A festival of cheeses, and it isn't even December

It seems that if we are not totally immersed in the build, then one of us is busy doing something else. This weekend was an intensive cheese course for me – finally, as it has previously been cancelled twice as a result of COVID. The company is based in Brisbane and keeps their training equipment in Sydney, so the stars have really had to align to get this course off the ground. They do two intensive courses, and the first contains most of the cheeses that float my boat. The second has more of a blue focus, and I figure I can now get the Haloumi and Parmesan style recipes as an extension of what I am doing.

The course is heavily geared toward industrial cheesemaking practices, with an accompanying focus on sanitisation. Apparently that will be the cleanest our hands will ever have been!

The course is run from the perspective of extensive commercial experience, scaled down for domestic use. We are getting a perspective that is unique, and I think will be invaluable in years to come. The course is really well managed, with excellent catering starting with proper espresso as we walk into the training kitchen in the morning. Today was the first of two days, and the group is fairly eclectic. There is an optometrist whose wife gave him the course as a Christmas present, a bunch of folk who will probably make a few simple cheeses into the future – and me… The gender balance is overwhelmingly in favour of the ladies, and there is also an older bloke who asks why he is there mid afternoon (when the pace started to creep up).

Cheeses in the very early stages of production. These are lactic set cheeses and our brie

We are making eight cheeses this weekend, from Brie and lactic set cheeses (based on Chabichou), through to a farm-house Cheddar, Greek Feta and Mozzarella. The equipment set up is truly impressive, and we work in teams of two. Day one started with us working through the production of a Brie, followed by Chabichou. Chabichou refers to a French “D.O.C”, and gave us a range of finished cheeses based on a lactic set. We drained some for Quark (or Cream Cheese), will ash a crottin, and will marinate a third as a gourmet, or Persian feta. I was surprised to learn that Persian Feta isn’t actually a Feta (or Persian)… Bloody good to eat though!

Toward the end of the morning, we started work on our Farmhouse Cheddar (it only takes 6 months or so to mature, as opposed to the 12 months plus required for an aged Cheddar), before being rewarded for an extremely busy morning with ricotta and spinach Canelloni in tomato sauce. I was truly surprised to see the work that goes into making Cheddar (not the stuff in the supermarket), and think we buy it far too cheaply! I am absolutely looking forward to tucking into this one in six months or so.

Me with some of my cheeses, and a rather ingenious cheese press

We also made a ricotta, which is again surprising. As complicated as Cheddar is to make, Ricotta is simple. Why we don’t make it at home as a matter of course confounds me – and I think our home based menu is likely to change somewhat over coming months. There was a real focus on sanitation and process – both essential I think to get a consistent product over time. I still think the best bit though is discovering that drops, tads and smidgeons are legitimate measurements – and key in cheesemaking. That in itself is reason enough to take up the hobby! After day one it was home to rest up before hitting day two. In my case, that meant baking the weekly bread…

Cheeses all boxed up and ready for maturation. In the case of the cheddar, that will be 9 months or so... definitely going to test my patience! L-R on the bottom row: Farmhouse cheddar, Greek Feta, Ashed Fresh Cheese

Day two was a bit less frenetic, in that we only made a couple of cheeses from scratch, and finished off those we made the day before. There was less instruction this time around, as Graham wanted to make sure we had absorbed the instructions. We made a Greek Feta, and learned how to stretch Mozzarella! Great stuff, and future pizza might be a bit special. We had a lot more discussion around how to store and properly ripen our cheeses, and what we might need in the way of equipment moving forward. The weekend finished with a late cheese plate and a glass of wine, which is a very civilised way to end a course!

On my way home, I also managed to pick up a piano… very old, very out of tune, but very free. We love those items. The boys loved it, and both played on the trailer while I was waiting for a bit of extra muscle to unload it.

Play it again Sam!!!

Burgers, Beers and Butchery

In this brave, new world where experiences trump material gifts, we decided to surprise Leigh and Steve Brown with a night out at a Canberra café – Two before Ten in Aranda. They had a master butcher demonstrate (very hands on) how to butcher a goat (and by extension any other ‘front wheel drive’ animal). The initial offer was for the workshop, with burgers and beers. Kind of a perfect lads night out, and I was expecting that we would get a beer with our burger.

I thought I might get in a bit of pre-reading prior to the workshop. Jane called me a nerd!!

Leigh and I arrived last (in the middle of a thunderstorm), as the session was about to get underway. The team brought out beers for everybody, which was a bloody good start to the night. The beer was good too – Capital Brewing “Evil Red IPA” for me! The butcher demonstrated on a sheep, and we all had goats to work on in pairs. These had been recently shot, and hadn’t had time to set. This made working on them a bit tricky, but was a great option to keep costs down.

Having grown up spending a lot of energy splitting carcases through the spine, I was amazed to see David (our friendly knife wizard) split the carcase laterally into three – the fore and hind quarters, and the saddle. So easy! By way of future reference, he taught us to feel back five ribs from the front of the chest cavity, and cut from there to separate out the forequarter. This will cut through just behind the scapula, and is a pretty easy cut. Similarly, by feeling the top of the spine from the tail forward you will feel the top of the pelvic bone – the Iliac Crest. Cutting through there is very simple and leaves three very neat pieces. Separating the shoulders from the forequarter is simple, and leaves plenty of meat on ribs for stewing chops, and also the neck rosettes. In the saddle, he didn’t bother parting out a lamb rack, but instead cut out the fillet and backstrap separately. This left plenty of options, particularly for racks of ribs. Taking the hind legs off too was relatively simple. Starting with the tail, and cutting back through the feather bones, you will release the full leg complete with chump/rump. This is easy enough to slice off. Bloody good night, and really quite simple.

The boys and the aftermath... I wasn't aware the photo shoot was supposed to be so serious!

After we had finished our cuts, and had a couple of beers it was off to the other end of the space for steak sandwiches, more beers and some quality banter. It was an excellent demonstration of an experience led learning opportunity, and I think we will take something from that for the farm in the future. It was also amazing that there was only one or two degrees of separation across the entire group – I guess that like-minded people are attracted to similar opportunities!

They are going to run a sausage making event in another couple of weeks in a similar format. I reckon that might be a good night for an Uber!