I suppose I could be classed as a purist when it comes to food, as I get annoyed when people call things something they’re not. For instance, calling something cheese when there’s no dairy or culture used in the ingredient list. It’s not cheese!! There are so many things like that these days, and it just causes confusion.

For example, yoghurt isn’t yoghurt unless you use a yoghurt culture, and the same goes for cheese; by definition, it needs a culture to make it cheese. Oh, and it should be a dairy product.  You’ll be able to make this gourmet feta using cows, goats and sheep milk if you can get it. 

There’s a lot of confusion about what cheese is so I hope I can explain and prevent any issues you may have making it.  Don’t forget my courses are interactive so you can always comment and ask questions below and I’ll respond.

I have so many people email or message me asking for help in solving their cheese or yoghurt making problems. I had a poor lady a couple of weeks back that had thrown out litres and litres of milk because someone told her that all you needed to do was to add the contents of a probiotic capsule into 2 litres of milk in her Thermomix and set it to run the yoghurt function.  She tried this several times with different types of milk and adding milk powder, but it just didn’t work. No wonder - there was no yoghurt culture in it! She had missed the most vital step. 

Now, because there are new recipes for cheese making in the Thermomix appearing, I’m getting loads of questions about cheese. I don’t mind the questions, I’m just frustrated that there are so many people giving poor advice because of something incorrect they’ve heard. 

The recipes that use nuts instead of dairy are not cheese in the sense of the word. Although yummy in most cases they’re something entirely different to cheese and the way you make them is not the way you make cheese (Nope, adding yeast to milk will not maketh the cheese. hehehe!). Now I’m not saying that nut cheeses aren’t good, some are brilliant, but they’re not cheese.  They’re an analogue of cheese.  If only people would come up with a new name for their creations instead of confusing people.