Art of Cheese

 

The Art of Natural Cheesemaking is valuable resource for homesteaders and urban cheese artisans alike. David Asher, a farmstead cheesemaker, organic farmer, and goatherd, shares his best methods and practices for making  traditionally-cultured farmstead dairy products.

Each of the book’s fourteen chapters examines a particular class of cheese, from kefir and paneer to washed-rind and alpine styles, providing helpful tips and tricks for proper crafting, handling, and storage. The book also offers a valuable overview of milk’s “leap toward immortality” via human history, from the dawn of dairy culture to the golden age of artisanal cheese we enjoy today.

Finally, Asher argues quite cogently for the use of ethical animal rennet in cheesemaking, and against the growing use of laboratory-grown freeze-dried cultures in dairy production. As both a general reference and a source for reliable recipes, The Art of Natural Cheesemaking provides excellent reading for all serious students of the art and history of cheesecraft.