200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes: From Cheddar and Brie to Butter and Yogurt

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Overview
Product Details
Meet the Author
Table of Contents
Preface

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Overview

How to create artisanal-quality cheeses, butters and yogurts.

Homemade cheeses can easily surpass any commercially made cheese. In fact, the techniques used in home brewing, canning, pickling and wine making are quite similar to those needed to make cheese. More than ever, home cheese-making supplies and equipment are easy to find, and the only other requirement is a kitchen.

The recipes in this book feature step-by-step instructions that eliminate all the guesswork. From cleaning to sterilization, every technique and process is explained clearly so that even a novice can create artisanal-quality cheeses. The book describes all cheese types and families, ripening and aging techniques and the kinds of milk and other components needed. The recipes feature:

Spreadables -- cream cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta, mascarpone
Stretched cheeses -- mozarella, bocconcini, provolone
Mold-ripened cheeses -- Brie, Camembert, Valencay
Blue cheeses -- Roquefort, Stilton, Gorgonzola
Washed rind cheeses -- St. Paulin, Oka, brick
Hard cheeses -- cheddar, Gruyere, Parmesan
Ethnic and specialty cheeses -- haloumi, queso blanco, paneer, feta.

Recipes for yogurts, kefirs, butters and buttermilk, as well as recipes that feature the homemade cheeses, round out the collection.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780778802181
Publisher: Rose, Robert Incorporated
Publication date: 2/20/2009
Pages: 304
Sales rank: 191,975
Product dimensions: 6.90 (w) x 9.90 (h) x 1.10 (d)

Meet the Author

Debra Amrein-Boyes, owner and head cheese-maker of The Farm House Natural Cheeses, is considered to be one of Canada's top cheese makers. She spent several years learning cheese-making in Switzerland.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The History of Cheese

How to Use This Book

What is Cheese?

Basic Cheese-Making Steps and Techniques

All About Milk

Ingredients

Mother Culture

Equipment and Tools

Wrapping and Storing Cheeses

Sanitation

Fresh Cheeses

Stretched-Curd (Pasta Filata) Cheeses

Mold-Ripened Cheeses

Blue-Veined Cheeses

Washed-Rind Cheeses

Washed-Curd and Semisoft Cheeses

Semifirm and Hard Cheeses

Ethnic and Regional Cheeses

Yogurt Kefir

Butter, Buttermilk and Crème Fraîche

Glossary

Sources

Index

Preface

Introduction

"A BOOK OF VERSES underneath the Bough, a Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread -- and Thou.... " This well known quote comes from one of the most famous romantics of all time, but what is missing from this picnic in paradise? The cheese, of course! While not mentioned in the poem, it is quite possible that cheese was on the menu that day. When Omar Khayyám penned these words more than 800 years ago, cheese was already a staple food.

Though the origin of cheese, like that of so many things in human history, is shrouded in mystery, it is safe to say that people of many cultures and traditions found ways early on to preserve the bounty and goodness of fresh milk, whether from cow, sheep, goat or camel, in this form. However it came to be, cheese is a valuable food: packed with important nutrients and a vital staple in the diets of most cultures.

In traditional agriculture, cheese making was a way of preserving the summer's milk surplus for consumption in the leaner winter season, when the animals were awaiting the arrival of their young in the spring. Domesticated milk-producing animals have a period during which they are "dry," or not lactating, while their bodies store energy for the birth of their young. Since this phase can last from a few weeks up to several months, depending on the breed of animal, it was important to be prepared for that interval of no milk production. In the summer months, the farmer's wife would often become a cheese maker, filling the cellar with enough cheese for the family's own needs and producing a bit extra to sell at the market to supplement the farm income in the winter.

The making of cheese on the farm was,and to some extent still is, an important part of many Old World cultures, but it was not continued to the same degree in the New World. However, things are changing. In the last 20 years or so, there has been a rediscovery of farmstead, or artisanal, cheese making, thanks to consumers who are actively seeking a more local, natural diet as an alternative to an increasingly industrialized and globalized food industry.

My personal story of cheese making began in 1978 with a trip to the Swiss Alps. I was attending a wedding, and the bride's parents invited me to spend several days with them at their holiday chalet in the mountains. While there, we visited a Senn, or Alpine herdsman, who was in charge of the farmers' cows on the summer pasture. I remember the copper cauldron hanging over the wood fire in a low-ceilinged hut and the fresh cheeses draining on the boards along the walls. Right on the other side of the stone wall were the cows, back in their stalls for the evening milking after a day of grazing the Alpine meadows. After I returned to Canada, I tried my hand at cheese making, but my information was sketchy and I failed dismally. The long-suffering barn cats finished off what was left of my inedible cheese, and I shelved the idea. But destiny had other plans for me: several years later I returned to the Swiss Alps to live and raise a family, and there began again to learn the satisfying art of cheese making.

This book will help you discover a bit of this cheese-making heritage for yourself, at home in your own kitchen. Some of the recipes are time-tested ones that your great-grandmother could very likely have made in her farm kitchen, while others have been collected from around the world. There are also some new ideas to try, with unusual ingredients. We will cover everything from simple fresh cheeses and related dairy products (such as butter, crème fraîche and ricotta) to traditional hard cheeses (such as Cheddar, Gruyère and Parmesan) to special ethnic cheeses.

I hope you enjoy the process, but most of all the result. There's nothing like a fresh pizza on which even the mozzarella is made from scratch. Be sure to take some along on that perfect picnic!

A note on Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) and Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) cheeses: like fine wines, many cheeses are traditional to certain areas of the world and are made according to clearly outlined specifications to maintain their authenticity. In this book, we will be speaking of cheeses made in the style of many of these specialty cheeses.

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Anonymous

Posted February 15, 2011

Well organized and informative.

Very clear easy to follow directions. Larger print is easy to read. Very pleased with this purchase.
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200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes: From Cheddar and Brie to Butter and Yogurt

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Overview

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Meet the Author

Table of Contents

Preface

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