Jennifer in her kitchen with a couple of vacuum packed cheeses and a tomme.
Jennifer seems to be good at everything she does – she’s an “A student” through and through. She started a food blog in 2014 and, as you would expect, the recipes are very well done.
One in particular, Three Nut Cake with Chocolate Ganache is weighing heavily on my mind. I’ll be making it soon and trying not to eat it all in one big bite.
Her cheeses are spectacular and she made them all with store-bought milk. So, when anyone tells you that you have to have raw milk to make good cheese, just point them to this interview!
Jennifer’s Story
I have two adult children, Amy and India, and one grandchild, the gorgeous Matilda.
Matilda
My husband of many years died about 8 years ago but I was fortunate to meet Ross in 2018 and he has very much become part of the family.
With Ross in Venice in 2018
Ogling cheese there
I have a degree in Applied Science (Speech Pathology) and worked in traumatic brain injury for a number of years. Then, I moved into the management side of things and worked with a range of government funded disability services until I retired last year.
Apart from cheese making, I am a passionate cook. My particular favourites are Italian and Sichuan foods and I have become a expert pasta maker of both egg and flour and water pasta.
Ricotta stuffed capelletti
Flour and water pasta
Pretty, filled pasta coloured with tomato
Buckwheat pasta
I had a food blog for a couple of years called jenrollinslovesfood but I haven’t posted for a while.
Goat’s milk caramel (Cajeta) recipe at my blog – click here
I love my garden which is full of Australian native plants …
Part of my garden
… and I volunteer at a city farm which supplies produce to refugees and other people in strife.
Planting potatoes at Sydney City Farm
I also volunteer as a court support officer in the District Court here in Sydney to assist victims and witnesses of crime who are giving evidence in court.
My main hobby: I sing soprano in a number of Sydney choirs – the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Choir, the Sydney Chamber Choir and the Choir of Christ Church St Laurence. I’m just about to sing Hadyn’s “The Creation” for the Canberra International Music Festival which I’m really looking forward to.
That’s me last soprano on the right, singing with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. Pre-COVID, so no grey hair!
I started making cheese about ten years ago. I happened to be scouring the cookbook section of a bookshop and my eye fell upon Mary Karlin’s book (Artisan Cheese Making at Home). I think you could say I was pretty much hooked from then on.
My attempt at a Yarg, like a Caerphilly but with nettles
My cheese making is largely self taught. I bought more books, scoured the internet and joined cheeseforum.org to expand my knowledge.
I live in suburban Sydney, Australia, not on a farm like so many of your contributors so I don’t have access to large quantities of really fresh, raw milk, which is illegal to buy for human consumption here. But I can get non-homogenized Jersey milk which has really transformed my cheese making for the better after years of just using ordinary supermarket milk.
I can also get decent goat milk, although my partner’s not a fan of goat cheese so I don’t make it that often.
My press
As you can see, apart from the wine fridge used for ripening cheese, we have quite a lot of wine too!
All my moulds, cheese press, ripening boxes, sous vide machine, etc.
I tend to make white mould and blue cheese because they’re the ones I enjoy eating most.
Buffalo milk Brie. I buy from my local providore who sells it occasionally. They get it from Burraduc Farm which produces buffalo mozzarella and yoghurt. The milk is great but at $13 per litre, I don’t buy it often!
This is a blue that I decided not to pierce. It had a lovely mild blue flavour and creamy texture.
A four month old blue with quite a pronounced blue flavour.
I also adore washed rind cheeses but for a long time couldn’t seem to get the process right.
A washed rind monks cheese
But, I recently made a great Epoisse style cheese so I think I’ve worked out where I was going wrong and have overcome the technical challenges involved.
Mont D’Or is another favourite which I’ve made a few times now. This cheese is banded with a spruce strip which looks very attractive but also contributes to its special flavour.
Mont D’Or
I recently made Vaccino Romano from Jim Wallace’s recipe which is now ageing for the next 12 months.
Vaccino Romano
Also on the go is a Tomme de Savoie (also from Jim) which is only 5 weeks old but seems to be developing a good rind.
Vaccino Romano
And, just for fun, I dried some edible flower petals (cornflowers, marigolds, chive flowers, zinnias) and coated a small Comte style cheese with them. Getting them to stick was a bit of an issue, so that cheese is vacuum packed.
Flower covered Comte
Last year I attended my first cheese making workshop run by Graham Redhead (cheesemaking.com.au) here in Australia. He is a fount of knowledge and has really helped me improve my practices.
At a cheese making workshop taught by Graham Redhead (cheesemaking.com.au)
Since then, I’ve started helping him out at his workshops. It’s fantastic to see how many people have a passion for cheese and cheesemaking which often seems to be part of a broader desire to live more sustainably. These participants are already into baking bread, making salami, preserving and fermenting, and cheese making is the next logical step!
The next step for me is a plan to visit France next year with Graham. A week spent touring various cheese makers to get a better understanding of their processes sounds like a fantastic trip.
