Just Start with Cheese Making
Making cheese at home starts with understanding a simple transformation: milk, acid or rennet, heat, and time. Once you grasp how those four elements work together, you can produce everything from a 30-minute ricotta to a waxed cheddar that ages for months in your own basement. The equipment is minimal, the ingredients are ordinary, and the first results come fast enough to keep you hooked.
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Home Cheese Making, 4th Edition
Ricki Carroll · 224 pages · 2018 · Easy
Themes: home cheese making, fresh cheese, aged cheese, mozzarella, cheddar
The book that launched the home cheese making movement in America. Ricki Carroll, known as “the Cheese Queen,” has been teaching people to make cheese since 1980, and this fourth edition distills four decades of hands-on experience into a clear, approachable guide with 100 recipes.
Why Start Here
Most cheese making books either overwhelm you with science or assume you already own specialized equipment. Home Cheese Making does neither. Carroll starts with the simplest possible cheeses, ones you can make tonight with milk from the grocery store, a pot, and a thermometer. Her 30-minute mozzarella recipe has become the gateway drug for thousands of home cheese makers, and it works on the first try.
From there, the book builds gradually. You move from fresh cheeses like ricotta and queso blanco to soft-ripened varieties like brie and camembert, then on to hard aged cheeses like cheddar, gouda, and parmesan. Each recipe follows the same clear structure: ingredients, equipment, step-by-step instructions, and troubleshooting tips. Carroll explains what is happening at each stage without burying you in microbiology.
The fourth edition adds 35 new recipes including burrata, stracchino, and Brillat-Savarin, along with color photography showing key techniques. It also includes 50 recipes for cooking with the cheese you make, which keeps the hobby feeling practical rather than abstract.
What to Expect
A 224-page paperback organized by cheese type, from the simplest fresh cheeses to the most complex aged varieties. The opening chapters cover equipment, ingredients, and basic technique. You will need to source rennet and cheese cultures, but Carroll runs New England Cheesemaking Supply Company and provides clear guidance on where to find everything. The tone is encouraging and unpretentious. This is a book that wants you to succeed on your first attempt and keeps rewarding you as your skills grow.
Alternatives
David Asher · 320 pages · 2015 · Moderate
A philosophy-driven approach to cheese making that rejects industrial shortcuts in favor of traditional methods. David Asher teaches you to cultivate your own cultures, make your own rennet, and work with raw milk to produce cheeses with genuine terroir.
Why This One
If Home Cheese Making teaches you the reliable basics, The Art of Natural Cheesemaking teaches you the why behind every step. Asher argues that commercial cultures and factory-produced rennet strip cheese of its character. Instead, he shows you how to cultivate kefir as a universal starter culture, how to prepare natural calf rennet, and how to build a simple aging cave in your basement.
The 30-plus recipes cover a wide range: fresh cheeses like paneer and chevre, brined cheeses like feta, stretched-curd cheeses like mozzarella, washed-rind varieties, alpine styles, blues, and gouda. Each recipe explains the underlying biology in accessible language. You learn not just what to do but what the bacteria and enzymes are actually doing inside the cheese.
This book is best for someone who has made a few basic cheeses and wants to go deeper. It demands more patience and sourcing effort than Carroll’s book, but it rewards you with a richer understanding of the craft.
What to Expect
A 320-page book with color photographs throughout. The opening sections on milk, cultures, and rennet are essential reading before you attempt any recipe. Asher writes with the conviction of someone who has built his entire life around traditional food production. The foreword is by Sandor Ellix Katz, author of The Art of Fermentation, which signals the book’s place in the broader world of traditional food crafts. Expect to invest more time and thought per cheese, but also expect more distinctive results.
Elena R. Santogade · 208 pages · 2017 · Easy
A focused, no-fuss introduction to home cheese making written by a Certified Cheese Professional. Elena Santogade strips the craft down to its essentials and walks you through each step with the clarity of someone who remembers exactly what confused her as a beginner.
Why This One
This book works well as a companion to or substitute for Home Cheese Making if you want something more concise and modern. Santogade organized the recipes by difficulty in a deliberate learning sequence: you start with the simplest acid-set cheeses, move to cultured varieties, then progress to pressed and aged types. Each chapter builds on skills from the previous one.
The equipment lists are practical and budget-conscious. Santogade does not assume you will buy specialized cheese making gear right away. She shows you how to get started with tools you likely already own, then explains what to upgrade as your interest grows.
At 208 pages, the book covers less ground than Carroll’s classic but does so with a tighter focus on the learning path. If you want a structured curriculum rather than a reference encyclopedia, this is the better choice.
What to Expect
A 208-page paperback with a clean, modern layout. The recipes include tasting notes and pairing suggestions that connect the cheese you make to the cheese you eat. Santogade’s background as a cheese professional shows in the way she describes textures, flavors, and what to look for at each stage of the process.