OurColony.net

perfect for the home cheesemaker ready to try more advanced cheeses

Customer Rating:
This is an excellent book and is well suited for the beginning cheese maker who has made a few cheeses and is ready to try some more advanced cheeses. The non-recipe sections of the book offer basic cheese making advice, troubleshooting tips, and a course overview of the cheese making process (no substitute for the very basic step-by-step instructions included in most beginning cheese making kits). However, once you've learned the basic cheese making process, this book will enable you to take your cheeses to the next level. The included recipes rely on a firm foundation of the steps involved, but provide all the details necessary to make these fabulous more advanced cheeses. My only complaint is that I wish they had covered even more varieties of cheese!

Home Cheese Making.

Customer Rating:
This is a very good book for aspiring cheese makers. The basics are clearly presented along with recipies and other interesting asides.

Love it.

Customer Rating:
I really like this book, it was written for me, someone with no experience making cheese. I will be using it a lot. I have other cheese making books and they are good as well, but this one makes me feel confident I will succeed at making cheese.

Confusing and inconsistent directions

Customer Rating:
As a beginner cheese-maker, I bought this book to learn how to make cheese. Also bought Ricki's 30-min mozzarella kit. Figured I'd start with a basic mozzarella cheese, and it might be tasty with all the tomatoes in my garden. Well, things got a bit complicated.

While there was a lot of useful and interesting info in the book, the directions on how to make this 30-min mozz did not jive with her kit directions, nor did they even jive with the directions offered on her website (and there are two sets of slightly diffeent directions on the site!!). So, four sets of directions, each a little different (including target temperatures!!!), this beginner was frustrated from moment 1.

First batch failed entirely, probably due to the milk used. Bought another brand, dug around in the bin for the freshest one...this time things went better, BUT the curds did NOT form in the time she tells you....nor a half-hr later. Nearly an hour later, got soft curds and was never sure if they were "right"....they seemed too soft. Did manage to make 2 balls of cheese, but they tasted a little cooked.

I wrote to her website asking for help understanding what happened and for process clarification. No response a week later. I also wrote to this guy Steve who has his own cheese making website. He promptly answered, explaining that when he sells the Ricki kit he actually includes HIS OWN DIRECTIONS. Apparently the curd will often take up to an hour to set and tablet rennet (in the kit) can take a bit longer than liquid rennet. He offered a few other notes that very effectively explained what I was experiencing.

I am hesitant to make other cheeses from this book. I will probably compare the recipes/directions in the book vs online just for better understanding before starting the next trial. Part of me regrets this purchase because who needs to do all this homework? Ok, ok, it was just one recipe, but I bought the book thinking it would offer everything I'd need to just get started...and it failed to deliver on the first cheese!

great service!

Customer Rating:
Thank you for your quick shipment. Book is in great shape, as you stated.