I set Jimmy a challenge - to make cheese, but it looked like just too much fun for one man alone, so we joined forces.

People have been making cheese for centuries so how hard can it be, words we might regret sooner than later.

Sure enough, we almost fell at the first hurdle, milk!
We needed real milk, from a cow.

Sourcing the milk

Shop milk just wasn't good enough for OUR cheese, it had to be real un-pasteurised, non homogenised pure warm creamy cow juice, a local farm shop would be a good place to start and at our third attempt we were directed to a working farm.

Not normally selling to the general public but available to local villagers we posed as such, no electronic cash registers here, real money and a lot of trust.

Milk, 6 litres of full cream milk unadulterated by technology.

(the cow's had been converted to metric thankfully)

Ironically we had to pasteurise the milk ourselves, the old fashioned way. Armed with a dial thermometer, wooden spoon and a great deal of patience we stirred and stirred.

Eventually we got to 64 degrees C sufficient to kill the unwanted bacteria  - now we had to cool it.

We didn't realise it would be so time consuming. several cups of tea later and we could add the curdling agent, either a packet of culture with rennet included or five minutes of Eric singing . . . we plumped for the culture.

Just a few hours to go then, or should we say 17.

Yep, 17 hours later and the deed was done, it had curdled nicely, a soft soggy lump similar to jelly had formed floating in a pool of whey.

It seemed wrong to have to dice this up but that's what the instructions said and who are we to argue.

Did we mention the smell . . . best not to.

Making cheese is a simple task or so many authors of dairy books might imply, they don't mention the almost critical temperatures involved, had we got it right, it had curdled alright and we were so pleased to see that, we had shaken hands with failure on many occasions but at this stage we were waving from across the room.

Look, it worked, we've made lumpy stuff.

On the right are two of the most important bits of equipment, I'm sure we'll find other uses for them.

The next stage was to somehow remove as much fluid as possible, armed with a slotted spoon, colander and large bucket we stained the mixture leaving behind a jell with the looks of albino scrabbled eggs.

Real cheese-cloth, we toyed with using net curtains but then the neighbours would see two grown men in the kitchen  with their heads bobbing up and down saying things like 'My goodness, isn't that firm".

This is the result of six litres of milk!

It was warn, moist and rather nice to hold we have to admit but my goodness it was heavy.

Before we could even consider making it cheese shaped we had to let it drain as much moisture as possible and gravity seemed the best choice here . . Oh, and a camera tripod came in useful too.

Salt is part of the curing process and a natural preservative too, liberally sprinkled Richard got stuck in.

The Vobes DIY Cheese Press.

Its essential to get as much moisture out as possible if your aiming for a firm cheese and a Cheese press is the way to do it.

The principle is simple enough (Like the two people doing it), rest a weight on the top and the pressure will squeeze out the excess liquid, slowly increase the weight over time.

A proper Cheese press is going to set you back about £50 but you can improvise for less that a couple of quid.

Two planks of wood and four long coach bolts is all you need plus of course some sort of cylindrical mould to hold the cheese in place. A brain wave by Richard saw the adaptation of a blank DVD disc holder drilled with tiny holes which proved ideal.

Next something to act as a flat surface to press down on the cheese . . . a blank DVD of course, and two tins of tuna.

Now to add a little pressure and what better than a 2kg training weight.

We quickly realised that liquid expelled from the bottom was being trapped by the ridge around the bottom of the cylinder, a solution was to add some pennies just to lift it clear of the wood.

Later that evening Richard added some more weight, 18kg in all and the tuna tins were replaced with a can of chopped tomatoes as the cheese compressed down.

You can of course use any tinned product!

Deep joy, our cheese is . . . cheese like.

The next morning and we've ended up with a solid lump of cheese ready for the next stage.

Six litres to make something the size of a hockey puck may seem a little uneconomical but think of the educational value, and it's fun.

Update from Richard: 12th February

Great stuff. I have sealed the cheese now and it is drying for two days. It has been immersed in hot water at 66 degrees for 1 minute as per instructions and then placed at room temperature for 2-3 days, so ready at the weekend to cool down and be bandaged and turned daily.