If you milk a hobby herd of dairy goats (or cows) and like eating cheese, the conversation soon turns to cheesemaking. While there are many cottage industry cheesemakers in Aotearoa New Zealand (such as award winning Belle Chevre Creamery goat cheeses in Waipu), the question of what to do with your own surplus milk means cheesemaking is a great option. There are a few cheesemaking courses around, but the easiest option is to get a cheesemaking setup and give it a go yourself. (If you don’t have a dairy herd or surplus milk, buying raw milk at the gate from a local producer is a good option too).
The best cheesemaking book I have encountered is the popular “How to make Cheese” written by New Zealander, Jean Mansfield. It’s a taonga/treasure of a book with information on all the preparatory stages (including equipment) and 
50 wonderful artisan cheese recipes with step by step instructions on how to make these delicious cheeses, from mozarella, brie and halloumi (in 30 minutes!) to beautiful cheddar, edam, colby, gouda and wensleydale and many more!
Jean starts at the very beginning with chapters on the milk, the ingredients, the techniques and a troubleshooting chapter, “What went wrong with my cheese?”! Her recipes go from simple to more complex cheses; from the soft and white-rinded cheeses, to the hard cheeses, stretched-curd cheeses, blue cheeses, washed rind cheeses and fancy and flavoured cheeses!
As well as an excellent glossary and ‘The Homemade Cheese Checklist’, Jean also details the ’10 rules for successful cheesemaking’. At the risk of giving away her ‘secrets’ these include; cleaning and sanitising everything that’s going to contact your milk, curd and cheese; pasteurise your high quality milk; use an accurate thermometer that is easy to read; always know the strength of your rennet; and pay strict attention to ingredient measures, temperature, timing, and the size of cut curds.
So you can see that cheesemaking is an art and a science, and relies heavily on accuracy and commitment to the end product. Sadly, I discovered that I have become allergic to dairy products, so my journey with my specialist 
cheesemaking equipment and beautiful traditional cheese press have come to an end. If you’re keen to take up the cheesemaking challenge and would like a wonderful setup of equipment PLUS Jean Mansfield’s wonderful cheesemaking book (!), I have mine for sale, so do get in touch via the comments option below … OR via my Facebook and Messenger or by phone or email.
