Cheese paste - fully clothed chef!

As it has all been used up it was time to make a new batch of cheese paste to use on the river for the chub. I thought I would show you all how I make mine, not only as a guide but also to see if you guys make it differently (might improve my catch rate!)

First I start by making sure that my misses is out, as the smell is somewhat acquired.

My ingredients are a packet of Just roll short crust pastry, some strong mature cheddar, pack of danish blue, piece of Parmesan, and some food colourings. (red and yellow). I also have at the ready a couple of pairs of rubber gloves, a chopping board, rolling pin and three freezer bags.

To start with I break up the blue cheese into a bowl, adding the grated cheddar and then some grated Parmesan. I then put this in the microwave for about 45 secs to soften it up.

Whilst this is going on, I roughly roll out the pastry and form a kind of bowl.

I then add the cheese mixture into this and start to knead the ingredients together for about 5 minutes. the result of this is a block of dough which stinks to high heaven and is a bit larger than a fist.

At this stage the dough with have a slight gloss to it as the oils from the cheese rise to the surface.

I then make 1 ball into 3 about the size of oranges. I add yellow dye to one, red to another and leave the last one plain. Be careful as this point as quite often the dye squirts out as you knead it through the dough......should see my wall!!! The reason why I like to make a couple of couloured batches is so I have some variation in different coloured water.
After a couple of minutes on each the dye is uniform and I have three balls ready to put in the fridge. I will leave these over night, and perhaps add further colouring, or some flavours such as butyric acid or garlic oil to them.

If they are to stiff I will add a small amount of oil based liquid/marge to ensure that the paste is soft enough top strike through, as in the cold water the paste hardens up quite alot. Thought to be honest I usually leave them as they are for the first few outings as sometimes simple is best.....bring on the chub!
Let me know how you make yours.......got a right ear bending just when the misses returned....You have been warned gents!