How to make cheese, and all about ageing cheese, courtesy of The Courtyard Dairy.

Mites, mites, glorious cheese mites!

26th July 2013

Cheese mites. An age-old enemy. They revel in life’s lactic joys , burrowing they way deep into the rind. Slowly but surely eating their way through dry, aged cheese, turning it to a brown dust.

Rennet in cheese – the science: how does rennet work?

12th June 2013

Rennet is one of the most important tools in making any cheese. But how does it work and what does it do?

Rennet: what is the difference between vegetarian and animal rennet?

25th June 2012

Rennet is essential in cheesemaking, but with more and more vegetarian cheeses on the market how does vegetarian rennet fit in? And how is it different from ‘traditional rennet’? Does it affect the flavour? What it is made from? And what does rennet actually do?

Historical cheesemaking: Dora Saker, the Ministry of Agriculture & my Great Gran

27th March 2012

Getting my hands-upon a frayed ancient cheesemaking book by Dora Saker was the start of my investigations into ancient cheesemaking techniques…

A bit of cheese science

5th September 2010

I’ve been thinking about moulds. At Mons there is an excellent balance, which has built up over many years. But they still need encouraging and pointing in the right direction – here’s a little more about how this is done at Mons Fromages.

Spruce and Pseudomonas – cheese ageing

21st August 2010

An apprenticeship in cheese ageing …. Andy’s latest update from Mons Fromages, with more information on what Andy is learning about the importance of spruce boards and beautiful bacteria like Pseudomonas….

The cheese caves at Mons Fromages

12th July 2010

After a successful first month working with the affinage experts at Mons I thought I’d better explain the layout of Mons and each of the caves here, and what they do. To start, there is a huge refrigerated receiving area where the cheeses arrive every day to be processed. Everything arrives here, from huge mountain wheels to small little apériti cheeses….