Whether you’re dying to try cheesemaking, curious about preserved meat history, or simply looking for more cheeses to savor, check out these new releases:
The Beginner’s Guide to Cheesemaking: Easy Lessons and Recipes to Make Your Own Handcrafted Cheeses
A decade ago, author Elena Santogade was making aged wheels in her Brooklyn kitchen. Today she’s a Certified Cheese Professional (CCP) and a sales manager for Vermont’s Grafton Village Cheese Company. This guide (Rockridge Press, March 2017, $16) captures the lessons she’s learned over the years. With detailed tutorials, Q&As with pro cheesemakers, trouble-shooting advice, and more than a hint of evangelism, Santogade demystifies the cheesemaking process and inspires the curd-curious to hit the vat. You’ll be ordering rennet and citric acid in no time.
Salted and Cured: Savoring the Culture, Heritage, and Flavor of America’s Preserved Meats
Interested in the lore surrounding your lunchtime salami? Pick up this condensed history of cured meats (Chelsea Green Publishing, April 2017, $27). Author Jeffrey P. Roberts shares stories behind some of the best charcuterie producers in America, from traditional Cajun boucheries turning out hot boudin to old-school salumerias dotting New York City and New England. Through these tales, Roberts illustrates that while cured meats may seem ubertrendy among chefs, DIYers, and the dining public these days, the good stuff has long been available in this country—and we can thank our great-grandparents for that.
The Book of Cheese: The Essential Guide to Discovering Cheeses You’ll Love
Liz Thorpe, who worked at Murray’s Cheese for 10 years before starting a consulting business, authored this tome (Flatiron Books, September 2017, $40) to help folks dive deeper into the wide world of wheels and wedges. That might seem like a basic goal, but, as Thorpe points out, most guides organize cheese in a way that overlooks personal preference and assumes more expertise than many readers have. Her organizing principle is friendly and clever: Each section opens with what she calls a “gateway cheese,” a familiar type (mozzarella or Havarti, for example) followed by similar specimens, arranged by flavor intensity. Packed with helpful explainers and anecdotes from her career, her third book is sure to excite turophiles and newbies alike.
culture: the word on cheese
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