Cheesy Reads

Now that the season has turned to fall and colder weather is the norm, many people are thinking about comfort foods.  What is more comforting than cheese?  Whether you eat cheese right off the block, cook with it or make your own, cheese can delight in many ways.

            Alison Lewis has challenged cooks to look at the grilled cheese sandwich in a whole new light.  150

Best Grilled Cheese Sandwiches captures the popularity and trendiness of grilled cheese.  The sandwiches in this book can be served for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack or dessert.  They feature a variety of ingredients including fruits, vegetables, beef, poultry, pork, fish and seafood.

            Hot and Cheesy by Clifford A. Wright features more than 250 recipes using cheese that have collected from around the world.  The easy to follow recipes include fritters, pastries, casseroles, pastas, sandwiches, pizzas, breads and almost anything else that can be topped with cheese.  Historical and cultural notes add to the interest of this handy cookbook.

            Maître Fromager Max McCalman is America’s first restaurant-based Maître Fromager and an advocate for artisanal cheese production around the world.  Mastering Cheese was written as a guide for cheese lovers who would like to elevate their knowledge of cheese to connoisseurship.  McCalman has developed a compelling set of classes for understanding and experiencing cheese.  Every nuance of cheese is covered in this comprehensive tutorial.

            McCalman and David Gibbons have also partnered to produce Cheese, a Connoisseur’s Guide

to the World’s Best.  This guidebook offers descriptions and background on the great cheeses of the world.  200 of the world’s best cheeses are profiled in this illustrated guide.  Some of the cheeses are well known, while others are unfamiliar outside of their region.  Nevertheless, this guide gives the reader an excellent starting place to develop a cheese bucket list.

            Eating local has become the goal of many amateur and professional cooks.  What is more “local” that creating your own dairy and cheese products.  The PWPL has a number of books to help the home cook create some tasty dairy products.

            The Home Creamery by Kathy Farrell-Kingsley is an easy-to-follow step-by-step guide for making fresh dairy products including butter, yogurt, sour cream, crème fraiche, cream cheese, ricotta and more.    The author also includes a number of recipes for muffins, snacks, soup, pasta and desserts that can be made with the resulting dairy products.

            Ricki Carroll is the founder of the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company based in Massachusetts.  Her book Home Cheesemaking is considered the home cheesemaker’s bible.  The third edition of this book includes recipes for 75 homemade cheeses as well as a collection of recipes using a variety of cheese.

            Practical Cheesemaking by Kathy Bliss contains many photos and diagrams related to cheese production.  Those with a scientific bent would enjoy her technically sophisticated book.  Bliss and her husband have a small dairy in the West Highlands of Scotland where they manufacture a wide range of cheese, yoghurt and ice cream.  The book is directed toward those interested in commercial production rather than making cheese as a hobby.

            Home Dairy with Ashley English is a great starting point for anyone interested in making cheese, yogurt, butter, ice cream and body care products from milk.  English shares the knowledge she has collected during her own dairy-making journey.   Over 40 kitchen- tested dairy recipes and plans for a homemade cheese press are included in this helpful book.

            Love, betrayal and revenge are not generally the first words most people would associate with The Telling Room by Michael Paterniti is a true tale of the world’s greatest piece of cheese and the horrible blood feud that it started.  Equal parts mystery and memoir, travelogue and history this book is a compelling work of literary non-fiction.

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            Maggie Foard’s Goat Cheese combines the foods we all crave with the natural goodness of goat’s milk cheese.  Cheese made from goat’s milk is gaining in popularity because of their unique flavors and health benefits.  Beautiful photographs and over 60 farm-fresh recipes make this a wonderful primer on everything goat’s milk cheese has to offer.

            If you would like to explore the many facets of cheese this fall, the PWPL offers a variety of books that will help you learn all about cheese.

By Pam Christensen

Library Director