At Mount Eliza Cheese, we make our cheeses in small batches from rich, fresh full-cream farmhouse milk from happy grass-fed cows.
We use traditional recipes and methods that date back centuries.
Each batch is made in an open vat where the cheesemaker draws upon all his skill and experience rather than industrial processes.
The emphasis is very much ‘hands-on’ so that the cheesemaker can tweak and adjust according to the seasonality of the milk and the peculiarities of the curd on the day.
Culture
To separate the curds from the whey,
the milk is first heated and continually stirred before a starter culture of bacteria is added.
In the production of Red Leicester and Double Gloucester, a natural annatto colouring is added to the milk (pictured left).
Curds and whey
The addition of rennet to the milk causes it to set, forming the curd.
Making the cut
The curd is then cut (pictured left)
to relase the whey.
No whey, José
Once cut into small lumps, the curd is then cooked gently, after which the whey is drained, leaving the curd in the vat.
Cheddaring
The curd is then cut into blocks, stacked and turned until ready to mill.
Rounds
After milling, the young cheese is heaped into stainless steel hoops and pressed for several days.
Cloth ripening
At Mount Eliza, we don’t use plastic or wax on the cheese; rather we work with nature, allowing the natural surface moulds to develop, turning and brushing the cheese weekly to develop a natural healthy rind.
The excess whey is evaporated through the cloth (which causes up to 15% weight loss – we call this ‘the angels’ share’).
Testing, testing
The cheesemaker uses the traditional cheese-iron tool to core-sample the cheeses and test for maturity.
It’s only natural
Once matured, the result is a cheese with a beautiful natural rind, rich sweet-earthy flavours and a texture and moisture balance that can only be achieved with traditional cloth-ripening.
To market, to market…
After ageing of a year or more the cheeses are ready for market.
Click here for a list of farmers' markets.
Click here for mail order cheese information.
Enjoy our handcrafted cheeses!