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If I purchase an original British Combined Cheese Kit how much cheese can I produce from this kit before I need to replace some or all of the contents

To produce a 1kg hard cheese you will be adding one fifth of a sachet of MA400, and 40 drops (2ml) rennet. In relation to the milk the quantities of starter and rennet are tiny, and these are the only two items in the kit you will need to replace. Perhaps the cheesecloth too, but […]

I would like to start making some hard cheeses, and want to buy one of your presses. However, I noticed the cheese presses on your site don’t seem to have a gauge on them. Is this true? If not, how do you figure out how much pressure you are applying? Also, they don’t come with followers. Do you suggest people make their own?

Our presses do come with a pressure gauge on the instruction sheet that we recommend copying to a piece of card or plastic. The M3 (0070) is a hard cheese mould suitable for the small press, turning out roughly 1kg cheese. The M5 (0071) followers are sold separately because you may be able to improvise […]

Could you tell me how I could add beer to cheese preferably cheddar.

There are two ways in which beer can be combined with cheese. 1. Using mature cheese, like cheddar, break up the cheese into small pieces, and add beer (and often pickle, or pickled onions) reform and repress the cheese. This is how the majority of flavoured cheeses are made. This cheese can be made to […]

I have recently made a cheese which developed a ‘slimy defect’ on its surface after brining. I have been able to find out about the need of CaCl in the brine to prevent this, but is my cheese spoiled or can it be salvaged It has since dry up, but remains somewhat tacky on the surface. According to the recipe it would have to be waxed soon. From Thomas

Slimy cheese out of brine is usually caused by the pH of the cheese being different to the pH of the brine. When making up brine initially, the pH should be lowered to around pH5.0. The cheese will dry out if kept in a slightly lower humidity environment, otherwise it could remain slimy.

I’m making a traditional cheddar. Rather than waxing the cheese I have vacuum packed them which has proved to work quite well. However on the cheddar I can now see small areas of green mould appearing. Is this normal or do I need to take action now before it sets in?

Vacuum packing initially removes all oxygen from the pack and mould is not able to grow without oxygen. Depending on the quality of the vacuum bag and seal, oxygen may make its way back into the pack, when mould will grow. The best thing to do is open the pack, cut away mould and re-vacuum.