Have you ever fancied
creating your very own cheese? Now is your chance! Next week on Thursday 27th
October we’re introducing Aly Proverbs is launching The Big Cheese Making Kit
on Hochanda! Keep reading to find out a bit more before the shows…
The Big Cheese
Making Kit came about through Ailsa's, the Managing Director, love of cheese
and the curiosity to find out if she could make herself. This curiosity was
triggered by a Celebrity Chef making yoghurt (I won’t name names but he lives
in a cottage by the river!) She thought it looked really easy, and thought if
you can make yoghurt maybe you could make cheese too?
"I started digging about online and found that yes, you could make cheese
at home without any fancy equipment or having to age the stuff for 5 years
under your stairs. In fact, you can make it really quickly and be eating
it within an hour! I became
hooked on making cheese and wanted other people to feel the same. I was always
pleased by people’s reactions when they came for lunch and I had made cheese.
They couldn’t believe I’d made it myself and said they wanted to try it
too."
"I started digging about online and found that yes, you could make cheese
at home without any fancy equipment or having to age the stuff for 5 years
under your stairs. In fact, you can make it really quickly and be eating
it within an hour! I became
hooked on making cheese and wanted other people to feel the same. I was always
pleased by people’s reactions when they came for lunch and I had made cheese.
They couldn’t believe I’d made it myself and said they wanted to try it
too."
And so, after
lots of trial and error, lots of focus groups, 100s of pints of milk and
countless recipe edits later… The Big Cheese Making Kit was born!
In those early
months, orders were being processed and her cheese-making kits assembled and
dispatched from Ailsa’s spare bedroom - with the help of local mums from the
village. Things are quite different now. The kits are no longer made from home
for one thing. Ailsa's sister Alison joined the company and together the two
sisters have developed a complete range of kits and stock over 400
retailers.
But is it
difficult to make cheese? Ailsa says "People are always surprised you can
make cheese at home so easily. They tend to assume it’s a technical job and
requires lots of fancy equipment. With our recipes, tested in my kitchen,
cheese making is easy and lots of fun. And of course, the best part is the
eating!"
As well as step-by-step instructions, each kit contains everything a novice maker needs – including a thermometer, citric acid, vegetarian rennet and a muslin square for sieving. The Ultimate Kit even comes with a recipe book which Alison and Ailsa created together.
The kits are
made in the UK, vegetarian, gluten free, sourced organically where possible and
are designed to have the lowest possible impact on the environment, with no
unnecessary packaging or products. There are even suggestions on what to do
with your whey – the by-product of cheese making – so nothing need go to waste.
For services to
the food industry founder Ailsa recently received an MBE. Commenting on her
award, Ailsa said “I am amazed to have received such a great honour. The
purpose of the company is to demystify the cheese making process so that anyone
can make fresh cheese easily at home and it caught on almost immediately among
foodies and as a quality gift.” Indeed, with over 100,000 kits sold in the
first 3 years it could be described as a quiet revolution in cheese making.
We’re thrilled to be
bringing The Big Cheese Making Kit to your screens, it’s definitely a hobby
that we have been WOW’d by here at Hochanda HQ. We were lucky enough to let a
couple of the team here try out the kits watch this space to see how they got
on…
Don't miss the launch of The Big Cheese Making Kit shows with Aly on Thursday 27th at 8am and 11am!
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