Cheesemaking

Raw Milk

It is vital that the milk is of the highest quality, free of any antibiotic or other form of chemical residues. A good cheese cannot be made from poor quality milk. The animals must be healthy and well. Poor hygienic milk can be improved by heat treatment, but this will not make the best quality cheese. Every effort is made by the cheesemaker to ensure only the best raw material is used to make cheese.

The flavour, body and texture of the cheese will vary throughout the year, due to the natural changes in the animals and the seasons. Differences occur in the chemical composition of cows, goats and sheep milk. There is for example, much more protein, fat and calcium in sheep than in cow's milk. This means that a greater weight of cheese is obtained from sheep milk than from the same quantity of cow's milk.

Some Farmhouse Welsh cheese is made of raw milk. Rigorous standards apply at those places, making them second to none. Where milk is collected from farms in a cooled state it is normally heat treated - pasteurised to at least 72oC for a minimum of 15 seconds or any equivalent combination.