82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 16, 2002
Expert cheese-making instructor Kathy Biss watches as class members document
data of the cheese they are making.
Scottish Expert Shares
Cheesemaltfnir Secrets
GAY BROWNLEE
V 'irgin ia Corresponden I
TIMBERVILLE. Va. At
first glance the scene from the en
closed observation deck in Shen
ville Creamery on Evergreen Val
ley Road, more closely resembles
a hospital operating room. The
team working there appeared al
most sterile, “suited up" as they
were for immaculate cleanliness
in a cheese-making quest guided,
directed, and taught by an expert
from Scotland.
Some participants stood
around stainless steel vats of pas
teurized cow or goat milk and
stirred the curdling liquid. Using
paring knives, others lifted out
curds as they formed and cut
them into small uniform pieces.
Nearby, talking seriously to
each other around a table, several
people examined vials of a sub
stance and recorded the data on
sheets of paper.
A round solid chunk of Ched
dar in a wooden press was not far
away.
About a dozen persons from
Virginia, North Carolina and
Pennsylvania convened for a
three-day workshop conducted
by Katherine (Kathy) Biss. The
workshop’s foremost purpose
was to improve technique and re
fine cheesemaking skills.
During the three-day event,
pasteurized milk from both cows
and goats was used, but from
April through September at her
home in the Scottish West High-
lands, Biss makes cheese with the
milk taken from the Friesland
sheep she raises.
“The aim of the course is to
produce hard cheeses,” Biss
said. ‘I find in the states, few
people know how to make hard
cheeses. A proper cheddar—you
can’t shortcut,” she said.
“It’s not only a science, it’s a
craft,” said Biss with the voice of
experience gained from 25 years
of conducting regular workshops
in the United Kingdom.
“Cheesemaking is a skill that
is being gradually lost due to
mechanization,” Biss said, ex
plaining that recipes adapted to
machines lose their identity.
“People are fed up with the
yellow rubbery stuff you buy in
supermarkets,” she said.
Making good homemade cheese has its tev
Here the workshop participants are testing the acidity of
whey-.
One participant, Vicki Duna
way who also coordinated the
class, is licensed to produce and
market cheese. At the little work
place in Willis, Va. that she calls
Ladybug Micro Creamery, Duna
way makes a wide variety of
cheese products.
In a separate conversation Du
naway said that to make any
kind of cheese you need milk,
culture, and enzyme. She ex
plained that the different cheeses
made throughout the world come
by manipulating the crucial fac
tors of temperature and time.
“Temperature is critical in
making cheese of any kind,” she
said. “A fresh mozzarella, once
made, is ready to use.”
Not cheddar. The technique is
trickier. Dunaway indicated if
only she can get the process
down, she would loved to have
cheddar always.
So it was with most of the par
ticipants. They knew the basics
but were having inconsistent re
sults with hard cheeses.
Chris Owen, for instance, in
experimenting with pasteurized
goat milk Cheddars at the Spin
ning Spider Farm in North Caro
lina. She said the main stumbling
blocks for her involved the con
sistency of culture and the aging
process.
At the end of the workshop,
Owen said that she had been in
troduced to a whole new level of
documenting and manipulating a
batch while it was in progress.
Barbara Harrick went home
energized by the information that
was passed around the workshop.
Within a week at her Fairfax, Va.
home she was tackling a home
made brie.
“I have a lot more confidence
than I would have had a month
ago,” the hobbyist said over the
telephone. Harrick was newly
armed with refining techniques,
problem solving skills, and inspi
ration gained from the course
and knowledge the others shared.
A cheddar is pictured in
the cheese press.
In the beginning, most cheese
makers consider themselves hob
byists. Later they often applied
and received a commercial li
cense. Others were in the licens
ing process.
The exceptions were Marvin
Tice, the production manager,
and Kay Plogger, Shenville
Creamery employees whose jobs
include soft cheese and yogurt
production.
“We feel it is a unique oppor
tunity to focus on aged cheeses,”
Leon Heatwole, Shenville owner,
said about having employee rep
resentation in the workshop.
“I always thought it would be
nice to have a cheese that you
were known for. I hope this is the
first step toward that.”
In September 2000 Heatwole
and his wife, Ida, opened the
creamery to provide pure, fresh
milk to the consumer solely from
their 200-head Holstein dairy.
The milk trip to the recyclable
glass bottles from the cows is very
short since it is processed on the
farm. The milk is sold in homog
enized and unhomogenized form
with a cream line.
Workshop participants took
one kind of every cheese variety
that they made along home to
age it. When the cheese reaches
maturity, the participants plan to
share taste tests with one anoth
er.