Author Topic: Hello from Bourn, Cambridge, UK  (Read 1245 times)

Salilah

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Hello from Bourn, Cambridge, UK
« on: March 03, 2013, 08:42:15 AM »
I realised I really should have done this *before* I posted questions and comments - sorry!

I'm from the UK - a small village called Bourn, west of Cambridge in the UK (I also live in North London - Highgate - during the week)

I made the mistake (!?) of buying my brother a cheese-making kit for his birthday last year - and so, at the same time, I bought myself one (as you do).  He produced a cheddar-style cheese at Christmas and I thought "why haven't I done anything with my kit?".  I bought him a cheese book (Karlin) for Christmas, and said to my OH if he wanted to buy me a book for Christmas, how about the Karlin one?  So he bought me the Gianaclis Caldwell book as he thought this was the same one - however, it's great for me, as it is quite technical as well as having relatively simple recipes!!  Then I found the forum....

Cheese - well, I've made mainly Camembert styles so far (one pyramid shaped we tried today after 2 weeks ripening then 4 weeks in fridge - quite mild, quite solid still, but interesting!) - I've done roughly one per week since Christmas, with a variety of milk (only supermarket sadly, nothing else seems available here, other than one week when I went to the Borough Market for raw cows milk - which at £3 per litre makes very expensive cheese!).  This weekend I'm trying a Chabichou with rind slurry from a real Chabichou - should be fun!

Looking forward to participating and learning here - thanks lots!
Sali

hoeklijn

  • Guest
Re: Hello from Bourn, Cambridge, UK
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2013, 10:54:41 AM »
Well Salilah, welcome to the forum from The Netherlands, from a small town between Gouda and Leiden, also called the "green heart of Holland".
How are your notes going?
I'm so lucky to live here. I've access to raw cow milk which I pick up during milking time, for 0.60 Euro a liter (still at about 32C when I come home) and also to raw goat milk for 1 Euro a liter. On the other hand, artisan cheesemaking here is mostly restricted to the Gouda and Leiden types of cheese. So the webshops here don't offer much variety in cultures and I'm buying my cultures in Germany at the moment.
Three years ago I was in London on a small market and I was amazed by the amount of artsan cheeses that were available there....

klschnepp

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Re: Hello from Bourn, Cambridge, UK
« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2013, 05:33:52 PM »
We actually get pretty darn good milk at many of our supermarkets (a lot better than the USA).  I like making with Calon Wen (can order from Ocado) and Waitrose has a whole milk (their own brand) that is not homogenized.  Check the labels carefully, because they also have an own brand that is homogenized.   I find the Gold Top is too creamy, but that is down to the kind of cheese I make.    There is even a "traditional" milk at Sainsburys that is pretty good.   Net net, anything that is not homogenized has a decent chance of making a nice cheese.   Otherwise, yes, raw milk is lovely, but is £3/litre from Borough.  There are other markets selling raw milk, check out the London Farmer's Market website for suppliers I think??

If you are starting to get into the detail, I might recommend "American Farmstead Cheese", Paul Kindstedt.  It is one of the primary books on the curriculum at the School of Artisan Food.  For recipes,  I like the Paul Peacock as a nice intro book.

Hope this helps.   PS-Moorlands is great for supplies.  Also, have you seen Iona's blog?  Search for Ribblesdale Cheese to find it.

Salilah

  • Guest
Re: Hello from Bourn, Cambridge, UK
« Reply #3 on: March 03, 2013, 06:28:59 PM »
Thanks hoeklijn for the welcome!  Wow you are very lucky with the access to raw milk - how wonderful!    Though yes we are very lucky in that we have amazing access to cheeses of all sorts, and a lot of enthusiasm I think for them - e.g. Waitrose (supermarket) does a wonderful range of high quality local cheeses from all over...

Thanks lkschnepp - mexican cheese?  Wow! You are right re the milk - I've used gold top and Tesco's own equivalent; also the Duchy Originals; this weekend we used full fat goats milk (pasteurised and I think homogenised) from Waitrose...  I'll keep looking, especially for local (though East Anglia is not really livestock country!).  Thanks for the idea of the book - I'll check that one out.  Moorlands provided the cheese kit, however since then I've used Bruce Dolby on eBay who is very helpful, very fast and good prices - definitely recommended!  I'll check for Iona's blog - many thanks