Artisan Cheese Making At Home by Mary Carlin is the first book that I've come across that has a companion website that is referred to throughout the book and used as a real tool to complement the hard copy. In fact there is a page with a list of forms and charts that you can download and print out to use in your cheese making experiments. This makes them much more useful than forms printed in a book that must be photocopied or can be used only once. This combination of book and website is functional and useful in a way that we hope to see more of in the future from other authors, including ourselves. This usability is seen throughout the book and anyone who is interested in making their own cheese or simply learning more about the process of cheese making should check it out.
We love making simple cheeses a home. The cost of good milk and cultures or enzymes is much less than the retail price of finished cheese or creme fraiche and the quality of what you can make is better than a lot of what you can buy, simply because it is so fresh when you make it yourself. Artisan Cheese Making has a great introductory section that explains the process of making cheese, followed by a troubleshooting section so that if something goes wrong you can figure out how to fix it the next time. Then it gets into the recipes, starting with a section on "Beginning Cheese Making" focusing primarily on fresh cheeses and progressing through mozzarella, jack, swiss and cheddar style cheeses in the intermediate section to soft ripened cheeses and blues in the advanced. She wraps things up with a chapter on cooking with artisan cheeses to get you started in the kitchen once you've made your own. It's a great book for anyone who loves cheese.
This week we are giving away one copy of Artisan Cheese Making at Home by Mary Carlin. To enter to win please leave a comment below telling us why you love cheese. One entry per person please. Comments are moderated and will not appear immediately. Winner will be picked on Friday, January 12, 2012 at 9am EST. This giveaway is now closed. Our winner, Anastasia Souza, has been notified via email. Thanks for all your comments.
Years Past
January 10, 2007
January 10, 2005
