Whey to go (From Hampshire Society)

Whey to go

3:03pm Monday 2nd November 2009

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The New Forest area is not particularly known for cheese, but that is beginning to change through the efforts of an award-winning team of cheese makers.

On the northern edge of the New Forest in Hamptworth, Lyburn Farmhouse Cheesemakers are rapidly becoming known for their quality produce.

Mike Smales and his team make all their cheeses by hand and are responsible for the entire process, from milking the cows to the packaged cheese reaching the shelf.

The Smales family has been running Lyburn Farm since 1969 and decided to venture into cheese-making because they were not getting a good price for their milk. Mike said: “We were getting a rubbish price and we have done for 15 or 20 years. In July we got 24p a litre but it was costing us 26p to produce. We just got fed up with struggling; you’ve got to look for opportunities that don’t involve big supermarkets. We started to make some cheese that would appeal to the local community and it just keeps growing.”

The farm has about 180 cows at the moment and the cheesemaking process starts at 5.30am when the cows are milked. Mike then takes it to the pasteurising room at 7am.

“It’s our unique selling point that we have our own cows,” he said. “I say to people, you give a jam sponge recipe to ten ladies in the WI and you will get ten different results, it’s exactly the same with cheese. It’s those little flavours and nuances that make it different from the rest.”

Cheesemaker Paul Thomas, who has been at Lyburn for 18 months, added that, because the milk is just coming from one herd, the cheese can taste different at different times of year depending on whether the cows have just gone out to grass or have been on their winter diet.

Once the milk has been pasteurised Paul takes over. The milk is pumped from the pasteurising room into a big metal vat in the cheese room. At the same time a starter culture, containing several types of yeast, is added, which starts to ferment the milk.

When the vat is full Paul adds rennet to set it. He uses vegetable rennet, rather than traditional animal rennet, so all their cheeses are suitable for vegetarians.

After stirring in the rennet for about three or four minutes, the vat is left undisturbed for an hour until the mixture has an almost jelly-like consistency.

He uses two tools to cut the curd into small rectangles and then stirs it with an oar and mechanical paddles for an hour.

It gradually becomes more difficult as the curd becomes denser than the whey and settles underneath.

Paul then drains 3cm of whey out of the vat and adds hot water to reduce the acidity of the curd. He repeats this process a second time before completely draining the whey out of the vat. The curd is then turned out by hand to get out more whey, before filling the moulds. Each batch makes up to 36 cheeses, which are pressed, soaked in brine, coated in plastic to protect them from growing mould on the outside, and then kept in the drying room for ten days before they are transferred to the refrigerated store room to mature.

They make a variety of different cheeses, but the initial process is mostly the same. After three months in the storeroom they take cores from the cheeses and grade them.

Lyburn Gold is their three-month old mild cheese, Winchester is the same cheese but left to mature for nine months, and Old Winchester is the really mature cheese, which is normally stored for about 18 months. They also do a smoked cheese, a garlic and nettle cheese, and a cumin flavoured cheese.

Lyburn Farmhouse Cheesemakers regularly wins awards for its cheeses and have already been told they will pick up seven medals at the British Cheese Awards this year.

Since Paul joined the operation, they have been developing a new cheese called Stoney Cross, which is mould-ripened. Despite its relative infancy the cheese won a bronze medal at last year’s British Cheese Awards, which it will at least equal this year, as well as a silver at the World Cheese Awards, a silver at the Great Yorkshire Show and a gold at Nantwich this year.

Mike said: “We do win a lot of prizes and awards, but it’s not just because we want to win prizes. It’s part of the branding.

“You’ve got to be taken seriously and you have to be in the frame to be an artisan cheesemaker. You have to maintain a high profile.”

The farm has its own shop where people can buy the cheese, as well as having stalls at all of the Hampshire farmers’ markets.