Day 1 

We learn to care for the cultures of our cheese. We begin with a session on dairy fermentation, covering Clabber, Kefir, Crème Fraiche and yogurt.

 

Day 2

We use our cultures and rennet to make fresh lactic cheeses such as Cream Cheese, Chevre and Faisselle as well as Geotrichum-candidum ripened lactic cheeses such as Crottin, Valençay and Saint Marcellin.

 

Day 3

We look at rennet cheeses, preparing, in the morning, the basic curd that can become many different styles of cheese. By the afternoon, the curd’s acidity will have developed and we’ll be able to stretch the cheese into Mozzarella, Queso Oaxaca and Burrata. We also explore the different rind ecologies of rennet cheeses including the white fungus of Camembert and the orange rinds of Limburger.

 

Day 4

We make a Blue Cheese, and explore the cultivation of blue fungus that gives this cheese its veins. On this day, we will also prepare rennet the traditional whey.

 

Day 5

We make an Alpine cheese, and see how this one method can evolve in many different directions including Tomme, Raclette and Caciocavallo. With its leftover whey we prepare a batch of traditional Ricotta.

 

Five days of learning allows students to see many styles of cheese through the many stages of their evolution, and provides insight into how all cheeses can evolve from the very same milk, with the same culture and the same rennet. The course will focus on natural methods and a full circle, small-scale cheesemaking: no freeze-dried cultures or synthetic enzymes will be used in any of our makes.