Question: When did you first become a cheese fanatic? How exactly do you produce your cheese and what inspires you?

Julie Bland answered on 12 Mar 2013:

Hi,
I always love cheese and thought it was part of my culture as I come from the French alps where the main agricultural product is cheese. Then see that if I understood the chemistry of how cheese is made I could help make better cheese! I produce cheese by taking milk, pasteurizing it to get rid of bad bacteria, then heating it to around 33 degree. Bacteria are then added to increase the acidity and for flavour after 35 minute I had an enzyme which will coagulate the milk which takes around 35 minutes. I then cut the milk gel and leave the cube of curd ( cheese with high moisture not press) to cook for nearly two hours at 39 degrees so the curd lose some water. I then take the whey off, whey being the liquid that left the curd. I then take the curd and salt it and put it in a press so it losses as much whey possible before packing it and waiting for the cheese age! This is one recipe, for some cheese you don’t heat the curd or put the bacteria and enzyme at the same time that how you get so many different type of cheese!
What inspires me is seeing and eating the cheese I produce and finding it good, I am also very inspired by cheese makers who really believe that what I am doing will change the way cheddar cheese is made in the future!