THE ART OF CHEESEMAKING
has been around for thousands of years, and the topic is infinite. The history of cheese is rich with beautiful stories of provenance, tradition, technique, skill, flavour and more.
For me, I suppose you could call cheesemaking a hobby or, more accurately, a fledgling addiction. My cheesemaking journey started as a way of trying to deal with the stress, intensity and demands of working in professional kitchens. Learning and teaching myself something new allowed me to slow down, be creative, and to think about food differently.
This book comes from my experiences of making cheese, both at home and in professional environments. Woven among the information and recipes are stories and anecdotes about how I make, age, eat, share, care for and love cheese.
CHEESEMAKING BASICS
“A dairy product made by fermentation to safely preserve the nutrients in milk to be eaten and enjoyed at a later time.” That’s what my Jeopardy answer would be to the question: “What is cheese?”
Cheese is made up of just four ingredients – milk, rennet (or another coagulating agent), good bacteria and salt. Cheesemakers can add or omit ingredients to achieve certain things. Some cheeses don’t have rennet, some don’t have added bacteria, some are fresh, some are aged, and some add herbs, spices, seeds and other things to achieve flavour and texture.
The essential ingredient, milk, contains two major proteins – casein and whey
