The Help Hut

Everything-you-need kits for making your own food and drink at home, cheese, gin, bacon, jerky, kebabs, chilli sauce, rum, wine, bubble tea and more, plus craft kits like kintsugi. Each one comes with the ingredients or botanicals and a clear instruction booklet.

None at all. Our kits are designed for complete beginners, with simple step-by-step booklets. You will just need a few common kitchen items and, for some kits, a fresh ingredient or two.

It varies by kit. Cheese needs milk, the meat kits need fresh meat, gin needs vodka and rum needs dark rum. The product page and booklet for each kit list exactly what to buy.

Every kit comes with a printed booklet. You will also find step-by-step guides, tips and troubleshooting here in the Help Hut, organised by kit, just pick your topic from the list on the left.

Anywhere from under an hour to a few weeks, depending on the kit. Jerky and bacon are same-day, gin and rum take a few days, and wine takes 8 to 12 weeks. Each topic gives the timings.

Often, yes. Many booklets include the recipes so you can buy your own ingredients and carry on. See the individual topic for what you will need.

They are made for it, a fun, memorable present for foodies, hobbyists and anyone who loves making things. Cheese, gin and the cocktail-style kits are perennial favourites.

Yes. At checkout, simply enter the recipient's address as the delivery address and the kit will be sent directly to them.

Browse your kit's topic here in the Help Hut first, most questions are answered there. If you still need a hand, get in touch through our contact page and we will be happy to help.

We would love to see it, tag us on Instagram with #sandyleaffarm.

No. None of our kits contain alcohol. They contain the ingredients, equipment and instructions, and you buy the spirit separately. That also means you don't need to be 18 to buy a kit as a gift, but you do need to be old enough to buy the alcohol to use the drinks kits.

We aim for all kits to leave us with at least 12 months on the best before date. After the date, quality slowly declines rather than the kit becoming unsafe: in flavour-led kits (gin, rum, biltong) the ingredients simply taste less punchy, while kits with active ingredients (the yeast in the wine kit, the rennet in the cheese kits) may stop working reliably, so use those before the date.

Please do! Tag us @sandyleaffarm and use #sandyleaffarm, we love seeing what you make. The one thing we ask is that you don't publish the full recipes and instructions, as a lot of testing goes into them.

Just a bottle of inexpensive vodka per batch (700ml per bottle of gin). Everything else, the juniper, botanicals, sieve or filter bags and bottling kit, is in the box.

Gin's flavour comes from the juniper and botanicals, not the spirit. Vodka is a neutral blank canvas, and inexpensive vodka is perfect, the subtle notes of a premium vodka would just be lost under the botanicals.

Days, not weeks. The standard kit infuses in under a week, the colour-changing gin in about 12 hours, and the Ultimate kit in a couple of days. A little patience really pays off in the flavour.

The Colour Changing kit makes five 700ml bottles and the Ultimate Gin Maker's Kit makes up to ten. The standard Gin Making Kit makes a smaller batch, check your recipe booklet for the exact quantity.

Add the juniper and botanicals to a bottle of vodka, seal it and leave it to infuse. Then strain out the botanicals and you have gin. Full quantities and timings are in your recipe booklet.

Use the measuring spoons and the quantities in the booklet. Each infusion is juniper berries plus the botanical blend. Juniper is the heart of gin's flavour, so don't leave it out.

Pour it through the metal sieve or filter bag into a jug. If you used a filter bag, let it drip and give it only a gentle press, don't squeeze hard, as that pushes sediment through and clouds the gin.

Funnel the strained gin into a clean, recycled spirit bottle or a swing-top Kilner bottle, then label it with the supplied tag. Stored sealed and out of sunlight, it keeps well. Avoid plastic or metal containers, they can affect the taste.

Yes, taste as you go using the pipette. The longer it steeps, the stronger the flavour, so strain it once it tastes right to you. You're in control.

It's built around bright citrus (lemongrass, lemon and orange peel) with fragrant coriander and allspice, designed to echo a premium London-style gin, with juniper providing the classic gin backbone.

A classic G&T (good tonic, plenty of ice, a citrus garnish) shows it off best. Your booklet also includes cocktail recipes designed around the blend.

Absolutely, we encourage it, especially once you've used the kit's botanicals. Try different citrus, spices or quantities and make a gin that's truly your own.

A slight haze from natural botanicals is normal. Strain it again through the sieve or a filter bag (without squeezing) and chill it. It will not affect the taste.

It needed longer to infuse, or a touch more botanicals. Next batch, steep it for longer and taste as you go until it's where you want it.

It infused too long. Strain earlier next time, or soften this batch by topping it up with a little more vodka.

A little fine sediment is normal with natural botanicals. Strain more carefully (don't squeeze the bag), let it settle, then decant off the clear gin.

It's natural, not artificial. Blue pea flowers contain a dye that changes with pH: blue in the neutral spirit, turning pink or purple when you add something acidic like tonic.

Add 8 to 10 blue pea flowers to a 700ml bottle of gin (straight in for the strongest colour, or in a paper filter bag for a tidier infusion), seal, shake, and leave about 12 hours. Optionally add 1 tsp of the Earl Grey infusion for the last hour.

The change only happens with something acidic. Use a proper (non-diet) tonic, some diet tonics aren't acidic enough, and add a squeeze of lemon if needed. Test with the pipette before serving.

Once strained and bottled, it keeps for up to a year. Store it sealed and out of direct sunlight.

It's our most generous: 13 premium botanicals and enough to make up to ten 700ml bottles. Each infusion is juniper plus a botanical blend you measure with the included spoons, and you can mix and match to create your own signature gins.

A metal sieve, measuring spoons, tasting pipettes, a silicone funnel, and bottle tags and string, plus the juniper and 13 botanicals. Just add your own vodka.

Yes, it's completely legal, and no licence is needed. Our kits make gin by direct infusion, steeping juniper and botanicals in a spirit you already own. Distilling your own spirit without a licence is illegal in the UK, which is exactly why the kits don't do it.

No. You start with shop-bought vodka, so there's no distilling involved at all. Infusion is the easiest and safest way to make gin at home, and the only legal one without a distiller's licence.

Completely normal. Ours is a compound gin: the botanicals infuse directly into the spirit, and the dried orange and lemon peel lends a light amber colour along with its flavour (blends with hibiscus and rose turn it pink instead, equally normal). Clear commercial gins are made by redistilling after the botanicals are added, which leaves the colour behind, something that can't legally be done at home.

No, the botanical blends contain no sugars or sweeteners. All the flavour comes from the juniper and botanicals themselves.

The same as the vodka you started with. Infusing doesn't dilute the spirit, so a 37.5% vodka gives you a 37.5% gin.

Once made, your gin will keep for 12 months. We doubt it will last that long.

No rush at all. The kit has a shelf life of about a year, so you can spread the batches out and enjoy the process.

Yes, each batch takes a 700ml bottle of vodka, but you don't need to buy them all at once. Make a batch whenever you're ready.

It doesn't. We'd rather pack the box with ingredients than with glass, and reusing spirit bottles is the eco-friendly option. If you want a smarter look, or it's a gift, 700ml swing top bottles are the ones to go for.

You can, but fishing the botanicals back out through the neck is a faff. A large jar or any wide-mouthed container makes filtering much easier, then decant into the bottle at the end.

No need for a pitch black cupboard. Room temperature, away from direct sunlight, with the lid on to keep dust out, is all it needs.

Yes. Add the full sachets of juniper and botanicals as normal and taste as you go with the pipette, straining the ingredients out as soon as the gin tastes right, which will simply happen a little sooner.

The subtle character of a premium vodka is lost under the juniper and botanicals, so there's no benefit to spending more. Supermarket own brand vodka works perfectly, though we'd avoid the very cheapest bottles, whose harsh edge is hard to cover. Smirnoff Red and Russian Standard both work well too.

We recommend unflavoured, as the botanicals already carry all the flavour the recipe wants. That said, experimenting is half the fun, and a citrus vodka can come out rather nicely.

Absolutely, be creative. Two tips: use whole ingredients rather than powders, which are very hard to filter out, and go easy with dried ingredients, no more than about a teaspoon, so they don't overwhelm the blend. Taste with the pipette as the days pass and strain everything out when it's just right.

We don't sell refill packs, we'd rather you take what you've learned and make the recipe your own. A good starting blend per 700ml batch: the peel of a quarter of an orange, the peel of half a lemon, half a teaspoon of allspice and half a teaspoon of coriander seeds, plus your 10g of juniper berries. Fresh peel cut into long strips with a vegetable peeler gives an even brighter citrus note than dried.

Yes, and the best way is in two steps: make your gin with the kit first, then steep washed sloes and sugar in the finished gin for a few months, tasting now and then until it's where you want it.

Juniper ice cubes. Pop a couple of berries into each section of an ice cube tray, top up with water and freeze. They look fantastic in a G&T, and the berries float up as a garnish when the ice melts.

Any acidic mixer triggers the change, tonic is the classic but lemonade and soda with a squeeze of lemon work too. The more acidic the mixer, the more dramatic the shift.

Best not to for the colour change. Coloured gins mask the effect and flavoured gins are often more acidic, which can set the change off early. A plain, uncoloured gin you like the taste of is the one to use.

Once the gin is infused, the change happens almost instantly when the mixer goes in, and it stays changed. The magic is in the pour, so change the colour in front of your guests.

Yes, with a blue pea flower syrup. Warm 350ml water with 350g sugar until dissolved and steaming (about 90°C), turn off the heat, add 10 blue pea flowers and steep for 30 minutes, then strain and bottle. It keeps for a month in the fridge. Pour the syrup over ice, top with lemonade and watch it turn from blue to pink up the glass.

Barely. The flowers have only a very mild taste that you'll hardly notice once the gin is in a G&T. If you add the Earl Grey infusion, that covers it completely.

Yes, experimenting is encouraged. Just one rule: avoid acidic ingredients such as lemon peel in the infusion itself, acidity in the bottle would set off the colour change early and spoil the party trick.

Steep a few blue pea flowers in water, freeze it, then crush the ice in a blender (or in a sandwich bag with a rolling pin). Pour your drink over it and you'll watch the change travel from completely blue to pink up the glass. It works with tonic and gin or just lemonade for an alcohol-free version.

Seven sachets plus the juniper. The botanical base is a forgiving blend of coriander seed, allspice and orange and lemon peel. Then come cacao nibs (the inner part of the cacao bean, for a dark chocolate note), hibiscus and rose (floral, and it turns the gin a vibrant pink), fragrant citrus (cut lemongrass and lemon peel), premium dried orange peel, dried ginger for unmistakable warmth, and our signature Christmas spice blend.

The booklet gives scoop-by-scoop recipes for ten named gins: Classic Spiced, Pink Gin, Citrus Explosion, Ho Ho Ho, Dark Chocolate, Sunshine, Chocolate Orange, Gingerbread, Spiced Pink and The Zinger. Once you've made a few, mix and match the botanicals to invent your own signature blend.

Juniper takes longer to give up its flavour than the other botanicals. So the berries go into the vodka first for 3 to 5 days, then the botanicals join for around 2 more days. Taste with the pipette as it goes and strain when it's right for you.

Juniper can't be farmed, so every berry in the kit has been foraged from wild, spiky juniper plants. The same is true of most of the world's gin: the juniper in your favourite commercial bottles is mostly picked wild in Eastern Europe.

The booklet includes a cocktail for every blend: a Sunshine Collins, Pink Gin Bramble, Spiced Pink Negroni, Ginger Gin Sour, Christmas Gin Fizz, Gingerbread Toddy, Dark Chocolate Martini, a French 75 with the Chocolate Orange gin, a Pink Gin Spice Bomb, and of course the classic G&T with crushed juniper berries as the garnish.

The name comes from the French genièvre and Dutch jenever, both from the Latin for juniper. Italian monks were flavouring spirits with juniper as far back as the 11th century, it was even sold (unsuccessfully) as a remedy during the Black Death, and modern gin is usually credited to the 17th century Dutch physician Franciscus Sylvius. London's famous 'gin craze' followed, when over half the city's drinking establishments were gin shops, and English troops fighting in Holland gave us the phrase 'Dutch courage'.

London Dry is today's standard: distilled, nothing artificial, and no colours or flavours added afterwards. Old Tom is a sweeter Victorian style named after the cat on the bottles. Plymouth gin has protected status, so it can only be made in Plymouth. Sloe gin is a liqueur made by steeping sloes in gin. And genever, the Dutch grandfather of them all, is made with malt for a much richer character. Kit gin is a compound gin: botanicals infused straight into the spirit.

A 700ml bottle of inexpensive dark rum per batch, plus the kit. It makes two 700ml batches in two flavours: Captain's blend (classic pirate spice) and Jamaican ginger (a unique ginger zing).

An inexpensive dark rum that is not already spiced. The spicing is the kit's job, so a cheap, plain dark rum is perfect, no need to spend a lot.

About 72 hours to infuse, then 2 to 3 days to settle and clear, so under a week per batch.

Clean the jar with warm water, add a spice sachet and the dark rum, and infuse in a cool dark place for 72 hours, tasting with the pipette now and then. Filter out the spices with the cotton filter, let it settle for 2 to 3 days, filter again, then bottle and label.

Taste it through the 72 hours using the pipette. When the spiciness is to your liking, filter out the spices. Leave it longer for a bolder flavour, or filter sooner for a gentler one.

The first filter removes the spices. After settling for 2 to 3 days, fine sediment drops to the bottom, the second filter through the cleaned cotton filter gives you a clearer, cleaner rum.

Drink within one year of bottling. Keep it sealed and out of direct sunlight.

Yes, infuse for longer for a stronger, spicier rum, or filter earlier for a milder one. Taste as you go with the pipette.

Give it the full 2 to 3 day settling time, then filter again gently through the cleaned cotton filter. Try not to disturb the sediment at the bottom when you pour.

Too spicy: it infused a little long, soften it by topping up with a splash of plain rum. Not spicy enough: next batch, leave the spices in longer before filtering.

Delicious hedgerow (country) wine from a huge range of fruits. The kit includes a recipe table covering everything from blackberry and elderberry to apple, plum, rhubarb and more. Ready to drink in 8 to 12 weeks.

Your chosen fruit and sugar in the quantities given in the recipe table, plus any optional extras it lists (such as raisins or blueberries to add body). Everything else you need to ferment is in the kit.

About 8 to 12 weeks from start to glass. Wine making is slow, but most of that is simply waiting while it ferments and matures.

Four stages: a first fermentation (crushed fruit ferments in the liquid for about three days), then straining off the fruit, a longer second fermentation, and finally bottling and maturing. Full timings are in the recipe book.

For lemon and orange wines, use the flesh and the zest but none of the white pith, the pith makes the wine bitter. Do not worry about pips; they get filtered out later.

Use 30g of dried elderflowers, or about 1 pint of fresh flower heads if you are foraging your own.

Peel them and cut into small chunks before using, following the quantities in the recipe table.

Fermentation needs warmth, keep it somewhere reasonably warm and out of cold draughts, and give it a day or two to get going. Check the yeast was added and the lid or airlock is set up as the book describes.

Some cloudiness is normal early on. It clears as the wine matures and the sediment settles. Rack (siphon) it off the sediment as the recipe describes, and be patient.

From 8 to 12 weeks, but country wines often improve with more time. If you can resist, leaving it longer rewards you with a smoother, rounder wine.

Stick to the recipe table for reliable results, the fruit-to-sugar ratios are balanced for good flavour and strength. Once you are confident, you can start to experiment.

Two fermentation vessels and a way to bottle. Stage one, where the whole fruit ferments vigorously, wants a 5L food-grade plastic bucket with a lid (not a glass demijohn). Stage two needs a 5L container with an airlock, either a demijohn or a second bucket. Add kitchen scales, a siphon tube for transferring the finished wine, and bottles, reused screw-top wine bottles are perfect.

An airlock lets gas escape as pressure builds while keeping outside air away from your wine. Fill it halfway with water, push it into the bung or grommet in the top of your demijohn or bucket, and leave it to do its job. Once fermentation gets going you'll see bubbles rising through the water, which is the most satisfying part of the whole process.

Reused screw-top wine bottles work perfectly, no need to buy anything special. Swing tops look smarter if you're gifting a bottle, and corked bottles work too if you have a corker and fresh corks.

One gallon per batch, which is about 4.5 litres, or six standard bottles.

Ordinary white granulated sugar. No need to hunt down specialist brewing sugar.

You can, the result is closer to a melomel (a fruit mead). The rule of thumb is 1.2 to 1.3kg of honey for every 1kg of sugar in the recipe.

No. The yeast has to eat real sugar to make the alcohol, and it can't ferment artificial sweeteners. If you want a sweeter finished wine, see the back sweetening question below.

Yes, and it's often cheaper. Just defrost it thoroughly and let it come up to room temperature first, otherwise the brewing liquid will be too cold for the yeast to start work.

We wouldn't. The flavour disappoints, the syrup makes sugar levels hard to judge, and many brands contain preservatives that stop the yeast fermenting at all.

No, the weights in the booklet are for stoned fruit. Remove the stones before weighing.

Yes. Take the two recipes and scale each in proportion. For a 50:50 blend, use half of recipe A's fruit and sugar plus half of recipe B's fruit and sugar.

Yes. The finings are a very fine natural clay that clears the wine, with nothing animal-derived in them.

The yeast is happiest between 22°C and 27°C, but don't obsess over the exact number. A spot with a steady temperature, away from direct sunlight and not somewhere cold like a garage, is what matters. Stick-on brewing thermometers cost very little if you'd like certainty.

Just give the mixture a good stir to dissolve it, then allow a day or two before straining out the fruit. No harm done.

A starter wakes the yeast up before it meets the brew. Empty the yeast sachet into 50ml of warm water and leave for five minutes. Dissolve a teaspoon of sugar in 75ml of warm water and add it to the yeast. Cover and leave somewhere warm and dark for three to four hours, until the liquid turns cloudy and foam gathers on top, then pitch it into your fermentation vessel.

Let it finish, however long it takes. Bottling before fermentation has completely stopped risks over-sweet wine at best and burst bottles at worst. It's done when the airlock has gone quiet and stays quiet.

Yes. If fermentation has completely stopped and the wine is clear, you're fine to move straight on to the next stage.

Seek medical advice immediately, even if it was diluted in water. The active chemical in the sterilising powder is sodium metabisulphite, take the packet with you so they know exactly what it is.

Adjusting the acidity with citric acid. Most country wines benefit from it, especially crisp ones meant to be drunk cold. Add half a teaspoon at a time, tasting as you go, and stop as soon as it's right, because you can't easily take sharpness back out.

This is called back sweetening, and it happens after clarifying and after the stabiliser tablet has gone in, just before bottling. The safe way is a non-fermentable wine sweetener from a homebrew shop, which the yeast can't digest. Sweetening with sugar or grape juice works but risks fermentation restarting in the bottle, and bottles bursting, if any yeast survived.

Usually the fermentation didn't finish, most often because the wine was kept somewhere too cool, so move it somewhere warmer and give it time. Less commonly, so much sugar went in that the yeast hit its maximum alcohol level before the sugar ran out, which a hydrometer reading would confirm.

You can. Add brandy at the bottling stage to bring the finished strength to around 22%. A hydrometer helps you measure the wine's own strength first so you know how much brandy that takes.

Take a hydrometer reading at the very start of fermentation and another at the end, then put the two numbers through any online ABV calculator. Without readings, most batches land around 11 to 13%, and up to 16% is possible in perfect conditions.

We recommend drinking it within a year of bottling.

Yes, the recipes scale up directly. We'd still suggest making one small batch of a new recipe first to check you love it before committing a bigger fermenter to it.

Yes, the recipe table includes a honey mead: 0.9kg of honey in place of the fruit, no added sugar, and an optional cup of fruit if you fancy it. The method is the same as the fruit wines.

The first fermentation produces a lot of carbon dioxide, and a tightly sealed container has no way to let it out, you'd risk the container bursting. Sit the lid on loosely for the three days, then move to a proper airlock for the second fermentation.

Pectolase is a natural enzyme that breaks down the pectin in the fruit. Without it the pectin can leave a permanent haze that no amount of waiting will clear. Add it once the liquid has cooled to about 50°C, stir well and give it an hour before carrying on.

Only once the liquid has dropped below 30°C. Any hotter and you risk killing the yeast before it starts. By the time you've done the pectolase hour it's usually cool enough.

Once fermentation has completely stopped, crush and stir in the stabiliser tablet and leave it for two days, this lets the wine lose its dissolved carbon dioxide, which would otherwise cause clearing problems (a few stirs over the two days helps). Then dissolve the finings in 100ml of boiling water, whisk until fully dispersed, and stir vigorously into the wine. It should clear within about two weeks, then siphon it off the sediment.

Mix one steriliser sachet with 5 litres of warm water, fill your bottles and leave them for 20 minutes, then pour the solution away and rinse with clean water. When you bottle, leave about an inch of airspace at the top before sealing.

Absolutely, that's the hedgerow tradition the kit is named after. Blackberries, elderberries, sloes, rosehips and rose petals all have recipes in the table, so seasonal and local is the way to go. Take a foraging guide (the book kind or the human kind) so you're confident about what you're picking.

Fresh bubble tea from scratch, milk tea and fruity green tea versions, with chewy tapioca pearls. The kit uses natural loose leaf green and black tea with no artificial colours or flavourings, and makes around eight large glasses (best made two glasses per batch).

A tea base and the pearls. The kit includes loose leaf green and black tea, green is lovely blended with fresh juice, black is best with milk. The chewy pearls are made from real tapioca starch. Premade pearls are also included for when you are short of time.

Yes, the steps are essentially the same, just leave out the ice.

Make them last so they go straight into the glass. Tip a sachet of starch into a bowl, keeping back one heaped teaspoon. Mix in two teaspoons of boiling water with your fingers, then two more a little at a time, until the dough crumbles but presses into a soft ball (use the held-back starch if it's too wet, and swap the last teaspoon of water for food colouring if you want dark pearls). Roll it into 50 to 70 pea-sized balls, about 8mm, they grow as they cook. Boil for 15 minutes, then straight into ice-cold water for 5 minutes and watch the outsides magically turn clear. Sweeten by soaking in sugar syrup, honey or agave for 15 minutes.

Boil the pearls for longer than 15 minutes, the longer they cook, the larger and chewier they become.

Soak them in simple sugar syrup (recipe included), honey or agave for about 15 minutes before adding them to your tea.

Yes, the kit includes a couple of packs of premade tapioca pearls, just in case.

Bring half a cup of water to the boil, turn to medium heat and stir in 1 cup of white or brown sugar until fully dissolved. Let it boil again, then turn off the heat and cool to room temperature. Any spare syrup keeps in the fridge for several weeks.

The tapioca pearls in the kit are already vegan. For the milk tea, swap the evaporated milk for coconut milk (richest), or for soya, almond, oat, rice or hemp milk, though those are thinner and give the drink less body.

Yes, add two cloves and one star anise per cup to the tea as it brews. It tastes very similar, you just will not get the bright orange colour, as that comes from added colouring, which we leave out.

Absolutely. Earl grey works really well if you want to be adventurous, and you can swap the sugar for a natural sweetener like agave or maple syrup.

Milk tea keeps in the fridge as it is for up to a day. The tapioca pearls last up to about four hours in the fridge when covered with sugar syrup, honey or agave, they really are best fresh.

Yes, you can buy more tapioca starch from the gluten-free section of most supermarkets, and Asian supermarkets stock black tea, fat straws and premade pearls.

The kit doesn't include any colouring, so home-made pearls are naturally translucent. If you want the classic black boba look you can add food colouring, just use slightly less water to keep the dough consistency right.

Taiwan. Its invention is credited to Liu Han-Chieh, who in 1983 added chewy tapioca pearls to a glass of milk tea. And a fact to impress your friends: the 'bubble' doesn't refer to the pearls at all, it's the foam that gathers on top when the tea is shaken over ice. It's also called boba tea, and in China, more accurately, pearl milk tea.

Our take on Hong Kong milk tea, for two glasses: simmer a sachet of the black tea (in the reusable cotton tea bag) in 600ml of water for 8 minutes. Meanwhile put 2 tablespoons of evaporated milk and 4 to 5 ice cubes in each glass. Pour the hot tea over, stir, and sweeten to taste, we go for about 3 teaspoons of sugar per glass, plus an extra tablespoon of evaporated milk if you like it richer. No evaporated milk? Full fat milk works, just slightly thinner. For a hot version, skip the ice.

For two glasses: steep a sachet of the green tea in 250ml of freshly boiled water for 8 minutes, half fill your glasses with ice, pour the tea over and top up with about 350ml of fruit juice. Sugar to taste, then in with the pearls. For a thicker, smoothie-style drink, use blended fresh fruit or a smoothie-style juice.

Start with ricotta or mozzarella, the simplest and ready in under an hour. Mascarpone is also very easy. Build up to burrata and goat's cheese, which are the trickiest. The recipe booklet runs roughly easiest to hardest, so work down it.

Fresh, full-fat (whole) cow's milk, pasteurised is ideal. The single most important rule: never use UHT or ultra-pasteurised milk, it will not curdle. Avoid lactose-free milk too. For goat's cheese, use goat's milk. Standard supermarket whole milk works beautifully.

Just milk. Everything else is included: the rennet, citric acid, cheese salt, cheesecloth and (in the larger kits) a thermometer and moulds. Have a large pan, a slotted spoon and a colander ready.

You warm milk, then add an acid (such as citric acid) or rennet, which makes it separate into solid curds and liquid whey. Drain off the whey and the curds become your cheese. Heat, a little acid or rennet, and patience.

Dissolve it in cool, non-chlorinated water (cooled boiled or bottled water is ideal, as chlorine from the tap can weaken it). Mix it fresh just before use and stir it gently but thoroughly through the milk.

After the milk has set, dip a clean knife or finger in at an angle and lift. If the curd splits cleanly and the whey filling the gap is clear (not milky), you have a clean break and it is ready to cut. Still soft and milky? Give it a few more minutes.

Cut them into even cubes (about 1 to 2 cm), let them rest a few minutes to firm up, then stir very gently. Over-stirring breaks them too small and you lose cheese into the whey. Gentle wins.

Line a colander with the cheesecloth, pour in the curds and let the whey drain. For a firmer cheese (halloumi, paneer, pressed styles), gather the cloth and press under a weight. The heavier and longer the press, the firmer the cheese.

Sprinkle the cheese salt over the drained curds, mix gently and let it sit a few minutes to absorb. Halloumi and feta-style cheeses are brined instead (in salt water). Note: brine is single-use, so discard it after each batch.

The curds must be hot enough to stretch like taffy. Heat them (in hot whey or short microwave bursts), then fold and stretch. If it tears rather than stretches, it is too cool, so reheat and try again. Stop once it is smooth and glossy; overworking makes it tough.

After pressing, microwave the curds for about 15 seconds (more if needed) and salt them, which brings out the squeak. It naturally fades after a day or two, so they are squeakiest fresh.

The easiest cheese and a perfect first go. Heat, add acid, and gentle curds form almost at once. Do not over-stir, and drain to taste: less for creamy, more for firm.

The one people most often think has failed. Goat's milk forms much smaller, softer curds than cow's milk, so it looks wrong even when it is right. Be patient, drain slowly through the cloth, and do not give up on small curds.

Trickier but worth it: a mozzarella shell filled with creamy curds and cream. Nail your mozzarella stretch first, then work quickly while it is warm and pliable.

Press it firm, then brine it, and it is ready to fry or grill. It holds its shape thanks to the press, so do not skip the weight-and-time step.

Acid-set (no rennet) and very forgiving. Press firmly so they hold together for frying or cubing into curries and salads.

Almost always one of: (1) UHT or ultra-pasteurised milk, which simply will not set, so use fresh whole milk; (2) the wrong temperature when you added the rennet or acid, so check with a thermometer; (3) old rennet, or rennet mixed with chlorinated tap water. Fix those and it works.

Milky whey means cheese is escaping into it, usually from cutting or stirring too soon or too hard, or the temperature being off. Wait for a clean break and stir more gently. With goat's milk, small curds are normal.

Usually overheating or overworking the curds, or too much acid. Stick to the recipe temperatures, handle gently, and do not over-stretch mozzarella.

Often too much acid, or curds cut too small and drained too hard. Follow the acid quantities and drain a little less.

A temperature issue, the curds are not hot enough. Reheat them in hot whey or short microwave bursts and try again. If it still will not go, it was likely set wrong earlier, so check your milk and rennet.

The brine time was too long. Brine for less next time and taste partway through. Remember brine is single-use.

These are fresh cheeses, not aged, so eat them within the time given in the recipe (typically a few days to a week), sealed in the fridge. Curds lose their squeak after a couple of days but stay delicious.

The kit is designed for pasteurised milk, which we recommend. These are fresh cheeses, not made for ageing. Keep everything clean, use fresh milk, and discard any cheese that smells off or grows unexpected mould.

No, the kits make fresh cheeses, which are the right place for every cheesemaker to start. Once you've mastered them, the Cheese of the World kit adds more challenging styles, and from there you'll have the fundamentals for the aged stuff.

The recipe was developed on an 800W microwave, so at 800W follow the instructions exactly. At 700W follow the instructions then continue in 10 second bursts as needed. At 900W or 1000W start with 25 seconds instead of 30, then carry on as written.

Yes, just scale everything down in proportion. Remember to reduce the microwave time too, so a smaller batch doesn't overheat.

A long time, so you can spread your batches over weeks or months. If you want extra peace of mind, decant opened ingredients into grip-seal bags or small sealed boxes and label them.

Hand wash it in warm water with a drop of washing up liquid and let it air dry. Don't put it in the washing machine or dishwasher. If your kit has a cotton cloth, give it a warm rinse before its first use to lift away any loose fibres.

A non-reactive one, which in practice means stainless steel. Cast iron, aluminium and copper all react with the acid added to the milk and can spoil the flavour and look of your cheese.

Use fresh double cream that isn't UHT. Don't expect big ricotta-style curds, mascarpone curds are tiny, like goat's cheese, and that's what makes it so smooth, though if you see none at all, reheat the cream to 85°C. Draining is slow, so sit the curds in a cloth-lined sieve over a bowl and leave them overnight. You may only collect a couple of tablespoons of whey, and that's fine.

You can, but salt is doing preservation work as well as seasoning, so a low-salt halloumi should be eaten within two days.

Don't pour it away! Cool it and add it to smoothies or protein shakes, swap it for water in bread and baking, or use it as the base of a surprisingly rich stock.

The Beginner's Cheese Kit makes five: ricotta, mozzarella, mascarpone, burrata and creamy goat's cheese. The Cheese of the World Kit takes you around the globe with ten: ricotta, mascarpone, mozzarella, queso blanco, cottage cheese, paneer, burrata, halloumi, chèvre and squeaky cheese curds. Both booklets run roughly easiest to hardest, so start at the front.

Pork belly plus the kit's cure and seasonings. The kit flavours your bacon three ways: chilli & garlic, juniper & fennel, and pancetta.

Streaky bacon is pork belly; back bacon is pork loin. We use belly because it is thinner, so it cures faster and more reliably at home. You can try loin, but belly gives the best results with this kit.

Yours is dry-cured and air-dried, not wet-cured and pumped with water like most supermarket bacon. That means it is firmer, more flavourful, and it will not leak water and shrink in the pan.

First crush the spice sachet: snip a tiny corner off and give it a thorough going-over with a rolling pin, which releases the essential oils so the flavour infuses properly. Then put the pork belly, the crushed spices and 2 measuring spoons (15g) of the bacon cure into one of the curing bags, glove up and give everything a good mix. Seal the bag and into the fridge it goes.

Yes. Rinse off the excess cure and pat the bacon dry before air-drying and slicing. Rinsing also helps control how salty the finished bacon is.

Slice and fry as normal. Because it is dry-cured, it crisps up beautifully without leaking water or shrinking the way shop bacon does. Always cook it through before eating.

Rinse it more thoroughly after curing, and soak it in cold water for an hour to draw out excess salt before drying. Next time, do not exceed the curing time in the booklet.

It needs longer to cure and air-dry. Give it more time in the fridge so more moisture is drawn out, and make sure the cure was rubbed in evenly.

Yes, when you follow the cure quantities and timings, use fresh pork, keep it refrigerated throughout, and cook it before eating. The cure is what preserves the meat, so do not reduce it.

In an airtight container in the fridge, where it keeps for 3 to 4 days (in our experience it rarely survives that long). Slice only what you need from the joint each time. For longer storage, freeze it in slices or lardons. Always cook it through before eating.

Yes. The instructions use pork belly because the thinner joint is easier to handle and cure, but the same cure and recipe work on a 500g pork loin joint with the skin removed, which gives you back bacon.

Yes, but slice it (or cut it into lardons) first and spread the pieces on a baking sheet to freeze before bagging them up. Freeze the joint whole and you'll have to defrost the whole thing every time you fancy a sandwich.

It needs to air dry hanging in the fridge. The trick we use: hang it from the top shelf so it dangles into the door area where the tall bottles would usually live, which is the one spot with room to spare.

A sharp kitchen knife does the job. By the time the bacon has air dried it's much firmer than raw belly and slices cleanly. If you own a meat slicer, we're jealous.

Pork scratchings. Cut the skin into bite-size pieces, toss with salt and a splash of vinegar, then roast on a wire rack in a hot oven until puffed and crisp, watching closely near the end. The perfect thing to snack on while your bacon cures.

No. The kit uses a cold cure: the meat cures and then air dries in the fridge over several days to develop its texture, with the whole process taking about a week. No smoker, no special equipment.

Yes. The cure is a traditional dry mix of salt and sugar with sodium nitrite (E250) and sodium nitrate (E251). In an ideal world we would leave them out, but this is the easiest and safest way to cure bacon at home: the nitrites are what protect the meat while it cures. Our jerky and biltong kits don't use a cure at all, just seasonings. Two safety notes: the kit is for adults only, and if the cure is ever swallowed directly from the sachet, seek medical advice immediately.

One day per half inch of thickness, plus one extra day. So a joint 1.5 inches thick cures for 4 days. Turn the bag over every two days so it cures evenly. After rinsing and patting dry, it then air dries in the fridge, wrapped in the cheese cloth and hung with the twine and meat hook, for a further three days.

Most supermarket bacon is wet-cured: a brine of salt and preservatives is injected into the pork, which is quick at industrial scale but leaves the meat holding water, which is why it spits and shrinks in the pan. Artisan producers dry-cure instead: the meat is rubbed with a dry cure and then air dried, concentrating the flavour and firming the texture. That's exactly the method in your kit, just with your fridge standing in for a climate-controlled drying room.

Both are dried meat snacks. Jerky is American-style: sliced, seasoned and oven-dried. Biltong is South African: marinated with vinegar and spices (coriander and black pepper) before drying. We have a separate kit for each.

Lean beef, as lean as possible (fat does not dry well). You need about 500g per batch, and each kit makes two 500g batches.

A few hours with our simplified oven method, far quicker than traditional air-drying, and pretty much foolproof.

Trim off all the fat you can (fat doesn't dry, it spoils), slice the beef into long thin strips about 0.5cm thick, and marinate with the seasoning in the bag for 3 to 4 hours, overnight if you can. Then thread one end of each strip onto the skewers, hang them through the gaps of your top oven shelf with a tray underneath, and dry at 80°C for about 3 hours until completely dried through, opening the oven door every hour to let the moisture escape.

Thin, and across the grain for tender jerky (with the grain gives a chewier bite). Popping the beef in the freezer for 30 minutes first makes thin, even slicing much easier.

The jerky and biltong recipes don't use a cure at all, just the seasoning blends and your own beef. The bacon recipes (in the Bacon Kit and Ultimate Meat Kit) are different: they use a traditional dry cure that includes nitrites and nitrates (E250 and E251), which is the safest and most reliable way to cure bacon at home.

Same idea as the jerky with one crucial extra: the vinegar. Trim the fat, cut wide thin slices about 0.5cm thick, then marinate the beef with a vinegar sachet and the seasoning for 3 to 4 hours, the vinegar both flavours and tenderises the meat so it isn't too chewy. Hang the strips from skewers through the top oven shelf, tray underneath, and dry at 80°C for about 3 hours, opening the door every hour to release moisture.

To your taste, softer and moist, or drier and firmer. Dry it longer for firmer biltong. At medium it should bend without snapping.

Slice thinner and across the grain, and reduce the drying time. Every oven differs, so check it early on your first batch.

Dry it longer. It should be firm and leathery, not wet. Properly dried meat also keeps much better.

It should be firm and dry to the touch and bend without snapping, jerky a touch firmer, biltong to your preferred texture.

Yes, when you use fresh lean beef, follow the recipe and dry it thoroughly. The seasoning, salt and (for biltong) vinegar all help preserve it. If in doubt, dry it a little longer.

Keep it in an airtight container. Well-dried jerky and biltong keep for a couple of weeks, and refrigerating extends that. If it still feels moist, it will not keep as long, so eat it sooner.

Yes, it's arguably the ideal tool. Follow the recipe as written, but instead of hanging the meat in the oven, lay or hang the strips in the dehydrator at 65°C for 10 to 12 hours, until dried right through.

No problem. Set it to its very lowest setting (making sure it's actually on and heating), then hang a tea towel between the door and the oven so the door stays ajar. That drops the temperature a little and lets the moisture escape. At the slightly higher heat it may be done closer to the 2 hour mark, so keep an eye on it.

Yes, use the simmering oven, which sits around 100°C, with a tea towel between the door and the oven so it's closed but not sealed. It will likely finish faster, closer to 2 hours, so check it as it goes.

For biltong, a more tender cut: inexpensive steak or a roasting joint. For jerky, lean beef is what matters: thin-cut frying steak or brisket both work really well.

Both kits work the same way: half a sachet of the seasoning makes the classic version, and adding all of the chilli & garlic spice alongside it makes the spicy one. One seasoning sachet is enough for both 500g batches.

From ch'arki, a word in the South American Quechua language meaning 'dried, salted meat', which is exactly what it is. Long a favourite in the United States, Mexico and Canada, jerky can be made from far more than beef: strong-flavoured meats like venison work brilliantly, and in other parts of the world it's made from kudu, springbok and even kangaroo.

Southern Africa: Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Biltong as we know it took shape in the 17th century, when Dutch settlers added vinegar, coriander and black pepper to the ancient salt-and-air method. The name is Dutch too: bil (rump) plus tong (strip or tongue). Traditional biltong air dries for days on end, your kit's oven method gets you there in a few hours.

Three takeaway classics: a classic doner, a spicy shish and a minted kofta. You add the meat: 500g minced lamb for the doner and kofta, or 500g diced lamb for the shish, per batch. Each recipe feeds 2 to 3.

Fresh lamb from your butcher is best. Use minced lamb for the doner and kofta, and diced lamb for the shish.

The casing is the secret. Mix 3 scoops of seasoning into 500g of minced lamb in the marinating bag and work it until really smooth. Oil the inside of the casing, feed the meat down it, then prick any air bubbles with a skewer and press the meat flush, that's what gives the smooth takeaway finish. Tie it off flat, bake 20 minutes at 200°C (180°C fan), peel off the casing, then bake 20 minutes more, turning halfway. Rest for five minutes, thread two skewers through lengthwise, hold it vertical and carve thin at the table.

Shish: coat 500g of diced lamb with 3 scoops of seasoning in the marinating bag and leave it in the fridge for up to 12 hours (less if you're in a hurry). Thread onto soaked skewers and grill on high for 10 to 12 minutes, turning every few minutes. Kofta: mix minced lamb with 3 scoops of seasoning, 2 scoops of dried mint and a little lemon zest, marinate 30 minutes, shape onto skewers with damp hands, then grill 8 to 10 minutes or bake at 220°C (200°C fan) for 20 to 25 minutes.

A quick sauce that pairs beautifully with the kebabs: mix plain yoghurt with a couple of scoops of the dried mint, a little salt to taste, and some grated cucumber.

Yes. Add smoked paprika or chipotle for a smoky note, or more chilli for heat. The essential base is chilli, cumin, garlic, coriander and salt.

We do not make refill kits, but it is easy to mix your own blend. The core is chilli, cumin, garlic, coriander and salt, then make it your own.

Mix the seasoning in really well and pack the meat tightly into a firm loaf, then cook it through fully and let it rest before carving thin. Well-mixed, well-packed mince holds together far better.

Do not overcook them, and a slightly fattier mince stays juicier. Rest the meat for a few minutes before serving.

Season generously and mix the blend evenly through all the meat, and add smoked paprika or chipotle for that extra takeaway depth.

Reseal it with the bag clip and keep it in a cool, dry place.

Yes. Season and shape it, keep it covered in the fridge, and cook within a day or two. Always cook lamb through.

The doner and the kofte, yes, both cook beautifully in a conventional oven. The shish wants direct heat, so use the grill or a barbecue for that one.

For the casing effect, mould the meat into a log, wrap it tightly in non-stick baking paper and tie off each end with string. For seasoning, build your own signature blend: garlic powder, salt and ground cumin are the backbone, then take it wherever you like with mixed herbs, smoked paprika and friends.

Bursa, in Turkey, where a restaurant owner had the bright idea of roasting lamb vertically instead of horizontally. The doner spread across Europe in the 20th century, and London's first doner kebab shop opened in 1966. Our kofta is inspired by the classic Turkish sis kofte, minced lamb with mint and a hint of lemon zest.

Seven different chilli sauces at varying heat levels, made from the six dried chillies and flakes in the kit: chipotle, cayenne, green, jalapeno, facing heaven, habanero and piri piri. The recipes are simple and need no previous experience.

A blender for a smooth sauce, a few common kitchen items (mixing bowl, saucepan, funnel), and a few fresh ingredients listed before each recipe. The kit includes a mini sieve, grip-seal bags, tasting pipettes, gloves and kraft labels.

Yes. Wear the gloves included when handling the chillies, they are very spicy and the oils cling to your skin (and sting badly if you then touch your eyes or face).

Most recipes use a blender for a smooth consistency. For an extra-smooth sauce, press it through the mini sieve with a spoon to strain out any larger particles.

Pick the milder chillies (green, jalapeno) for gentle sauces and the hotter ones (habanero, facing heaven, piri piri) for serious heat. Taste as you go with the pipettes, you can always add more chilli, but you cannot take it out.

Reuse old glass sauce bottles (kinder to the planet and your wallet), or swing-top bottles and mason jars for a fancier look. For the long shelf life, sterilise: submerge the bottle, lid, funnel and sieve in boiling water for 20 minutes, fill with hot sauce while the bottles are still hot, then sit the sealed bottles back in the hot water for five more minutes. Never pour cold sauce into hot bottles or hot sauce into cold ones, the glass can shatter.

Use the kraft paper tags and cotton string included. Note the type of sauce and the date you made it, handy when you have several different sauces on the go.

It depends on how you bottle it. Hot-filled into sterilised bottles, the vinegar-based sauces keep unopened for 3 to 6 months in a cool, dry place. Without sterilising, they last 7 to 10 days in the fridge. Once any bottle is opened, keep it in the fridge and use it within 7 to 10 days. Two exceptions: the West African sauce contains no vinegar, so it's fridge-only from day one, and the Louisiana sauce is best within a month, though its flavour actually deepens as it ages in the fridge, just like the famous aged Louisiana brands.

Reseal them in the grip-seal bags included and keep them in a cool, dry place.

Yes, reuse the recipes with your own dried chillies. Just note the heat level may vary depending on where those chillies come from.

Balance it with something sweet (sugar or honey), something acidic (more vinegar or lime), or more of the non-chilli ingredients to dilute it. Next time, use a milder chilli or less of it.

To thin it, blend in a little water or vinegar. To thicken it, simmer it gently in the saucepan to reduce. Blending longer and sieving also helps the texture.

Chilli oils linger, which is why we include gloves. Wash your hands well with soap and avoid touching your face. If skin is stinging, a little milk or oil lifts the chilli oil better than water does.

Alongside the kit's chillies and vinegar sachets, each recipe asks for a few fresh items:

Salsa Verde: 400g tomatillos (or 2 green peppers, or underripe tomatoes), half a white onion, fresh coriander, 2 garlic cloves, half a lime, salt.
Piri Piri: a red pepper, a large ripe tomato, olive oil, a lemon (juice and zest), sugar, fresh basil.
Mango Habanero: a fresh mango, half a small white onion, garlic, salt, sugar.
Garlic Sriracha: 8 garlic cloves, salt, sugar.
Louisiana Hot: just salt and sugar.
Smoky Chipotle: half a tin of chopped tomatoes, 6 garlic cloves, brown sugar, salt.
West African Pepper Sauce: a medium onion, 2 ripe tomatoes, fresh ginger, garlic, salt, cooking oil.

Traditional sriracha is salty and ours follows suit, but it's easily tamed: start with 1.5 teaspoons of salt instead of the full amount and season up to taste. It's always easier to add salt than take it away.

We wouldn't. The timings and ingredient balances are tuned to the full quantities, and small batches are harder to blend smoothly. Make the full batch and share a bottle instead.

Most recipes yield around 250 to 350ml of finished sauce, so any bottle or jar of 350ml or larger works. Rinsed-out condiment bottles are perfect for the job.

Salsa Verde is spicy but fresh, balanced by lime and coriander. Piri Piri is the all-rounder, brilliant on flame-grilled chicken and doubles as a marinade. Mango Habanero is sweet heat. Garlic Sriracha tastes like the commercial classic with a subtle smokiness from the Facing Heaven chillies. Louisiana Hot is thin, sharp and seriously hot, and improves as it ages in the fridge. Smoky Chipotle is spicy, smoky and a little sweet (fun fact: chipotles are simply jalapeños that have been smoked and dried). West African Pepper Sauce is thick, rich and wonderful with rice and roasted fish. For a milder dip, stir the Piri Piri or Sriracha through mayonnaise.

One Chinese leaf (napa) cabbage, 50g of salt, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 7 cloves of garlic, 5g of fresh ginger, a quarter of an onion and 2 spring onions. From there it's yours to customise, daikon radish and carrot are both classic additions.

The kit brings the specialist ingredients: sweet rice flour for the porridge, dried seaweed powder, Korean dried red pepper, plus gloves and a fermentation bag. From your own kitchen you'll need a large and a small mixing bowl, a small saucepan, and a chopping board and knife.

Two big batches of authentic homemade kimchi.

About a week from start to finish. The hands-on part takes an afternoon: around 1.5 hours of brining plus making the paste and mixing. Then the kimchi ferments in the fridge for 5 to 7 days, and you can taste it every few days to check how it's coming along.

Five steps. One: brine the cabbage. Rinse it, quarter it from the base, cut into bite size pieces, then soak in salted water for about 1.5 hours, stirring every half hour, and rinse three times. Two: make the porridge by heating the sweet rice flour with sugar and water until thick and shiny. Three: make the chilli paste by mixing the cooled porridge with minced garlic, ginger and onion, the seaweed powder and the dried red pepper. Four: glove up and mix the paste through the drained cabbage and sliced spring onion, then pack it into the fermentation bag, squeezing out as much air as you can. Five: ferment in the fridge for 5 to 7 days.

A cooked mix of the kit's sweet rice flour, sugar and water. It's the glue of the recipe: it binds the chilli paste together and helps it cling to every cabbage leaf. Stir it continuously over a medium heat until it's thick and shiny, about the consistency of natural yoghurt, then cool it before mixing in the aromatics, the easy way is to sit the pan in a bowl of cold water.

Keep stirring on the heat and the lumps will work themselves out. It's done when the texture is thick, smooth and shiny.

Yes, just add less of the dried red pepper to the paste. You can always stir more in next batch, the kit makes two.

It's the ideal tool for mincing the garlic, ginger and onion (a spice grinder also works), but a knife and patience do the job. The finer the mince, the better the paste.

Give it longer. The 1.5 hours is a guide, and some cabbages need more time in the salted water. Keep mixing it every half hour and wait until it's properly softened before rinsing.

Lactobacillus bacteria convert the natural sugars in the cabbage into lactic acid. The acid is what preserves the kimchi and gives it that distinctive tangy, sour flavour, which grows stronger the longer it ferments.

Give it time. If it doesn't taste tangy yet, leave it a few more days, fermentation speed depends on temperature, salt and the cabbage itself, and the flavour keeps developing across the 5 to 7 days in the fridge.

Completely normal, that's the fermentation producing gas. Check the bag daily and release the pressure whenever it builds up.

Yes. Fermenting kimchi has a proper pong and it's nothing to worry about, it's the sign of a healthy ferment.

The bacteria doing the good work thrive without air, and less air in the bag also means less risk of anything unwanted growing. Press the cabbage right down and squeeze out as much air as you can whenever you close the bag.

Around two to three weeks in the fridge once fermentation is done. It carries on slowly souring over that time, so it's mild in week one and pleasingly punchy by week three.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold, celebrating the cracks rather than hiding them (the wabi-sabi idea of embracing imperfection). Our kit swaps the traditional lacquer for an easy two-part epoxy that gives a strong, simple bond.

A two-part epoxy adhesive, gold-effect powder, a mixing card and applicator, and two practice bowls so you can refine your technique before repairing something precious, plus the instruction booklet.

Yes, definitely. The kit includes two china bowls to practise on. Get a feel for mixing, joining and gilding on those before you repair a treasured piece.

Assemble the dry pieces first so you know the order, starting from the largest piece, and lay them out in sequence. Then mix your gold glue (see the next question), spread an even line onto the first edge with the spreader, press the pieces together and hold for 30 to 60 seconds. Work piece by piece, mixing fresh glue as you go, then leave the finished repair for 24 hours to fully set.

On the mixing card: fill a part A circle from the first tube, scoop in a small amount of gold powder and mix well, the pigment is strong, and too much actually weakens the glue. Then add an equal amount of part B next to it and mix the two together. From that moment it's setting, so work quickly. If the glue keeps hardening before you've placed the next piece, mix smaller amounts each round.

Make sure both broken edges are clean and completely dry first. Apply a thin, even layer (too much oozes out), align the pieces carefully, and hold them firm while the epoxy sets.

With this kit the gold goes into the glue rather than on after: you mix the gold powder into part A of the epoxy, so the seam comes out gold as you join. A little golden glue squeezing out of the join is nothing to worry about, it sets solid and looks great, that's the kintsugi vein.

The number one cause: parts A and B were not mixed in equal amounts and combined thoroughly. Two-part epoxy only cures when the two parts are mixed roughly 50/50 and stirred well. Also make sure the surfaces are clean and dry before applying.

Usually too little glue, an uneven mix, dusty or greasy edges, or not held long enough while setting. Clean the edges, mix equal parts thoroughly, apply an even layer and hold firm until set.

Remember the gold is mixed into the glue with this kit, not brushed on afterwards. If your seams look short on gold, mix a touch more powder into part A next time, but keep it a small scoop, too much pigment weakens the bond. A slightly more generous glue line also gives a bolder vein.

You used a little too much. Wipe away any excess promptly, and apply a thinner layer next time. Practising on the included bowls helps you judge the right amount.

It's a strong adhesive, so treat it with respect. The glue contains vinyl acetate and methyl methacrylate: it's highly flammable, it can bond skin and eyes in seconds, and it can irritate skin and airways. Work in a well-ventilated space, wear the gloves and eye protection, point the tube away from you when opening, and keep it away from children, heat and flames. The kit is for adults only, read the booklet's safety page before you start.

Repaired pieces are best kept for display rather than used for food or drink, as the adhesive is not food-grade. Avoid the dishwasher and wipe gently by hand.

No kiln, no oven. The repair just needs to be left alone while the glue cures fully, then it's done.

It does, with two caveats. Because most glass is transparent, the gold seam reads differently than on opaque ceramic. And plan the reassembly before you glue, taking real care with exposed shards and sharp edges.

No. The glue isn't waterproof and repaired pieces aren't guaranteed watertight, so don't use the kit on anything that needs to hold water, like a vase, and keep repaired pieces away from food and drink.

No. Treat your repaired piece as the decorative object it has become, hand dust it and keep it away from food, drink and the dishwasher.

Yes, tea lights and candles are a perfect use for a repaired bowl, all of the beauty with none of the food contact.

The glue itself is very strong, but a mended piece is best enjoyed as decor rather than daily crockery. While repairing, hold each newly joined piece in place for 30 to 60 seconds before moving on, the glue is strong but it isn't an instant-grab adhesive.

Yes, the line is yours to design. More glue along an edge squeezes out into a bolder, thicker vein, a sparing layer keeps the seam delicate.

No, the kit includes a glue spreader, which is easier to control with the epoxy than a brush would be.

A premium gold mica pigment, the same family of mineral pigment used in fine cosmetics and art materials.

Wrap a bowl in several layers of the cotton fabric, leaving enough spare to grip firmly, then break it against a hard surface (a stone floor is ideal) in one confident movement. Use the minimum force needed and you'll get a few large, clean pieces, which are the easiest to repair. And if it shatters more than you hoped, embrace the imperfection, that's rather the point.

The Japanese philosophy of finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence and incompleteness. Kintsugi, which dates back to 15th century Japan, is its most famous expression: instead of hiding a repair, the golden seams celebrate the object's history. A mended bowl isn't damaged goods, it's a piece with a story told in gold.

Ceramics are what the kit is designed for and where it shines, but the glue also bonds metal, plastic, wood and glass, so once you've mastered the practice bowls there's plenty of scope to get creative.

We ship with Royal Mail. Standard delivery is £2.99 and next-day delivery is £4.99. Standard delivery is free on orders over £25.

UK standard delivery takes 2 to 3 working days. Choose next-day delivery and order before 2pm (Monday to Friday) and it will arrive the next working day.

Not at the moment, we currently deliver within the UK only.

Orders placed Monday to Friday before 2pm are dispatched the same day. Orders placed after 2pm, or at the weekend, are dispatched the next working day.

Yes, you will receive a confirmation email once your order has been dispatched.

We accept returns within 30 days. For hygiene and food-safety reasons, food and drink kits cannot be returned once they have been opened. Please contact us before sending anything back.

No, we do not provide prepaid return envelopes, return postage is the customer's responsibility. Please get in touch before returning an item.

We are sorry to hear that. Email us at hello@sandyleaffarm.com with your order number and a photo if you can, and we will put it right.

If your order has not yet been dispatched, get in touch as soon as possible and we will do our best to help. Once it is on its way it cannot be changed.

Email us at hello@sandyleaffarm.com. We are happy to help with anything, orders, delivery, returns or making your kit.

No. We never include prices on our packing slips, precisely because so many kits are sent as gifts. Add a gift message at checkout and we'll pop it in the box.

Each product lists its ingredients and allergen information on its product page, and the same information is printed on the kit packaging. Always check the pack when it arrives.

It depends on the kit and your specific allergy. Please read the ingredients and allergen statement for the individual kit, and if you are unsure, contact us before ordering.

The only allergen we handle on our own site is sulphites. Some of our ingredients, however, are sourced from suppliers whose facilities handle other allergens, which is why some kits carry a "may contain" statement.

On the kits where it applies, the statement reads: "May contain: cereals containing gluten, celery, eggs, milk, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans and tree nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios, macadamia nuts). Some ingredients are sourced from suppliers whose facilities handle the above allergens."

It depends on what is in that particular kit and where those ingredients are sourced. The "may contain" warning only appears on kits whose ingredients come from suppliers handling those allergens, so always check the specific kit.

"Contains" means the allergen is a deliberate ingredient in the kit. "May contain" means it is not an ingredient, but there is a small chance of cross-contact from a supplier's facility. Always check both the ingredients list and any "may contain" line.

Some may, either as an ingredient or via a "may contain cereals containing gluten" warning from supplier facilities. Check the individual kit's ingredients and allergen statement to be sure.

Some kits are, or can be made, vegan or vegetarian, for example the tapioca pearls in the bubble tea kit are vegan and the drink can be made fully vegan. Suitability varies by kit, so check the product page and contact us if you need to be certain.

You add your own milk to make cheese, so milk is central to those kits. The items included in the kit (such as rennet) are listed on the product page.

Please read the ingredients and allergen statement for the specific kit carefully, and if you have any doubt at all, email us at hello@sandyleaffarm.com before ordering so we can help you decide.

The Hedgerow Wine Kit is the one to know about: its sterilising powder and stabilising tablet contain sulphites, and the finished wine contains sulphites too. No other current kit contains them. Each kit's packaging and product page carries its full allergen information, so always check there for the kit in your hands.

Made as directed, here is how each kit comes out. Where a recipe needs fresh ingredients from your own kitchen (milk, cream, meat), those decide the finished result.

Vegetarian, vegan, gluten free and lactose free: the Gin Making Kit, Ultimate Gin Maker's Kit, Colour Changing Gin Kit, Spiced Rum Kit, Kimchi Kit and Hedgerow Wine Kit (the wine kit contains sulphites, and even its finings are a natural clay, so no animal products anywhere).

Vegetarian and gluten free: the Beginner's Cheese and Cheese of the World kits use vegetarian rennet, and because you add the milk the finished cheeses are vegetarian but not dairy free.

Also vegan, gluten free and lactose free: the Chilli Sauce Kit. All seven current sauces, from the Salsa Verde to the West African Pepper Sauce, use only plants, vinegar and store-cupboard ingredients.

Gluten free and lactose free: the Bacon, Jerky, Biltong, Kebab and Ultimate Meat kits contain no gluten or dairy ingredients. The kebab's yoghurt and mint sauce uses dairy you supply, so skip it or use a dairy free yoghurt if needed.