Mastering Basic Cheesemaking - by Gianaclis Caldwell (Paperback)

About the Book

Mastering Basic Cheesemaking is a complete, hands-on guide to making cheese and other fermented dairy products at home. These clear, easy-to-follow, instructions from one of North America's foremost cheesemaking instructors are all you need to create delicious, nourishing and beautiful classic cheeses and dairy delights.

Book Synopsis

This illustrated beginner's guide covers everything you need to know to start making cheese at home--from tools and techniques to basic milk chemistry.

While the craft of home cheesemaking gains in popularity, most books on the subject gloss over the fundamentals. Mastering Basic Cheesemaking is a complete hands-on guide to making cheese and other fermented dairy products from scratch, geared toward helping the novice cheesemaker get started in their home kitchens.

This fully illustrated practical guide covers topics such as:

• Understanding your ingredients, tools and techniques
• Whipping up "instant cheeses" such as ricotta and paneer while learning basic milk chemistry
• Progressing to fermented dairy products such as kefir, yogurt and sour cream
• Using bacteria and coagulant to create spreadable and tender cheeses like quark, chevre, cream cheese and American style cottage cheese

Graduating to curdled, aged and ripened cheese--mozzarella, feta, cheddar, gouda, and parmesan.

From the Back Cover

A COMPLETE, HANDS-ON BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO THE MAGIC AND SATISFACTION OF MAKING YOUR OWN CHEESE

"If you can use a cookbook, this book will show you how to make some great cheese...and also teach you how you did it."
-- GORDON EDGAR , author of Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge and Cheddar: A Journey to the Heart of America's Most Iconic Cheese

"The reader is seamlessly led through a progression of recipes intended to bring about a true understanding of what is happening in the vat. This book is all about success! I love it."
-- KIRSTEN K. SHOCKEY , author of Fermented Vegetables: Creative Recipes for Fermenting 64 Vegetables & Herbs in Krauts, Kimchis, Brined Pickles, Chutneys, Relishes & Pastes

STEP INTO THE home cheese kitchen of a professional and learn how to make cheese--one exciting, personal and practical lesson at a time. Although the craft of cheesemaking is exploding in popularity, most beginner books are essentially loosely organized collections of recipes which lack a progressive, organic approach to teaching the fundamentals. Mastering Basic Cheesemaking takes you through the complete spectrum of cheesemaking processes in a way that will help any cheesemaker--hobbyist or budding professional--develop a thorough understanding of the essentials and cultivate the intuition and abilities that will position them for success--no matter what recipe they try.

This beautifully illustrated, clearly written practical guide assumes no prior experience on the part of the aspiring cheesemaker. In addition to step-by-step lesson chapters, the book includes:

• Tips and secrets for essentials such as choosing milk and the differences between goat, cow, and sheep milk
• Bonus recipes for exciting cheeses such as burrata, quick cheddar curds, and ghee
• Options for choosing cultures, ingredients, and equipment to make home cheesemaking more affordable
• How to age cheeses simply in any home refrigerator
• Step-by-step encouragement and insight from a professional, artisan cheesemaker.

Whether you are an aspiring cheesemaker, avid do-it-yourselfer, foodie, homesteader or cheese professional, this complete course in beginning cheesemaking from one of North America's foremost experts is packed with everything you need to create delicious, nourishing and beautiful classic cheeses and other dairy delights--and really understand what you are doing.

GIANACLIS CALDWELL is the head cheesemaker and owner of Pholia Farm, a licensed dairy well-known for its artisan, aged raw milk cheeses, and for its educational offerings including beginner to advanced cheesemaking courses. Gianaclis is the author of several books including Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking and The Small-Scale Cheese Business . She often writes and photographs for in culture: the word on cheese and other publications, and she blogs at gianacliscaldwell.wordpress.com.

To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles, Mother Earth News is recommending select New Society Publishers books to its readers. This book is one of them.

Review Quotes

If only I'd known..." words that kept repeating in my mind as I read Mastering Basic Cheesemaking. This is the book I longed for years ago when I embarked on my own cheesemaking journey. Not just another how-to, this beginner's book is designed to teach. The reader is seamlessly led through a progression of recipes intended to bring about a true understanding of what is happening in the vat. This book is all about success! I love it.
-- KIRSTEN K. SHOCKEY, author of Fermented Vegetables: Creative Recipes for Fermenting 64 Vegetables & Herbs in Krauts, Kimchis, Brined Pickles, Chutneys, Relishes & Pastes.

Over the last few years, Gianaclis Caldwell has written pretty much every book you need to start a small-scale artisan cheese business. With Mastering Basic Cheesemaking, she turns her attention to home cheesemaking and creates another must-have title. Writing in a way that demystifies the process and makes it accessible to everyone, Caldwell takes the reader logically through many dif- ferent styles of cheese. This is the kind of book where you don't realize how much you are learning until you get to the end and eat your creations. If you can use a cookbook, this book will show you how to make some great cheese... and also teach you how you did it.
-- GORDON EDGAR, author of Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge, Cheddar: A Journey to the Heart of America's Most Iconic Cheese and cheese buyer for
Rainbow Grocery Cooperative in San Francisco since 1994.



Gianaclis has taken the craft of cheesemaking and has molded it into another beautiful tome for cheese lovers. Her straightforward recipes will guide you through the exciting processes of crafting different cheeses, starting with the easiest then progressing to the more advanced recipes. She also shares some extra tips here and there to make the endeavor all the more successful. Whether you plan to make cheese or not! Mastering Basic Cheesemaking will help you under- stand how the myriad of cheese styles can all begin with one simple ingredient -- milk. Should you attempt to give it a whirl, this book will be like having her right there beside you as you create your first cheese.
-- MAX MCCALMAN, ACS CCP(TM), author of numerous books on cheese including
Mastering Cheese: Lessons for Connoisseurship from a Maitre Fromager.

If only I'd known..." words that kept repeating in my mind as I read Mastering Basic Cheesemaking. This is the book I longed for years ago when I embarked on my own cheesemaking journey. Not just another how-to, this beginner's book is designed to teach. The reader is seamlessly led through a progression of recipes intended to bring about a true understanding of what is happening in the vat. This book is all about success! I love it.
-- KIRSTEN K. SHOCKEY, author of Fermented Vegetables: Creative Recipes for Fermenting 64 Vegetables & Herbs in Krauts, Kimchis, Brined Pickles, Chutneys, Relishes & Pastes.

Over the last few years, Gianaclis Caldwell has written pretty much every book you need to start a small-scale artisan cheese business. With Mastering Basic Cheesemaking, she turns her attention to home cheesemaking and creates another must-have title. Writing in a way that demystifies the process and makes it accessible to everyone, Caldwell takes the reader logically through many dif- ferent styles of cheese. This is the kind of book where you don't realize how much you are learning until you get to the end and eat your creations. If you can use a cookbook, this book will show you how to make some great cheese... and also teach you how you did it.
-- GORDON EDGAR, author of Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge, Cheddar: A Journey to the Heart of America's Most Iconic Cheese and cheese buyer for
Rainbow Grocery Cooperative in San Francisco since 1994.



"Gianaclis has taken the craft of cheesemaking and has molded it into another beautiful tome for cheese lovers. Her straightforward recipes will guide you through the exciting processes of crafting different cheeses, starting with the easiest then progressing to the more advanced recipes. She also shares some extra tips here and there to make the endeavor all the more successful. Whether you plan to make cheese or not! Mastering Basic Cheesemaking will help you under- stand how the myriad of cheese styles can all begin with one simple ingredient milk. Should you attempt to give it a whirl, this book will be like having her right there beside you as you create your first cheese."
MAX MCCALMAN, ACS CCP, author of numerous books on cheese including
Mastering Cheese: Lessons for Connoisseurship from a Maitre Fromager.
"If only I d known words that kept repeating in my mind as I read" Mastering Basic Cheesemaking. "This is the book I longed for years ago when I embarked on my own cheesemaking journey. Not just another how-to, this beginner s book is designed to teach. The reader is seamlessly led through a progression of recipes intended to bring about a true understanding of what is happening in the vat. This book is all about success! I love it."
KIRSTEN K. SHOCKEY, author of "Fermented Vegetables: Creative Recipes for Fermenting 64 Vegetables & Herbs in Krauts, Kimchis, Brined Pickles, Chutneys, Relishes & Pastes."
"Over the last few years, Gianaclis Caldwell has written pretty much every book you need to start a small-scale artisan cheese business. With Mastering Basic Cheesemaking, she turns her attention to home cheesemaking and creates another must-have title. Writing in a way that demystifies the process and makes it accessible to everyone, Caldwell takes the reader logically through many dif- ferent styles of cheese. This is the kind of book where you don t realize how much you are learning until you get to the end and eat your creations. If you can use a cookbook, this book will show you how to make some great cheese and also teach you how you did it."
GORDON EDGAR, author of "Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge, Cheddar: A Journey to the Heart of America s Most Iconic Cheese" and cheese buyer for
Rainbow Grocery Cooperative in San Francisco since 1994.
"

About the Author

Gianaclis Caldwell is the head cheesemaker and owner of Pholia Farm, a licensed dairy well-known for its artisan, aged raw milk cheeses, and for its educational offerings including beginner to advanced cheesemaking courses. She also serves on the American Cheese Society regulatory and academic committee. Gianaclis is the author of several books including Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking , The Small-Scale Cheese Business , and The Small-Scale Dairy . She often writes and photographs for in culture: the word on cheese and other publications, and she blogs at gianacliscaldwell.wordpress.com.