Thus far, I've made a lot of effort to fool you into thinking that I'm not actually an overly impulsive person; I was just being ironic when I made this blog and I am actually totally calm, collected and most of my ideas are thought out and well planned. Well, those of you who had their doubts when I bought a curry plant on a whim will not be surprised to hear that the other day I impulse-bought essence of rennet.

Available in Waitrose believe it or not, in and amongst the flavourings and vanilla essence.

'What on earth...?' I hear you say. No, it's fine. A perfectly normal thing to have in the cupboard, you (probably) make cheese with it, which was what I told myself as I snatched it off the shelf and hid it behind the onions and out of sight of OH, who is practical and does not buy ingredients which he does not know how to use (and quite rightly tries to rein me in when I attempt to do so).

Well, my first batch was a total flop. I made some milk mush which was nice in a watery mascarpone sort of way but was definitely nothing like the herb-crusted little beauties I'd had in mind. I won't show you the results, no amount of playing around in photoshop would make the little quivering puddle of goo look anything other than mildly  nauseating. 

The second batch is curdling away near the wood stove and will hopefully be glorious, though at this stage is no more photogenic than it's goo sibling.

The next day.....

AHHHHH! Success (dances around waving arms)! I have cheese curdles (above)! I left the curds overnight to drain and then squeezed them in a muslin cloth till they were dry dry dry. And look (down)! Okay, there are prettier cheese related images out there but I think it's still a respectable thing to appreciate my little hunklets of home-made, nameless cheese stuff.

And the taste? ....well, I'll be perfecting my technique before I go entering any contests, but the simple fact remains, I   Have    Made    Cheese.

For those who'd like a go, this is Bon Appétit, a lovely blog which has the recipe I followed.