My First Live Cheese Workshop

Teaching cheese making via a blog post or a video tutorial is one thing, but standing in front of a class of 8 keen individuals is a totally different ball game.

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of teaching a 30 minutes Mozzarella cheese making course at the Spotswood Community House.  The class were fantastic people, and I really enjoyed teaching them how to make this quick and easy cheese.  Really this was my second cheese making workshop, as I gave one to our sustainable living group’s members, but this is the first one where I did not know anyone.  I was a little aprehencious, but in a nice sort of way.  I asked Kim and Ben to come along to lend moral support.

Here is a group picture of the course, and their instructor in his nice stripy apron.

I set everything up ready to go so that we would have no delays.  I had 2 hours to get through 8 batches of cheese.  We were using Biodynamic milk, so I was excited to see what difference this wonderful milk would make.

First of all, a little about hygene, and the principles of cheese making. 

Then the first group of four got stuck into making their cheese. The stove was on the small side, but we coped okay.  I think they are adding diluted citric acid at this stage.

At this stage, everyone had added their rennet, and turned off the heat for about 5 minutes to let the milk set.

Showing everyone what a clean break was, and how to do it themselves.

Stiring the curds, and bringing the temperature up to 40C.

Draining the curds from the whey. 

The biodynamic milk formed a wonderful curd, and was very easy to handle for the students.

Here we are going through the microwave process.  I think this is the second zap at 35 seconds.
 

Iced water ready to cool down the hot mozzarella.

Cooling down some boccocini.  After all, they are just small mozzarella balls!

Finally, the finished product after the salt was added.  The cheese was great, and I managed to get everyone through in just over 2 hours.  The class sampled their cheese, and loved it!  I think we now have 8 new cheesemakers in town!

A big thanks goes out to Madeleine for approaching me and inviting me to teach the class.  I would love to teach another of this size.