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

I really like this book. It is informative, has clear instructions and lots of recipes, from simple to advanced.

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.

N-a

I looked through the book and the recipes and techniques look easy to follow

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.

This was a gift for my mother who is a shepherd and makes her own cheeses. She loved the book because it has a huge variety of cheese recipes, and some that she has never heard of, which is what I was hoping! She has many books on cheese making and this is the most beautiful and interesting to look at. It has the largest variety of cheese recipes than any of the books in her collection.However, the recipes call for pasteurized milk, (which most people use exclusively!). Since she has UNPASTEURIZED milk from sheep, goats, and cows, and is not sure if she can use this milk in these recipes, she has yet to make anything from it. We plan to write the author to ask if we can use unpasteurized milk.Her other complaint is that there are too many referrals to a web site instead of having that information in the book itself. Why print a book if you are going to leave out information and tell readers to look it up on a website? These days in magazines there are often references that direct readers to websites and that practice is now spilling over in to books. She does not use a computer and is not happy about this practice in the books she reads! This may not mean anything to the rest of the world who are all using computers! She says, if you are into making cheese, this might be the only book you need! Get it!