Artisan Cheese Making at Home: Techniques & Recipes for Mastering World-Class Cheeses [A Cookbook]

I would consider myself an advancing novice cheese maker in that I have been making cheese for many years now, have made many different types of cheese several times (including more difficult ones), yet I feel I have a lot to learn yet before joining the elite ranks of advanced cheese makers.When I bought this book, I was under the asumption that it was targeted toward a beginner cheese maker. I have read all of the introductory material and glanced through nearly all recipes. Please consider my review from this perspective.First thing I will say is that I love this book! I feel it is very well done and hosts some great cheese pictures (Always a huge plus for me)! I knew it was going to be well worth it when I saw that Peter Reinhart (Author of "The Bread Baker's Apprentice", my favorite bread book) wrote the forward.I feel that the instruction is clear and this author has done a great job of thinking about the weird little "common sense" things which tend to get left out of cheese making books. Stuff like recommending that you sanitize you equipment in bleach then dry on a rack on top of a cookie sheet before starting your cheese making session. To some this may be assumed, but if you have never worked food service- proper sanitation may not be second nature to you.Another thing I really appreciate is the author's presentation of equipment and ingredients. All items are explained in good detail. I was very impressed with the fact that she included a chart with many of the most common cheese starter cultures, what they are used for, and which vendors carry them. I will be photo copying this chart and laminating it to keep with my equipment (big +1 there!).The pictures, as I mentioned, are very nice.Now, the recipes. There are a handful of books out there with more cheese recipes than there are in this one. However, this author seems to have gone for depth instead of breadth. That is to say that the recipes chosen (which does not comprise a small list by any means) are very interesting and compelling to try (I cant wait to make the saffron infused manchego!!).In the spirit of this being a learning book, the author has chosen to organize recipes by level of advancement. Simple cheeses such as paneer come first while more challenging ones such as cheddar appear later. I personally really like this in a beginning cheese making book.So in summary, I strongly recommend this book to those new to cheese making. I think this book is very well done. The greatest strength of this book is undoubtedly the organization of the material, the pictures are a nice bonus. This book will now be my standard recommended Beginner-Intermediate book.

Great recipes in this book. I love that Mary shares recipes from other cheesemakers as well. I've made lots of cheese from these recipes and they turn out great. Also, she provides in her book links to her website to find useful information and a recipe log that you can print. Highly recommend this book.

I would suggest this book as your second cheese making book. Get Ricki Carolls book first. http://www.amazon.com/Home-Cheese-Making-Recipes-Homemade/dp/1580174647/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359509744&sr=8-1&keywords=ricki+carroll.. Home Cheese Making is the primer where you can begin to learn how cheese works. This was the best book for fundementals for me. She really takes a lot of time to teach you how to make some pretty good cheese. And if pretty good cheese is what you are after you could stop with this book. But if you are really trying to get to the next level Artisn Cheese Making at Home is the book for you.Artisan Cheesemaking at Home is a book of nuance, that may not be appreciated until you have been making cheese for a while. While other books tell you to add starter culture this book gets you into the varieties of starter cultures and how much they can influence the flavor and quality of your cheese. It has recipes for some very difficult cheeses that will challenge you and if you can make them give you a feeling of satisfaction that is hard to describe.In addition to recipes she gives you the basics to begin to experiment with developing your own cheese. If you have been making cheese for a while you know that each cheese no matter what recipe you use is its own cheese. That is the beauty of home made artisan cheese. You can never make the same one twice. Too many variables influence the outcome. She gets you to understand that and encourages you to take some chances with your own ideas.This is just a great book for anyone who wants to become a better cheese maker.

I was quite excited when I started reading this beautiful book..... The print is excellent, the photos great and the instructions very accurate. The problem however started when I checked the ingredients that I needed to buy. Apart from the milk being quite costly, 5 Grams of one of the enzymes necessary to make a Monterey Jack cost $ 10.00 while all others are equally very expensive !!! One or two gallons of whole milk make a minuscule wheel of cheese costing me twice as much as the COSTCO variety. Flavor good, convenience non existent. Home made food is not always cost effective. However I make my own Pugliese bread at approx. $ 0.50/lb, my own fresh Pasta at $ 0.75/lb, my own jams at around $ 1.00/lb and all these preps are terrific as well as inexpensive. Cheese is NOT one of them. Sorry................... Purchased at Amazon.com

Nice start to known how to make good cheese and start a journey in new experiments with enough confidence.Very clear and direct text. Reasonable technical information that keep interesting reading without being boring.

I love this book. It takes you through A to Z about cheeses and making them. It certainly explains everything. I just wish that some (not all) American authors could realise that there is a world outside of America and it's very big. They use metric in the most and it would be nice if American authors could write down the amounts, weights, measures in both Imperial and metric, like most authors do in the rest of the world. Her website is a great back up to the book too! It's got everything and supports the book beautifully. Although that too starts off with, "We Americans love our...." Other people outside of the US actually do read the book and go to the site my dear. There is a conversion table at the back of the book though, which is a nice afterthought, but remember that a US Gallon and US Pint are different to a British Pint and British Gallon! It's very important to get everything right when making cheese, or it won't come out well. Check everything very carefully and double check conversions if you live outside of the US. However, you won't go wrong with this excellent book. I have a few books on the subject and this is by far the best I've come across.

Très intructif, riche, entrainant, didactique.Mais attention, les unités sont américaines, et les fournisseurs de ferments aussi, donc les recettes ne sont pas directement transposables !

Great information with tips and tricks to get great results. There's a large range of recipes for both soft and hard cheeses. The companion website is very useful too.

Sin duda el mejor libro de hacer quesos que he comprado. Bien explicado, por niveles de dificultad, muchas recetas, sencillo de entender, metodico y buenas fotos. Bien