The craft of home cheesemaking is exploding in popularity. However, most “beginner” books are essentially loosely organized collections of recipes that lack a progressive approach to teaching the fundamentals of this exciting and satisfying traditional skill. Mastering Basic Cheesemaking provides a complete hands-on guide to making cheese and other fermented dairy products from scratch, geared toward helping the novice cheesemaker develop the intuition and abilities needed for success, especially in the real world of the home kitchen.
This well-illustrated, clearly written practical guide assumes no experience on the part of the aspiring cheesemaker. Topics include:
- Understanding your ingredients, tools, and techniques.
- Whipping up “instant cheeses,” such as ricotta and paneer, while learning introductory milk chemistry.
- Progressing to fermented dairy products such as kefir, yogurt, and sour cream.
- Using bacteria and coagulants to create spreadable and tender cheeses like quark, chèvre, cream cheese, and American-style cottage cheese.
- Graduating to curdled, aged, and ripened cheese—mozzarella, feta, cheddar, gouda, and parmesan.
Whether you are a budding cheesemaker, avid do-it-yourselfer, foodie, homesteader, or cheese professional, this complete course in beginning cheesemaking from one of North America’s foremost instructors is packed with everything you need to create delicious, nourishing, and beautiful classic cheeses and other dairy delights.