2 good cheesemaking books

[patandchickens]

Everybody knows about the Ricki Carroll book, which is ok, but here are two others that I find quite useful:

Amrein-Boyes, Debra, 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes (2009, Robert Rose, Toronto). ISBN 0-7788-0218-3

The author is described as "one of the top artisanal cheesemakers in Canada"; there is a lot of good advice on processes and techniques (maybe the best, at least by a small margin, of the books I've read), including some things done in a somewhat different way than in other books sources. Each chapter (class of cheese) has a 1-2 pp "troubleshooting" section at the end, which I am finding very helpful. Contains more sheeps milk recipes than other books tend to.

Smith, Tim, Making Artisan Cheese: 50 Fine CHeeses That You Can Make In Your Own Kitchen (2005, Quarry Books, Massachusetts) ISBN 1-59253-197-0

Written in a very reassuring 'it's not rocket science' kind of tone, with fewer recipes and more illustrations than the abovementioned book.

I have made a couple recipes out of each book, and nothing awful has happened yet although they are still ageing so we shall see Of the two, I probably like the first one better, but both have real value and are certainly worth at *least* trying to get through interlibrary loan.

Just thought I'd pass this on to those interested,

Pat

 

[redux]

Thank you so much. I really want to try my hand at making cheese. I want to make a grilled cheese sandwich with my own bread and my own cheese.

 

[freemotion]

How many goat's milk cheese recipes besides chevre? And issues specific to goat's milk?

If one is already somewhat proficient at cheesemaking.....which book (or both) would you recommend?

I have been working mostly with Rikki's book, using mostly cow's milk recipes but substituting goat's milk, as well as using the www.fiascofarm.com recipes, and am frustrated with mozzarella, ready to give up on it.

 

[patandchickens]

Free, have you tried any of the just-goat-milk books that New England Cheesemaking sells? (Obviously they would be available thru Amazon too)

The book by Smith has only the following recipes that specify goat's milk in the ingredients: fresh chevre, feta, cabra el vino, crottin.

The Amrein-Boyes book has the following specifying "goats milk" or "goat or sheep milk" (I omit ones that specifically ask for sheeps milk): Shepherd's Mizithra, Chevre, Traditional Provencal Chevre, Brousse, Fresh Goat Cheeses, Goats Milk Faisselle, Kasseri (pref. mixed with sheep milk), Valencay, Ste Maure, Selles-sur-Cher, Pouligny-St-Pierre, Crottin, Goat Brie, Goat's Milk Gouda, Goats Milk CHeddar, Goats Milk Caerphilly, Feta, Halloumi, Chestnut-Leaf Wrapped Goat Cheese, Cabra El Vino; plus a handful of others where you mix goat milk with cow milk.

The Amrein-Boyes book is also probably (marginally) better for someone who has already tried basic cheesemaking, but there is not a huge difference between the two.

Free, I find mozzarella rather frustrating too -- I seldom make it because I have yet to exceed about a .500 batting average in terms of whether it will stretch or not. Although, in one of the troubleshooting sections of the Amrein-Boyes book (above), it says that mozzarella will only stretch at pH 5.0-5.2 ... so I am trying to figure out where to buy those little pH dip strips that you use in high school chemistry Also, I am under the impression that goats milk mozzarella is much harder to make succsssfully than cows milk mozzarella (?)

FWIW, so far my own cheesemaking skills consist basically of: I can make a very reliable ricotta salata that the kids and I like very much; I can make ricotta, but it is always too grainy (overheated? overacidified?); I can make various simple hard cheeses that always taste pretty much alike and are too crumbly/dusty/sour for good eating out of hand but make wicked good mac-n-cheese or quesadillas; and I have tried my first hard grating cheese, kefalotyri type, which is drying preparatory to waxing as we speak.

And I really GOTTA get some kind of animal I can get milk from

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[freemotion]

No, Pat, I haven't bought those books on just goat's milk. I am rarely pleased when I buy a book sight-unseen unless I get a review from someone I trust....hence all my questions! I think I will buy the 200 recipes book you talked about.

I had a client give me a roll of pH test strips when we had a conversation about blood pH and diet....I wonder where I put the rest of it....I think she got it at a pharmacy or health food store. What a great idea. I've got to find it or buy a new one before milking season starts in earnest, and keep it on the shelf with all my cheesemaking stuff.

The Dairy Connection is a great resource....if you call them to place your order, they will answer your questions, often putting you on hold to check with others on the answers. They are fantastic...I place tiny orders and they treat me like I buy for a dairy. Smart business people. As a result, I post such statements as often as I can by way of thanks! New England Cheesemaking has answered one question via e-mail, then ignored follow-ups.

 

[patandchickens]

BTW Free, I should mention that the one flaw of that book is that its #s for how hard to press your cheeses has something wrong with it. (In the recipes they just use the terms 'light', 'medium', 'firm' etc, but in one of the early chapters when they are talking about cheese presses, they DEFINE those pressures - that is where the problem lies). They seem to drift in and out of "pounds" vs "psi". As far as I can tell, the correct thing is to regard their list of "psi" as being actually total pounds of pressing weight for a normal 2-lb cheese. It is not a crippling problem, just warning you about it

I will have to look up the Dairy Connection - I dunno how likely I am to order from them anytime soon since it is expensive to buy things cross the border, but when I visit my family in PA I often order stuff to pick up there FWIW, I am not a big New England Cheesemaking fan - they (meaning, basically, Ricki Carroll) have done a super job of *popularizing* cheesemaking and 'getting it out there', otherwise I would never have tried it, but as far as quality of information and pricing of supplies, I think there are far better outfits.

JMHO,

Pat

 

[freemotion]

I received a gift card for Barnes and Noble so I just bought both books! Mya gave me almost a gallon today, and she is only ten days in!

 

[Iceblink]

Free - have you tried 'Goats Produce Too' by Mary Jane Toth? I have it and like it, her recipes frequently call for buttermilk culture, so I haven't attempted all her cheeses yet, but the ones I have tried have turned out well. She also has goat's milk soap recipes, and chevon recipes.

Pat - My library has this really old copy of 'Practical Sheep Dairying: the care and milking of the dairy ewe' I have read it and found it helpful, although it is old and very British-centric. I haven't found any other books specific to milking sheep though. Do you have a hard time keeping the skin between the udder and leg clean? For some reason my ewe gets this earwax colored gunk up there, I'm not sure why?

 

[patandchickens]

Pat - My library has this really old copy of 'Practical Sheep Dairying: the care and milking of the dairy ewe' I have read it and found it helpful, although it is old and very British-centric.

Is that the one published in, like 1982 or something like that, or is it a different one? Do you by any chance have the bibliographic info on that (author, date, publisher) so I could see if ILL might be able to scare up a copy for me? Thanks for any info!

Do you have a hard time keeping the skin between the udder and leg clean? For some reason my ewe gets this earwax colored gunk up there, I'm not sure why?

I think it's just greasy skin secretions, all my sheep seem to have that to some extent. It doesn't seem to bother them so I am leaving it alone, I have no clue if I'm *supposed* to be doing something about it but never having read any reference to it I am guessing it's normal

Pat

 

[freemotion]

Free - have you tried 'Goats Produce Too' by Mary Jane Toth? I have it and like it, her recipes frequently call for buttermilk culture, so I haven't attempted all her cheeses yet, but the ones I have tried have turned out well. She also has goat's milk soap recipes, and chevon recipes.

I've read articles with recipes by MJ Toth online and it was not what I was looking for. Pasteurize, pasteurize, pasteurize. I'd really have to flip through that book before buying it. I might see if the library system here can scare up a copy for me. Could be that I was simply irritated by all the pasteurizing rhetoric.....I'll give that book another look.

There is a need (in my kitchen! ) for a good book with goat's milk cheese recipes that are far beyond the basics. I work a lot with Ricki Carroll's book and just use the cow's milk recipes (for cheddar and such) but there are issues that are peculiar to goat's milk and I am on my own in figuring them out. I hope the two books I ordered give me some real help.

I think the pH test strips will be a big factor. There was a sentence somewhere about the pH of the milk changing throughout the animal's lactation period, but no further indication of what might be typical, so I am still as to how to adjust things. What Pat wrote here gives me hope:

Free, I find mozzarella rather frustrating too -- I seldom make it because I have yet to exceed about a .500 batting average in terms of whether it will stretch or not. Although, in one of the troubleshooting sections of the Amrein-Boyes book (above), it says that mozzarella will only stretch at pH 5.0-5.2 ... so I am trying to figure out where to buy those little pH dip strips that you use in high school chemistry Also, I am under the impression that goats milk mozzarella is much harder to make succsssfully than cows milk mozzarella (?)