I received the Big Cheese Making Kit (goats cheese version) created by The Big Cheese as a Christmas present from my girlfriend, perfect gift for me as I love cooking and cheese (she must know me well!).

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I have to be honest it was only a couple of weeks ago when I finally got round to making the cheese, a full 8 months after Christmas, luckily the kit does have a shelf life of 2 years. I don’t know if that’s by default or design but it’s very welcome as making 10 batches of cheese within a month or so would surely put you off cheese and making it for life.

Opening the box the kit seems a little sparse but I assure you that apart from a pan, colander and milk it does have everything you need. The butter muslin is of high quality and so is the thermometer, (in fact it’s a lot better than my ‘chef endorsed’ thermometer). The instructions are very clear and concise that don’t overwhelm you with the task at hand.

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After reading the instructions all the way through as it suggests I was ready to start making the cheese. You have to heat the milk to 87 degrees celsius, which took an absolute age for my 4 pints of goats milk. I resisted the urge to put my hob up to full whack and after a while it was time to add the citric acid. When I did the change was apparent straight away, the smooth milk had separated and I had my curds and whey. Draining and pressing the curds took an hour and after that it was ready to eat, which I did; spread on sourdough and a sprinkle of capers and black pepper.

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I have to say I was quite shocked of how easy making cheese was and the fact that it was really tasty. I will say though I planned to make the hard crumbly goats cheese but it did come out quite soft and creamy (still tasted fantastic though). I think I might either have not let it drain enough or not used a heavy enough weight when pressing the cheese. Also something of note: I had over a litre of whey after the draining process and only 3 ramekin dishes of cheese. I guess that this is just the way cheese making goes. I froze the whey so I could use it in the future for bread making, which I will post about soon. There are lots of uses of the left over whey, some can be found here. There are a few recipes and tips on the Big Cheese website here which will give you a great insight on how the company started and maybe give you some inspiration to make your own cheese.

Having tried the goats cheese kit it really has given me a passion to make more and I would like to try the other cheese kits that The Big Cheese Making Kit does. The Ultimate Cheese Kit with equipment and ingredients to make 8 different cheeses looks really interesting… and yes that is a hint for next Christmas.

Pros

+ A lot of fun
+ Easy to follow instructions
+ High quality equipment and ingredients
+ Reasonably priced

Cons

– Low yield *

*really this is a general cheese making trait rather than the kit itself