Now’s the perfect time to curl up with a good book and read about cheese, especially on one of those dreary days full of April showers.
1. Hangover Helper
With this expertly-researched collection of recipes, Lauren Shockey will have you planning your next night out around the next day’s meal. Hangover Helper (Hardie Grant, 2019; $20) details the precise causes, preventative measures, and treatments for hangovers before diving into mouth-watering DIY remedies from around the world, labeled according to post-partying difficulty. Brace yourself: nearly everything is carb-y, fried, and smothered in cheese.
2. Cheese Beer Wine Cider
Cheese Beer Wine Cider (Countryman Press, 2019; $25) is the ultimate guidebook for the truly pairing-obsessed. Authors and cheese geeks Steve Jones and Adam Lindsley break down the basic elements of pairing cheese with fermented alcohols painting a vivid picture of what to expect from the colliding textures, tastes, and smells of each suggested partnership.Enhanced by David L. Reamer’s moody photography, this book will send you sprinting to your local cheese shop to test their assertions.
3. The Truffle Underground: A Tale Of Mystery, Mayhem, and Manipulation in the Shadowy Market of the World’s Most Expensive Fungus
Whether shaved over handmade tagliatelle or encased in a double cream brie, the truffle’s luxurious legacy and mountain forest flavor profile masks an underworld of deceit, theft, and sometimes deadly crime. Following up on his 2014 exposé in The Atlantic, Ryan Jacobs’ true-crime tale The Truffle Underground (Clarkson Potter, 2019; $12) digs into the prized fungus’ supply chain, from foragers in France and Italy, to fraudulent middlemen, to five-star restaurants around the globe.
4. Homemade Yogurt and Kefir: 71 Recipes for Making & Using Probiotic-Rich Ferments
Sporting products like Icelandic skyr and“almond gurt,” the modern-day dairy aisle is more inclusive than ever. In Homemade Yogurt & Kefir (Storey Publishing, 2020; $20), dairy expert Gianaclis Caldwell embraces this reality, outlining the basics of traditional cow’s, goat’s, and sheep’s milk yogurt- and kefir-making alongside dairy-free alternatives. Experts and amateurs alike will delight in her accompanying recipes for cultured butters, gazpachos, and creamy cocktails.
