Nettus

Nettus is the second cheese which Emily started making in 2023. Whilst Pyghtle had been
the cheese she wanted to make, Nettus started as the cheese she needed to make.
Abundant milk at various points through the season and an inevitable lean winter meant that she could take advantage of the situation to make a cheese that took longer to mature and would provide an income throughout the autumn and winter.

Testing started in collaboration with Neal’s Yard Dairy who continued to support Emily
through the process and in fact offered maturing space for the cheese, as she lacked the
space at Broughton Hall.

The cheese that unanimously won the taste test is a semi hard, washed rind cheese that is
allowed to mature for at least 3 months, with a rind encouraged and brushed. Emily tried
and tweaked a series of different recipes, the final one taking elements of a gouda and also of a Manchego-style.

The process

Milk is heated to around 30 degrees and cultures added, being left to acidify for around an hour and a half, before rennet is added and curds cut by hand once coagulated. The curds are then scalded by slowly increasing the temperature and then are moulded quickly.

The cheeses are left over night in their moulds with a small amount of pressure applied, being turned a couple of times before being unmoulded the following day and salted. They are taken to Neal’s Yard Dairy at just a few days old and mature in the arches at Bermondsey where they are washed with a brine solution and turned regularly.

At around 3 months’ old, the cheese has a wonderful nutty flavour, a yielding texture but with a slightly crystalline bite and a lingering sweetness which comes from the sheep milk. The washed rind gives a punchy and savoury depth to the cheese.

The name Nettus comes from the East Anglian word ‘neat-house’ which, when intoned with a broad Suffolk or Norfolk accent becomes ‘nett’us’. It was the name given to a small brick building on most stock farms, used to keep your ‘neat’ stock. The Neat House at Broughton Hall Farm is across the yard from the Cheese Make Room.