Behind the Cheese | Week 6: Why do cheeses have different rinds?
8th Oct 2026
Look across a cheese counter and one of the first things you'll notice is just how different the outsides can be. Some cheeses are covered in a soft, snowy-white coat. Others have sticky orange rinds, rough grey surfaces, dry brown crusts or almost no rind at all. These differences are not simply cosmetic.
A cheese rind is often an active part of the ageing process. It can influence how quickly mo
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Behind the Cheese: Why Are Cheeses Different Shapes?
1st Oct 2026
Walk along a cheese counter and you'll see wheels, drums, logs, pyramids, squares, cylinders and tiny rounds. At first glance, the shape of a cheese can seem mostly decorative — something created by tradition or simply to make one cheese look different from another. But cheese shapes are rarely accidental.
The size and shape of a cheese can influence how quickly it loses moisture, how its r
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Behind the Cheese: Why Do Cheesemakers Keep Turning Cheese?
24th Sep 2026
If you've ever visited a cheese ageing cellar, one of the first things you may notice is that the cheeses don't simply sit untouched on a shelf. They are turned. Again and again. Sometimes every day. Sometimes less often. Sometimes by hand, sometimes with the help of specialised equipment.
It sounds like a tiny part of the process, but turning can influence how evenly a cheese matures, how moistu
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Behind the Cheese: What Is That Mould Doing There?
17th Sep 2026
White, blue, grey, orange… sometimes even slightly furry.
If you opened your fridge and found some of those colours growing on most foods, you would probably be concerned. Cheese is different.
For many traditional cheeses, the microorganisms growing on
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