Hygiene, honestly: what I sanitise, what I boil and what I stopped worrying about
Cheese is milk kept warm for hours and then left for weeks, which is to say that it is an invitation. Everything I have learned about keeping it safe comes down to one principle: the cultures I add should be the only things that get a head start. The routine is now fixed and takes about twenty-five minutes before any milk is poured.
- The stockpot, lid, ladle, long knife, thermometer and measuring spoons are washed in hot soapy water, rinsed, then filled or covered with water and brought to the boil for five minutes.
- Cloths, muslin and the cheese mat are boiled separately for ten minutes and left in the pot until needed; they never go in with the general laundry.
- The plastic moulds and followers, which would warp in boiling water, soak in a dilute no-rinse food-grade sanitiser for the time on the bottle, then drip dry on a rack.
- The worktop is cleared completely, washed, and wiped with the same sanitiser. The window stays shut.
- Hands are washed to the elbow at the start and every time I touch anything else, including my own face.
The thermometer gets checked in boiling water once a month. Mine reads 99.6 °C at a rolling boil, so I subtract nothing and trust it. A thermometer three degrees out would mean adding rennet to milk that is too warm or cooking curd too hot, and more importantly it would mean I did not actually know what I was doing to the milk.
What I have stopped worrying about: the hallway fridge not being spotless, because the wheels in it have rinds that are supposed to grow things and a bit of ambient mould is the point; mould on the outside of a hard cheese, which gets brushed off; and the milk itself, which is pasteurised and has never been the problem.
What I do not negotiate on: anything pink, orange or slimy on a fresh cheese goes straight in the bin, cheese and all. It has happened once, to a batch of fresh cheese left in a covered bowl at the back of the fridge for nine days, which developed a pink sheen and a smell like old flannel. Soft fresh cheese is eaten within five days in this house now, and the date goes on the lid in marker.