BUSINESS CHEESE MAKING
‘Pure magic’ with raw milk cheese Mount Eliza Cheese Katikati cheese makers Chris and Jill Whalley firmly believe the magic happens at night after they have finished work. Elaine Fisher reports.
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hris and Jill Whalley of Mount Eliza Cheese Katikati, may spend up to 10 hours making a batch of raw milk cheese to their exact standards, but they believe the real magic happens when they turn out the lights at night. “The cheese wheels look like they are just sitting on the shelf. We don’t really know exactly what goes on when we shut the cheese storeroom door, but we do know it’s pure magic,” says Jill. That “magic” continues for at least three months for raw milk Mount Eliza Red Leicester and six to 12 months for its cheddar. Mount Eliza also makes the Stilton-style Blue Monkey cheese, from pasteurised milk. All are sold online, at local Farmers Markets and throughout New Zealand to specialist deli and cheese shops. The wheels resting supposedly quietly on the shelves in the storeroom are “alive” with beneficial bacteria converting the milk lactose to lactic acid and breaking down proteins, improving the flavour and shelf life of the cheese. “The milk we use is not heated as heat drives off the aromatic enzymes,” says Chris. And aromatic is exactly what Mount Eliza Cheeses are as evidenced when
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Chris and Jill Whalley of Mount Eliza Cheese.
they are cut, and by the rich floral aroma emanating from the storeroom where they mature. “Traditionally cheese making was how milk was preserved as an important source of protein over winter in the days before refrigeration. Hard cheeses are designed to mature slowly and last a long time. We use traditional recipes sourced from cheese makers in the UK,” says Chris.
BLESSED ARE THE CHEESEMAKERS Key to making cheese is the controlled removal of water from milk which concentrates the milk’s protein, fat and other nutrients and increases its shelf life. Like all cheese makers, Chris and Jill’s
process involves coagulating the casein protein in milk and then separating the milk into solid curds and liquid whey. The liquid whey is drained off, and the curds are salted, shaped and left to ripen in a controlled environment. Microorganisms are used in each step of this process and determine the flavour and texture of the final cheese. As Chris says, it is a biotechnology which dates back centuries. Much about cheese making is scientific and carefully measured, but much is not. It’s the blend of art and science which appeals to Chris, formerly an industrial chemist, and Jill, formerly an occupational therapist. They’ve taken the art form a step further by making cheeses from unpasteurised milk; one of just three cheese makers in NZ licensed to do so. The others are Aroha Organic Goat Cheese of Te Aroha and Kervella Cheese in Takaka. To meet Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI) super strict quality standards, they needed milk from a dairy farmer prepared to go above and beyond normal industry requirements. They found their man in Carl Williams, a third-generation farmer just a few kilometres away.
Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2021
