American Farmstead Cheese: The Complete Guide To Making and Selling Artisan Cheeses

From the Editors

This comprehensive guide to farmstead cheese explains the diversity of cheeses in terms of historical animal husbandry, pastures, climate, preservation, and transport— all of which still contribute to the uniqueness of farm cheeses today. <P>Discover the composition of milk (and its seasonal variations), starter cultures, and the chemistry of cheese. The book includes:<BR> • A fully illustrated guide to basic cheesemaking<BR> • Discussions on the effects of calcium, pH, salt, and moisture on the process<BR> •Ways to ensure safety and quality through sampling and risk reduction<BR> • Methods for analyzing the resulting composition<BR> You will meet artisan cheesemaker Peter Dixon, who will remind you of the creative spirit of nature as he shares his own process for cheesemaking. Alison Hooper, cofounder of Vermont Butter & Cheese Company, shares her experience—both the mistakes and the successes—to guide you in your own business adventure with cheese. David and Cindy Major, owners of Vermont Shepherd, a sheep dairy and cheese business, tell the story of their farm and business from rocky beginning to successful end.
Product Description

Customer Response

No recipes
This is an informative book about the history of cheese, how cheese is made at a molecular level, and starting a cheese company. What it doesn't give you is basic cheese recipies for the novice. I bit more involved than I wanted. Interesting reading, but now I STILL need another book to take me through a BASIC recipe and a list of equipment I can use that can be found in the regular home kitchen. I am making a couple of pounds of mozerella, not a large vat of Brie!

Combinesthe ART of cheesemaking with the SCIENCE
Some may want this as a recipe book. It is NOT. It is, however, the scientific reasoning behind how and why for centuries, cheesemaking was an art passed from cheesemaker to apprentice.

Please read carefully chapters 5 and 10. They will help you immensely.

44 words. Sorry, I'm a nerd; I get to the point.

A collection of technical papers, not a how-to.
This book is a collection of technical papers on the chemistry and industrial processes of cheesemaking. It is not a how-to guide for making artisan cheeses at home.

Invaluable For the Home Cheesemaker
This book is a very useful reference for the home cheesemaker for all stages from set up, fine tuning your recipes, troubleshooting problems, and insights into the business side, if you want to go that way. It contains enough chemistry and biology to allow you to adjust the your cheese recipes according to the individual batch parameters.
The discussion on Pasteurization is very helpful for understanding the raw milk dilemma, and the story of the problems the author encountered establishing his own business is inspiring.

A Book for a New Business
Highly recommended. Undestand the basics on it to develop a succesful business in this area.

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