How do you make cheese?!
Back in February (we know it’s taken us a long time to post this!) we made our first supplier visit of the year to Curworthy Cheese in Okehampton.
We assisted the lovely Richard in every aspect of the cheese making process from pasteurising the milk to stacking the cheeses for draining and had such a good time we had to share it with you. Discover more about our visit below!
A Bit of History
We don’t know about you but we have never made cheese before and didn’t really know much about the process despite being avid cheese lovers. Myself (Bethany) and Charlotte usually work in the office and it was great for us to get out and meet one of our oldest suppliers. Curworthy Cheese was established in… Today the day to day running of the business is run by Richard and his wife Rachel.
Making Cheese
On the day that we visited Richard was making their new Goatworthy cheese. Made to the aforementioned original Curworthy recipe the only difference is the goats milk rather than cows milk. The milk itself arrives at the dairy unpasturised and then goes through a process of pasteurisation at the dairy.
The milk has starter cultures added to enable it to start forming curds. We were given the task of stirring them which for us office workers was a bit of a workout!
The curds are then cut and the whey drained away before the curds are stacked ready to press into moulds. It was amazing for us to see this happen and Richard encouraged us to get really hands on!
These curds are then pressed to drain out any excess liquid.
Following the draining of the cheeses they are moved to sit in a brine solution which helps to firm them up before being taken out to mature until they’re ready to sell.
This is the entire cheese making process distilled into a few photos and sentences!
We loved getting to experience making cheese ourselves which has given us a better understanding of the processes and how each cheese is unique to so many factors involved.
Thank you so much to Richard at Curworthy for allowing us in and being so accommodating with us. We had a great time!
The Final Cheeses!
We stock a number of cheeses from Curworthy including:
Devon Oke
Chipple
Meldon
Dartmoor Chilli
Devon Smoake
Goatworthy
All available in whole and half sizes as well as retail packs. Click here to see our entire cheese range.
We’ll be posting more blogs about our other supplier visits this year soon so watch this space for more details!
