Homemade Living: Home Dairy with Ashley English

by Ashley English

Overview

Ashley English provides a feast of information for dairy-loving foodies! She guides readers through all the essentials in four topic-specific sections: Butter & Ghee, Cultured Dairy Products, Cheese, and Ice Cream. Each primer offers need-to-know facts with gorgeous photos, troubleshooting tips, profiles, and Ashley's own roster of recipes for making such dairy staples as butter, sour cream, and cheese from scratch-as well as 10 seasonal dishes from Chilled Cucumber Yogurt Soup to traditional Mac & Cheese.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781454704867
Publisher:	Lark Crafts
Publication date:	11/01/2011
Series:	Homemade Living Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	136
File size:	22 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

Editorial Reviews

English (Canning & Preserving with Ashley English) has DIY street cred, and this entry in her series of back-to-basics books covers dairy—from how to make your own butter through making complex cheeses and ice cream. Like the other series titles, this one is filled with easy-to-understand instructions and copious photographs and illustrations. Some of the many sidebars can be distracting, but overall the organization and presentation is clean and easy to follow. English covers equipment and techniques thoroughly and includes a glossary to less familiar terms. The chapter on the different types of butters is a simple entry point for budding foodies and includes instructions on making compound butters and ghee. Yogurt, kefir, and crème fraîche round out the first half of the book and, aside from a few pages of body-care recipes and out-of-place items like kefir cornbread, the rest is all about cheese-making, from a simple ricotta to a Parmesan aged for ten months.Verdict Foodies and the DIY community will love this book.—Ann Wilberton, Middletown Twp. P.L., NJ

Library Journal

Somewhat dry but easy-to-follow guide to the mysterious world of homemade dairy products.

The latest addition to English's Homemade Living series (Keeping Bees with Ashley English, 2011, etc.) joins the ranks of countless new titles that invite readers to forego the suburban supermarkets for their kitchens instead. After a brief overview of the deliciously active role of dairy throughout human history, the author jumps right in to the tools of the trade. Readers unfamiliar with mesophilic cultures and curd knives need not fear; the English's spirited, encouraging tone will soon have readers believing that they, too, can produce the cheddar they so eagerly reach for in the refrigerated aisle. "I love the self sufficiency and empowerment I feel when I take a humble gallon of milk and create something entirely different. It's...part science, and part magic," home cheesemaker Claudia tells the author in one of the many sidebars that appear in the manual. These inserts, often biographies of other members of the DIY dairy revolution, could have upped the entertainment value of the book had they been peppered with clever anecdotes and quips on the challenges of making your own cheese. But English is no slouch at demystifying the intricacies of home dairy; from the simplicities of churning out your own delectable butter to pressing your very first gouda, the author covers it all in clean, unpretentious, step-by-step instruction.

Excellent for those looking to take a slight step off the grid.

Kirkus Reviews