St Jude : A Labour of Love

Julie Cheyney calls herself ‘the dairymaid who gets to make her own cheese’.  She first started milking cows as a teenager on weekends and has been dedicated to farming and fascinated with the potential of milk ever since.

When a cheese tastes as good as St Jude, it’s tempting to look for the romantic story behind it and mythologise its origins.  If you pursue this line of questioning with Julie, you’ll receive a wry smile, and she’ll explain the practical issues that lead to her choice of cheese. 

Meeting a French cheese consultant, called Ivan Larcher, caused her to become interested in lactic cheesemaking.  This is a style most often employed to make goats cheese and it involves a long, slow set and minimal quantities of rennet.  The appeal is that it really is the quality of the milk that drives the cheese because the cheesemaker’s intervention is minimal.  The curd is ladled rather than cut, and its drainage entirely relies on it having reached the correct acidity so that the tightening effect of the curd itself is what pushes enough moisture out and allows it to ripen correctly.

Having chosen the style of cheese she wanted to make, the size was dictated by practicality: small enough that she could lift the weights required easily.  Although it isn't all practicalities, there has been an adventurous voyage across the country from Hampshire where her cheesemaking life began to Suffolk where she made cheese at Fen Farm, also home to Baron Bigod, and finally now in Norfolk where she has just moved.

Julie makes cheese today in a custom-built facility on Dairy Farm, outside Wheatacre, on the edge of the Norfolk Broads. The Burroughs, the farmers, are passionate breeders of British Friesian cows, the very same breed that Julie learned to milk on. They also have Brown Swiss and Ayrshires in their herd which makes their milk very suitable for cheese.  Ayrshire milk has smaller fat globules than the milk from other breeds and this lends a richness to the cheese as the fats are easier to lock into the curd structure. 

There isn’t so much of a mystery as to why Julie’s cheeses are so good, she is simply exacting and dedicated to getting it just right.  Curd is renneted at the magic pH of 6.4 and ladled at 4.6 and on occasions when she was learning her recipe, if this meant she had to get up and ladle cheese at 1am, that is what she did.  Sometimes she would get a second sense that the curd was ready and head into the dairy to find that her instincts were right; it was time to ladle.

The recipe starts with fresh raw milk that is less than 2 hours old given respect and gentle treatment.  Her cheesemaking is very much handmade but letting the milk dictate the make and she keeps a careful eye on the process, steering and guiding it to fulfil its potential.  Temperature is key, as lactic cheesemaking effectively follows the natural souring of milk, helped a little with lactic acid cultures added at the beginning and a carefully calculated amount of rennet to strengthen the set and aid drainage.

None of this is to imply that making a lactic cheese is easy.  Simple in theory but far from it in practice.  It takes dedication and attention to detail and Julie’s cheeses are very much a vocation and a way of life.  She enjoys the slow and gentle pace of the recipe, finding the time to enjoy the warmth of the make room and the milky scent of the curd. In fact, it’s a second home where she describes herself as working with nature not against it.

When you taste a St Jude, it has a subtlety but complexity that you never get tired of.  Whether they are older and spoonable or young and mousse-like in texture, they’re delicious and a testament to the care, attention and love they have been given.

Julie Cheney salting and turning her cheeses.  Photos taken by Simon Buck.