Rennet & Rind from Cambridge was crowned Affineur of the Year on Wednesday 27 April, following a live judging and tasting event held at the China Exchange in London. This trophy announcement marks the close of the first ever edition of the competition, which was founded by the Academy of Cheese and Devon-based cheesemaker, Quicke’s, to celebrate the underappreciated art of maturing cheese. The winning truckle was aged in Rennet & Rind’s maturing rooms by head of cheese, Perry James Wakeman, a Certified MonS Affineur, who worked and studied under the highly respected Hervé Mons, Meilleur Ouvrier de France. As...

Affineur of the Year update! More aptly, our Priscilla update! We are extremely pleased with the explosion of cheddar based colonies forming on the rind. We haven't had to re-lard which is good news as this can sometimes stifle growth and also make the cheese a bit less predictable. We are being more delicate with our brushing, more of a massage than a brush. I think this is the main contributor to the awesome patchwork style of microflora which is now established. Weight is steady, but we've pulled back on the temperature due to the delay in the 'Affineur of...

Pleased to announce we were part of a pretty cool podcast called Burger Bants hosted by the epic Charly from Steak & Honour. We chat all things British cheese, (of course) Burgers, independents, ‘Sandy-wiches’ and everything else. Follow the epic Burger maker Steak & Honour here - @steakandhonour Follow Us Here - @Rennetandrind

 You may or may not know, that all across Europe some cheeses have protected status, such as; Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC), ‘Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)’ or ‘Protected Geographical Indication (PGI)’. These protections have been in place since 1992 and you will have seen their logos on the packaging of certain cheese, wine and other food items. They’re only granted for European products that are produced to exacting quality standards, to protect certain cheeses from being copied or imitated. In total, there are four levels of protection but in this blog, I want to focus on one, AOC. AOC protection...