Confident Cheesemaking

Absolutely LOADED with the best information. Easy to read and understand... Lovely cheeses... Even the experts go to her for inspiration! Amazing content.

This book has improved my cheesemaking and helped me organise my process. There is a tremendous amount of knowledge transfer as you learn about the cheesemaking process and the various components that create the different flavors. The book showed me mistakes I had made in the past with cleanliness or timing of ingredient additions.When you get to the cheesemaking recipes, the book really shines. Cheesemaking is a process that takes time and the book gives good estimates of time requirements for all the steps involved. The equipment required for each recipe helps make sure you can finish your process successfully. And the results are good cheese you can be proud of.You can tell how much Lisa loves the cheeses she makes by the precision she uses to describe them. I learned a lot about how some of the cheese names are regionally specific based on PDO registration.Overall a great book for a beginner or intermediate cheese maker that wants to take there cheese to the next level.

I watched Lisa's youtube videos on cheesemaking and her calm speech takes the fear out and makes it a reachable goal to venture into cheesemaking.This book is an adjunct to those recipes including cheddar and gouda. Its simple and easy. Some books are overly technical for the homemaker and others give recipes with no further explanation.For the process step by step on video just see her channel cheese52. Its better than pictures its the whole process with good video and audio. The book explains milk cultures etc.Cheesemaking is basics and technique. Like an artist no 2 people produce the same cheese from same recipe but once you get the basics then experiment with cultures, affinage and more complex cheeses. Goat milk alone has tons besidesChevre. We are limited to the milk we have access to and this book considers these issues with solutions. There is a lot of education and tips for beginners. Advanced cheesemakers will find other books more useful. Im glad i got the book and i made a gouda over 20 years ago successfully and now im starting again and glad to refresh my cheesemaking skills. I do own 5 or 6 advanced and intermediate and Ricki Carrols cheese making bookThat other book but I like the easy fast and smaller quantities of milk recipes. Thanx for writting the book.

Like Lisa's other fans, as an aspiring cheesemaker I love watching her videos. She includes a LOT of really helpful, detailed information not contained in other cheesemaking books. Her recipes are pretty much the basics, with a few I hadn't heard of before thrown in. I am a bit disappointed that she did not include an index, which I would have found incredibly helpful in ferreting out the information I need rather than taking a lot of unnecessary time flipping through the book to see if I could find something I had read earlier that I NEED NOW in making cheese out of whatever milk is on the stove waiting for me to get back to it. Similarly, there is no listing of the cheese recipes, so again you have to flip through the book in order to find whatever one caught your eye earlier.That being said, I love how Lisa has listed approximate times in various steps so that you can plan your day without suddenly realizing you didn't schedule enough time for the cheesemaking and have to leave in the middle of the next step. Also, many cheesemaking books have recipes using only 2 gallons of milk, which is not a good use of the time it takes in any one day to make a cheese and which in the end is on the small size, versus recipes using huge amounts of milk requiring large pots and at least 2 people available to dump the curds and whey when it's time to mold the cheese. Lisa's recipes are for 3 gallons of milk, which fit easily into a 4-5 gallon container and require only 1 person when it comes to pouring time, fantastic if you live alone. Both of these features are unique to her book and make it an excellent resource for the fledgeling cheesemaker.

Starting out as a cheesemaker is something that can be quite daunting. There is a lot to know and if you start searching you will find conflicting and confusing advice everywhere. I am sure this can put people off from even having a go at this wonderful hobby.I have followed Lisa for years on her You Tube channel Cheese52 and have made plenty of her cheeses successfully. Her videos are sprinkled with gems of great advice and tips, so I was excited when I found out she had written a book. Now it’s much easier to access her great material and I don’t have to try and search through videos to revisit something I need to see again.Confident Cheesemaking is generous in its knowledge. Its gentle, but informative tone really does invoke confidence, and I like that I hear Lisa’s voice as I read.What I like maybe the most is that Lisa doesn’t try to force her likes or dislikes on you, she remains factual and respectful and allows the reader their own preferences. The book is well researched, and references are cited. The information presented is easy to understand.This is already my favourite cheesemaking book in my library (I have quite a few!), and the one I would recommend to new and not so new cheesemakers. I have learned so much already and know there is much still to learn in it.