Artisan Cheese Making at Home: Techniques & Recipes for Mastering World-Class Cheeses [A Cookbook] Hardcover – August 23, 2011

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.

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

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

Let me preface this by saying that I am a professional chef, and have made several cheeses/cultured dairy products in the past, but wanted to learn more about the subject and expand my repertoire.This is the first cheese making book I have ever owned. I didn't want to go into this with the idea that I already knew what was going on, so I started at the beginning and have been working my way toward the more complex cheeses. Each cheese I have made following the directions exactly, have turned out wonderfully! Every time I make a cheese I am excited to make the next more difficult one on my list.This book does a great job of laying out exactly what you need to successfully execute each recipe. It doesn't shortcut on the information or descriptions which more advanced cheese makers may consider to be obvious, but it doesn't spend so long on the "obvious" subjects that it becomes lecturing or condescending. All in all, a great book, with a plethora of recipes, and enough information that none of them seem impossible. One of the best cook books I have ever owned.

Excellent book

This book has useful information for the intermediate home cheese maker: a brine chart with water to salt percentages, trouble shooting, a culture chart, information on coagulants, calcium chloride, lipase powder, Annatto, recipes for cheese, recipes for using your cheese and other helpful bits. The book does have many nice pictures, but there isn’t a picture for each recipe or method. This book has helped me take my beginner cheese making skills to the next level.Pictured is finished pressed “Asiago Pepato” ready for a saturated salt brine.