Making Cheese, p54
Skill. Passion. Intuition. Patience. These are the four talents that a specialist cheese-maker needs. It is the cheese-maker who turns good milk into great cheese. There is a huge difference between the traditional ‘art’ of making cheese on a small scale and the ‘science’ of modern dairy technology, where every stage in the process is defined and the slightest deviation from a standard is considered a fault
Skill. Passion. Intuition. Patience. These are the four talents that a specialist cheese-maker needs. It is the cheese-maker who turns good milk into great cheese. There is a huge difference between the traditional ‘art’ of making cheese on a small scale and the ‘science’ of modern dairy technology, where every stage in the process is defined and the slightest deviation from a standard is considered a fault.
Making cheese on a small scale gives cheese-makers much closer control over the quality of the milk used, but also requires them to adjust methods constantly in response to changing conditions. Specialist cheesemaking is much more than a science: it is a skilled craft that requires experience, judgement, a natural empathy with the raw materials and an appreciation of the final product. Because of the many variables, each individual cheese batch is different, a unique example of the cheesemaker’s craft. The art of the cheese-maker is to manipulate the natural process in a desired direction, then leave nature to do the rest.
