Carroll Robert - Home Cheese Making

HOME
CHEESE MAKING

RECIPES FOR 75 HOMEMADE CHEESES

RICKI CARROLL

The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by
publishing practical information that encourages
personal independence in harmony with the environment.

Edited by Dianne M. Cutillo and Karen Levy
Cheese-maker profiles and additional text by Susan Mahnke Peery
Cover photo by Sabine Vollmer von Falken
Illustrations by Elayne Sears
Cover design by Wendy Palitz
Text design by Karin Stack and Cindy McFarland
Text layout and production by Susan Bernier and Jennifer Jepson Smith
Indexed by Susan Olason/Indexes & Knowledge Maps

2002 by Ricki Carroll.
Previous editions 1996, 1982 by Storey Publishing, LLC

Recipes on pages appear courtesy of Paula Lambert, The Cheese Lovers Cookbook and Guide, 2000, all rights reserved.

Home Cheese Making was first published in 1982 as Cheesemaking Made Easy and revised in 1996. All of the information in the previous edition was reviewed and updated, and 115 new recipes were added.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other without written permission from the publisher.

The information in this book is accurate and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or Storey Books. The author and the publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information. For additional information, please contact Storey Books, 210 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247.

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Printed in the United States by Malloy
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carroll, Ricki.
Home cheese making : recipes for 75 homemade cheeses / Ricki Carroll.
p. cm.
New edition of: Cheesemaking made easy.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58017-464-0
1. Cheesemaking. 2. Cookery (Cheese) I. Carroll, Ricki. Cheesemaking made
easy. II. Title.

SF271 .C37 2002

637.3dc21 2002007749

Many people have asked me, How did you get into cheese? I have a simple answer: It got into me. My love affair with cheese began at an age that surely preceded my ability to express that predilection. But while my fondness for cheese grew as I did, my knowledge about cheese did not. All I knew was that cheese was made from milk, and after that, it magically appeared as a flat orange square neatly wrapped in cellophane. It came in convenient packages of eight.

My universe of cheese expanded once I began to shop for myself. Brie quickly became my cheese of choice, as no party was complete without it. But Brie was also an inadvertent educational tool. It was the first cheese I ever tasted that had a rind. Although most party guests assiduously avoided the snowy white rind, I liked the contrast it offered in texture and flavor. And more, it looked like cheese. What a marvelous discovery!

By now irrevocably hooked on cheese, I began to explore it with determination and intensity. It didnt take long to see that there was a virtual explosion of cheese makers who were making wonderful cheese right here in the United States. It was a revelation that would lead to my book, The New American Cheese, in which I chronicled the lives of the cheese makers who bring real cheese (with rinds) to our table and who work so hard in doing so. As I researched my book, I also discovered one individual who was playing a quiet but integral role in helping many of the cheese makers Id come to know. That person was Ricki Carroll.

These days, cheese has become perhaps the hottest culinary trend to take hold since artisanal bread. But far ahead of any trend, Ricki Carroll has steadily been leading the charge in home and commercial cheese making for decades. Her company, New England Cheese-making Supply, has been answering the ongoing needs of cheese makers, and her book, Cheesemaking Made Easy, was the necessary bible for aspiring and experienced cheese makers. Precious few readable resources for cheese making existed before she wrote that book.

Ricki has long been the cheese making answer woman at the other end of the line when cheese makers call in a state of panic wondering what went wrong with their batch of cheese or wanting to know how to elevate their cheese from good to great. Rickis home, in which she offers ongoing cheese-making seminars, has been a refuge for cheese makers wishing to improve their craft, and her ability to source hard-to-find equipment has been crucial to the careers of many cheese makers.

It is fitting that in this time of cheese-mania, Ricki is once again answering the call of wanna-be cheese makers hobbyists and professionals alike by revising and updating this book. She is providing an essential tool to anyone with a modicum of interest in cheese and, at the same time, servicing the needs of experienced cheese makers. Her easy-to-understand manner and, most important, years of hands-on experience qualify her as one of the nations preeminent cheese-making mentors.

To guide milk into cheese is a heady experience. Yet that is the very opportunity Ricki is giving all of us with this book. I have no doubt that after you start reading Home Cheese Making, you wont be able to stop yourself from imagining which cheese youre going to make first, which milk youre going to make it from, and even how to fashion a place to age it.

Cheese has now captured the fancy of culinarians and aficionados across the United States, and that is largely because so many fantastic cheeses now grace our shops and markets. But long before cheese was a trend, Ricki was helping cheese makers develop cheeses that were worthy of the shops and marketplaces. Ricki Carroll has always made cheese making a little easier, and with this book, she helps us see that, in fact, theres a cheese maker in each of us.

LAURA WERLIN
Author of The New American Cheese

I take great pleasure in having participated in the renaissance of artisanal cheese making in the United States over the past two decades. It has been thrilling to watch people take their cheeses from the kitchen to the Winners Circle at the American Cheese Society and other prestigious competitions. Although only a small percentage of cheese makers aspire to that level of commercial cheese making, this book will enable everyone to have fun making delicious cheeses. You will surely become a winner within your own circle of family and friends.

This book is written with the beginner in mind, to show that its possible even easy to make cheese at home. Its a wonderful family activity and makes a great science lesson. The recipes here are a grate whey to learn this traditional art and perhaps begin traditions of your own. For those who approach cheese making as a hobby or an occasional activity, youll find plenty of recipes and enough technical explanation to ensure success.