Cheese

September is National Cheese Month!

200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes: From Cheddar and Brie to Butter and Yogurt by Debra Amrein-Boyes - This bestselling book has been designed to help you create wonderful cheeses that approximate the flavors and textures of many cheeses from around the world -- at home in the comfort of your own kitchen.
Discover and indulge in the taste of fresh handmade cheeses and experience the joy of creating outstanding food from a simple ingredient: fresh milk. These excellent recipes feature easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions that take the stress and guesswork out of creating artisanal-quality cheeses at home. You will find recipes for everything from fresh unripened cheeses to aged ones with complex rinds.
An enticing new cover, an all-new 32 page troubleshooting section, new step-by-step photos as well as the new inclusion of preparation times with each recipe will be welcomed by both novice and experienced cheese makers.
Rounding out this fantastic book are comprehensive descriptions of basic cheese-making steps and techniques along with information on and illustrations of all the necessary techniques, equipment and tools. It also chronicles the fascinating history of cheese along with serving and presentation instructions.

The Art of Natural Cheesemaking: Using Traditional, Non-Industrial Methods and Raw Ingredients to Make the World's Best Cheeses by David Asher - Including more than 35 step-by-step recipes from the Black Sheep School of Cheesemaking
Most DIY cheesemaking books are hard to follow, complicated, and confusing, and call for the use of packaged freeze-dried cultures, chemical additives, and expensive cheesemaking equipment. For though bread baking has its sourdough, brewing its lambic ales, and pickling its wild fermentation, standard Western cheesemaking practice today is decidedly unnatural. In The Art of Natural Cheesemaking, David Asher practices and preaches a traditional, but increasingly countercultural, way of making cheese--one that is natural and intuitive, grounded in ecological principles and biological science.
This book encourages home and small-scale commercial cheesemakers to take a different approach by showing them:
*    How to source good milk, including raw milk;
*    How to keep their own bacterial starter cultures and fungal ripening cultures;
*    How make their own rennet--and how to make good cheese without it;
*    How to avoid the use of plastic equipment and chemical additives; and
*    How to use appropriate technologies.
Introductory chapters explore and explain the basic elements of cheese: milk, cultures, rennet, salt, tools, and the cheese cave. The fourteen chapters that follow each examine a particular class of cheese, from kefir and paneer to washed-rind and alpine styles, offering specific recipes and handling advice. The techniques presented are direct and thorough, fully illustrated with hand-drawn diagrams and triptych photos that show the transformation of cheeses in a comparative and dynamic fashion.
The Art of Natural Cheesemaking is the first cheesemaking book to take a political stance against Big Dairy and to criticize both standard industrial and artisanal cheesemaking practices. It promotes the use of ethical animal rennet and protests the use of laboratory-grown freeze-dried cultures. It also explores how GMO technology is creeping into our cheese and the steps we can take to stop it.
This book sounds a clarion call to cheesemakers to adopt more natural, sustainable practices. It may well change the way we look at cheese, and how we make it ourselves.

Artisan Cheese Making at Home: Techniques & Recipes for Mastering World-Class Cheeses by Mary Karlin - Just a century ago, cheese was still a relatively regional and European phenomenon, and cheese making techniques were limited by climate, geography, and equipment. But modern technology along with the recent artisanal renaissance has opened up the diverse, time-honored, and dynamic world of cheese to enthusiasts willing to take its humble fundamentals milk, starters, coagulants, and salt and transform them into complex edibles. Artisan Cheese Making at Home is the most ambitious and comprehensive guide to home cheese making, filled with easy-to-follow instructions for making mouthwatering cheese and dairy items. Renowned cooking instructor Mary Karlin has spent years working alongside the country s most passionate artisan cheese producers cooking, creating, and learning the nuances of their trade. She presents her findings in this lavishly illustrated guide, which features more than eighty recipes for a diverse range of cheeses.

Cheese & Beer by Janet Fletcher - Cheese & Beer capitalizes on the rapidly growing audience for craft beer in the U.S. and the enthusiasm these passionate beer fans have for good cheese. Enhanced by the author's reputation as a journalist and cheese authority, the book fills a wide-open niche for consumer guidance in pairing craft beer and cheese.
The beer enthusiast who wants to know which cheeses to pair with an IPA, porter or Trappist ale can easily find a recommendation. Each style entry includes:
Style Notes: a description of that beer style---what defines it from the brewer's perspective, and what to expect from the beverage in the glass.
Beers to Try: Several recommended craft beers in that style, both domestic and imported. Some of the breweries included from across the country are: Boulevard Brewing (Kansas City, MO), Allagash Brewing (Portland, ME), Brooklyn Brewery (Brooklyn, NY), Firestone Walker (Paso Robles CA), Great Divide (Denver, CO), and Rogue Ales (Newport OR).
Cheese Affinities: In general terms, what types of cheeses pair well with that style and why.
Cheeses to Try: Brief profiles of three well-distributed cheeses (domestic and imported) specifically recommended for that style and why
More Cheeses to Try: A list of other cheeses to pair with that beer style--so that every reader should be able to find at least a couple of the recommended cheeses
The introductory chapter includes general advice on pairing cheese and beer; and on selecting, storing and presenting cheese. Six themed platters give readers ideas for entertaining with beer and cheese.

Great Balls of Cheese: More Than 50 Irresistible Cheese Ball Creations for Any Occasion by Michelle Buffardi - Remember the nut-covered, pink-colored cheese balls served at grandma’s house for the holidays? Well, these are not your grandma’s cheese balls. Updated for contemporary tastes, Michelle Buffardi’s cheese balls come in both savory and sweet flavors, like cheddar, blue cheese, and Buffalo wing sauce, or Bing cherry, rum, and pecan. And cheese balls are just part of the story. Many of the recipes, photographed in gorgeous full color, are in adorable shapes for all kinds of occasions, such as an Easter egg, Thanksgiving turkey, Christmas ornament, or a football for a Super Bowl party. Other designs are just plain fun, like the Nacho Cat, a Wise and Cheesy Owl, or one that looks like a pizza fresh from the oven. There is so much interest in bringing old-fashioned foods back into style, and this is no exception. Perfect for food lovers with crafty flair or anyone who loves to entertain, this book, with more than fifty inventive recipes and designs, is sure to be turned to again and again.

Home Cheese Making: From Fresh and Soft to Firm, Blue, Goat's Milk and More: Recipes for 100 Favorite Cheeses by Ricki Carroll - Widely acclaimed as "the Cheese Queen," Ricki Carroll has guided thousands of home cheese makers and inspired the burgeoning popularity of artisanal cheese making with her classic book, Home Cheese Making, first published in 1982, with over 400,000 copies in print.
The completely updated fourth edition features 35 new cheese recipes, color photography of step-by-step techniques, and new profiles of contemporary cheese makers. The additions to this comprehensive volume reflect the broader selection of cheeses available in specialty food stores and groceries, including burrata, stracchino, Brillat-Savarin, D'Affinois, Cambrales, Drunk Gouda, Pecorino Pepato, goat milk's gouda, and more. Companion recipes are included for cheese plate condiments and classic cheese dishes. For cheese lovers wanting to make their own, Ricki Carroll's expert advice is the key to success.

Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking: The Ultimate Guide for the Home-Scale and Market Producer by Gianaclis Caldwell - The key to becoming a successful artisan cheesemaker is to develop the intuition essential for problem solving and developing unique styles of cheeses. There are an increasing number of books on the market about making cheese, but none approaches the intricacies of cheesemaking science alongside considerations for preparing each type of cheese variety in as much detail as Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking.
Indeed, this book fills a big hole in the market. Beginner guides leave you wanting more content and explanation of process, while recipe-based cookbooks often fail to dig deeper into the science, and therefore don’t allow for a truly intuitive cheesemaker to develop. Acclaimed cheesemaker Gianaclis Caldwell has written the book she wishes existed when she was starting out. Every serious home-scale artisan cheesemaker—even those just beginning to experiment—will want this book as their bible to take them from their first quick mozzarella to a French mimolette, and ultimately to designing their own unique cheeses.
This comprehensive and user-friendly guide thoroughly explains the art and science that allow milk to be transformed into epicurean masterpieces. Caldwell offers a deep look at the history, science, culture, and art of making artisan cheese on a small scale, and includes detailed information on equipment and setting up a home-scale operation. A large part of the book includes extensive process-based recipes dictating not only the hard numbers, but also the concepts behind each style of cheese and everything you want to know about affinage (aging) and using oils, brushes, waxes, infusions, and other creative aging and flavoring techniques. Also included are beautiful photographs, profiles of other cheesemakers, and in-depth appendices for quick reference in the preparation and aging room. Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking will also prove an invaluable resource for those with, or thinking of starting, a small-scale creamery.
Let Gianaclis Caldwell be your mentor, guide, and cheering section as you follow the pathway to a mastery of cheesemaking. For the avid home hobbyist to the serious commercial artisan, Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking is an irreplaceable resource.

Reinventing the Wheel: Milk, Microbes, and the Fight for Real Cheese by Bronwen & Francis Percival - In little more than a century, industrial practices have altered every aspect of the cheesemaking process, from the bodies of the animals that provide the milk to the microbial strains that ferment it. Reinventing the Wheel  explores what has been lost as raw-milk, single-farm cheeses have given way to the juggernaut of factory production. In the process, distinctiveness and healthy rural landscapes have been exchanged for higher yields and monoculture. However, Bronwen and Francis Percival find reason for optimism. Around the world--not just in France, but also in the United States, England, and Australia--enterprising cheesemakers are exploring the techniques of their great-grandparents. At the same time, using sophisticated molecular methods, scientists are upending conventional wisdom about the role of microbes in every part of the world. Their research reveals the resilience and complexity of the indigenous microbial communities that contribute to the flavor and safety of cheese. One experiment at a time, these dynamic scientists, cheesemakers, and dairy farmers are reinventing the wheel.

This Cheese is Nuts!: Delicious Vegan Cheese at Home by Julie Piatt - This Cheese Is Nuts is a stunning collection of flavorful nut-based cheeses. Julie has always been known for her dairy-free cheeses, and here she shares seventy-five recipes using almonds, cashews, and other nuts to create cheeses anyone can make right at home. Nut-based cheeses are on the cutting edge in the world of vegan cuisine. They're remarkably simple to prepare (all you need are a few ingredients and a basic dehydrator), and in as little as twenty minutes, you can have an assortment of tasty fresh cheeses fit for any occasion.

World Cheese Book edited by Juliet Harbutt - The book is about cheese in all its many glorious varieties. What it looks like, what it tastes like, where it comes from, what you should do with it and why, how to choose a cheese you'll like and how best to enjoy it. It gives you an in-depth understanding of the world of cheese - the science, the smells, the succulence.
The core of the book is formed by the Directory Spreads, packed with clear and expert information about each cheese and illustrated with excellent photography. The cheeses are arranged by country, each section written by an expert "cheesie" from that country. For the novice, the intermediate and expert cheese eater, it will become the undisputed best guide to the world's cheeses.