DELICIOUS cheese is stretched and massaged, writes SARAH HUDSON

Carole Willman hands out hair nets and aprons and cautions that the most important aspect of cheesemaking is hygiene.

"When we are making cheese, we are in conditions conducive to the growth of bacteria," Carole says to workshop participants.

"You can start off with the best quality milk and if you don't have the correct hygiene you can wreck everything. We want to make sure we are not going to make anyone ill."

For a moment Carole, who runs workshops around Australia, comes across as a strict school teacher, but hygiene aside, her cheeky - even cheesey - sense of humour is a highlight of the day's workshop. As is her knowledge of the product, which is encyclopedic.

Once we have been instructed on the need to sanitise hands and equipment throughout the process, the cheesemaking begins.

On the menu today: halloumi, mozzarella and, from the left-over whey, ricotta, all of which will be ready to eat in a few hours.

"We use full fat milk because life is too short for low fat cheese. It really is all about flavour," Carole grins.

The first step is to heat the milk to 42 degrees by pouring boiling water on to milk cartons standing in a tub.

"Unlike commercial cheesemakers, we don't have the means to test the pathogens in cheese so I always recommend pasteurising milk. We know once it's pasteurised it's safe."

Once heated, the milk is poured into saucepans.

To make mozzarella, we add rennet (a coagulating enzyme that reacts with milk proteins) and starter (specially selected bacteria that creates acid).

To the halloumi we add calcium chloride (which helps produce a firmer curd to assist with drainage) and rennet.

Participants - in their hair nets and aprons - delicately add ingredients via syringe and medicine cups to look more like scientists than artisan cheesemakers.

And then the magic begins.

For about 30-40 minutes the milk is warmed and left to set.

Prying off the lids following this, the milk has transformed into a solid curd. We then cut it into small cubes, before letting stand then stirring to separate the curds from the whey - the mozzarella is stirred intermittently, the halloumi constantly for about 40 minutes.

The fun bit is when we put the liquid whey into a separate saucepan to make the ricotta - merely a few drops of vinegar after constant boiling and stirring and the ricotta transforms and floats to the top.

As for the solid halloumi curds, they are placed into baskets with holes, or hoops, and aside from a little more boiling, the product is ready. We eat it fried in the pan with a few spices. Delicious.

Mozzarella, Carole says, is the playdough of the cheese world.

When the curd has reached the correct temperature and released its whey, we don rubber gloves and dip the curd into boiling water, stretching and massaging it until it becomes smooth and can be made into little snowball-like rounds.

Pop the balls into cold water and voila, ready to eat.

Throughout the workshop Carole entertains us with her knowledge.

"About 1kg of cheddar uses roughly 10 litres of milk. Parmesan a little less, softer cheese a little bit more," she says.

"Milk is about 87 per cent water, that's why we don't get much out of it. About 4 per cent is fat content."

And she asks us, do we know the definition of cheese?

"Milk seeking immortality. They've even found edible cheese in the pyramids."

CHEESE CHATTER

Milk pasteurisation - heating the milk to kill dangerous bacteria and spoilage bacteria.

Adding starter - harmless bacteria to assist with the preservation of the cheese.

Adding rennet - this makes the milk set like a junket.

Cutting - the coagulated milk is cut into small pieces.

Stirring - helps the whey come out and make the curds and hence the cheese firmer.

Heating - this helps the whey come out and make the curds and hence the cheese firmer.

Hooping the curds - gathering the curds together and placing into a mould or hoop to contain the curds and shape the cheese.