Miller Laurel - Cheese for Dummies

Cheese For Dummies

by culture: the word on cheese,
Laurel Miller, Thalassa Skinner

Foreword by Chef Ming Tsai
Chef/owner of Blue Ginger and host of Simply Ming

Cheese For Dummies

Published by
John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd.
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Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd.

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data Cheese for dummies / Culture Magazine : The Word on Cheese, Laurel Miller, Thalassa Skinner. Includes index. 1. Cheese. 2. Cheesemaking. I. Miller, Laurel, 1969 II. Skinner, Thalassa III. Title: Culture magazine.

SF271.C44 2012 641.373 C2011-907378-1

ISBN 978-1-118-09939-1 (pbk); 978-1-118-14551-7 (ebk); 978-1-118-14552-4 (ebk); 978-1-118-14553-1 (ebk)

Printed in the United States

1 2 3 4 5 RRD 16 15 14 13 12

About the Authors

Laurel Miller is a Western U.S.-based food and travel writer, contributing editor at culture: the word on cheese, and culinary educator and owner of The Sustainable Kitchen. She grew up on a small California ranch raising dairy goats and a menagerie of other animals, which is what inspired her to teach people about sustainable agriculture and seasonal eating. When not writing or working part-time in a cheese shop, Laurel can be found indulging her street food obsession in the back alleys of the world. She is lactose intolerant.

Thalassa (Lassa) Skinner works as a cheesemonger in Napa, California, where she spends much of her time pairing local wines and beers with cheeses and infusing everyone she meets with the glories of cheese. She is a founder/owner of culture: the word on cheese and teaches classes at the San Francisco Cheese School and other venues throughout the Napa Valley and beyond. A dual citizen of both the United States and Australia, Lassa also has a home in South Australias Barossa Valley and may be the only person on earth who has managed, promoted, and helped grow farmers markets on two continents. Her dog Samantha (who is, in fact, an Aussie) has a distinctly cheese-centric palate and, though partial to camembert, has learned to accept that even she will have to wait until kidding season is complete before she can savor local goat milk cheeses again.

culture: the word on cheese, the first consumer magazine about cheese, and its website, www.culturecheesemag.com , was founded in 2008. Cheese embodies comfort yet oozes mystery. It conjures a better place and time, green swaths, happy cows, and ancient know-how. New cheesemakers appear each year. Shoppers seek wider selections of cheeses from specialty stores to supermarkets. The dizzying range of offerings comes from cow, goat, sheep, buffalo, or rarer animals milks, aged and fresh. Yet while we love it, we barely know it. Thats why culture magazine serves up the notable and obscure, with pairings and recipes, gorgeous photography, and introductions to dedicated farmers, makers, and mongers around the world. Its why culture is the word on cheese!

Authors Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the following people, without whom this book would not have been possible:

To Tracy Barr, editor extraordinaire, for turning this into something we can be proud of, as well as for your patience, good humor, and talking us off the ledge more than once. To everyone at culture magazine for supporting this project (even when dubious) and helping us see it through to the very end: Kate Arding, Stephanie Skinner, Elaine Khosrova, Eilis Maynard, and Will Fertman. A special shout-out to a group of women who went the extra mile: Michele Buster, Cecile Delannes, Ursula Heinzelmann, Sheri LaVigne, Tami Parr, and Daphne Zepos. Thank you for putting up with us and our hundreds of e-mails! And an extra special thanks to Kate Arding, who willingly shared her considerable expertise and feedback when we most needed her, and provided the photography.