Dairy features on BBC2’s ‘Made in Britain’ series
Keen-eyed readers of the Radio Times for 1-7 December will have seen that ‘master cheesemonger’ Andy Swinscoe of The Courtyard Dairy was called in to assist with the latest episode…
The best cheese-making instruction books
There are thousands of cheese-making books out there. And they all vary. Some are uncomplicated and easy to use, others go into great detail. Over the years at The Courtyard…
Where to buy cheese-making equipment in the UK
The rapid growth of farmhouse and small-scale artisan cheese-making in the UK has seen a matching growth of suppliers of cheese-making equipment, starter cultures, moulds and bacteria, keen to supply…
Farmer, ice-cream maker and cheese producer – read about a visit to Doddington Dairy to meet real pioneers of cheese making and farm diversification…
Nestled on the border between England and Scotland, Doddington Farm is almost as far north in England as you can get. And allegiances up here are mixed; indeed the Maxwell…
What are the crunchy crystals found in hard cheese?
Well, if you thought it was table salt, you’d be wrong! We do know what causes the crystalline white deposits found within hard cheeses. It isn’t common salt, and in…
Farming at Hafod Cheese – a year in review, as told by herdsman Nick Millard
The farm began 2017 under a substantial cloud of bovine Tuberculosis (bTB). Unfortunately we had a quite terrible test result just before Christmas 2016 and were counting down the days…
Natural cheese-making and making your own lactic acid ‘starter culture’: is it the panacea of farmhouse cheese-making?
What is natural cheese-making? Natural cheese-making essentially involves cheese-makers making their own starter cultures rather than buying-in commercial starter cultures to make cheese. But it is difficult to do, and…
What is starter culture for cheese and what does it do?
The term ‘starter culture’ is used to describe bacteria specially grown to ‘start’ the transformation of milk into cheese. A starter culture is used in the making of the vast…