News
Masterclass for farmhouse cheese producers
Eamonn Lonergan (Chairperson of Cais), Ivan Larcher and Sara McSweeney.
In addition to running a basic FETAC certified course on farmhouse cheese production, this year Sara McSweeney of Moorepark organised a two-day masterclass for experienced farmhouse cheese producers which was given by the French artisan cheese expert Ivan Larcher.
Ivan previously worked with Rhodia Food (now part of Danisco) and Centre Fromager de Carmejane and now works as a consultant to artisan cheese producers in the UK, USA, Eastern Europe and Israel.
The course was part funded by the Rural Food Training Network Skillnets and support by Cáis, the Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers Association. It was attended by many well-established farmhouse cheese producers as well as those who have entered the market in recent years.
Photo of groups who attended masterclass course.
The main focus of the course was troubleshooting and addressed issues met in the manufacture of many of the Irish farmhouse varieties. These included defects caused by slow or excess acidification, bitterness and other flavour defects, early and late blowing and advertitious mould contamination The course focused on preventative methods and solutions to address these problems which were appropriate to the capabilities on small scale farm-based production.