A complete, hands-on beginner's guide to the magic and satisfaction of making your own cheese

The craft of home cheesemaking is exploding in popularity. However most "beginner" books are essentially loosely-organized collections of recipes which lack a progressive approach to teaching the fundamentals of this exciting and satisfying traditional skill. Mastering Basic Cheesemaking provides a complete hands-on guide to making cheese and other fermented dairy products from scratch, geared toward helping the novice cheesemaker to develop the intuition and abilities to position them for success, especially in the real world of the home kitchen.

This well-illustrated, clearly written practical guide assumes no prior experience on the part of the aspiring cheesemaker. Topics include:

• Understanding your ingredients, tools and techniques
• Whipping up "instant cheeses" such as ricotta and paneer while learning basic milk chemistry
• Progressing to fermented dairy products such as kefir, yogurt and sour cream
• Using bacteria and coagulant to create spreadable and tender cheeses like quark, chevre, cream cheese and American style cottage cheese
• Graduating to curdled, aged and ripened cheese--mozzarella, feta, cheddar, gouda, and parmesan.

Whether you are a budding cheesemaker, avid do-it-yourselfer, foodie, homesteader or cheese professional, this complete course in beginning cheesemaking from one of North America's foremost instructors is packed with everything you need to create delicious, nourishing and beautiful classic cheeses and other dairy delights.