Cynthia Martin - 101 Recipes for Making Cheese: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply

A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bears memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

Douglas and Sherri Brown

PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

• Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.
• Support local and no-kill animal shelters.
• Plant a tree to honor someone you love.
• Be a developer put up some birdhouses.
• Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.
• Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.
• Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.
• Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.
• Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.
• If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.
• Support your local farmers market.
• Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Beyond Plastic-Wrapped Slices Making Cheese at Home

If you are reading this book, you may possess basic kitchen skills or even exceptional culinary abilities. Perhaps you can roast a turkey, bake the perfect loaf of bread, or even turn out four-dozen gingerbread men at 3 a.m., each one with the same number of cinnamon buttons. However, it is likely you have never thought about making cheese. For the average cook, making homemade cheese is something that Ma Ingalls did in Little House on the Prairie or something organic farmers do somewhere out in Oregon.

Even the bravest of cooks might ask, Why should I make cheese at home? After all, even the smallest grocery store has a good selection of favorites, and many gourmet shops, specialty catalogues, and organic markets offer an even wider selection of cheeses for every taste. However, homemade cheese is not just about flavor, although no cheese will ever taste as good as a wedge of home-aged cheddar or a mound of fluffy, hand-crafted cream cheese flavored with fresh herbs. It is also not just about nutrition, even though it is true that with home-produced cheese, you can control the amount of salt, preservatives, and artificial colors in your cheese. It is about achievement the feeling you get when you conquer a task you believed was impossible. This book will help even the rookie cook see that making cheese is like making any other recipe. With the right ingredients, equipment, directions, and a bit of patience, a dedicated cook can turn out delicious, nutritious cheese for personal enjoyment or to share with family, friends, and even for the marketplace.