Learning to Make Cheese

I spent all day Saturday at Ricki Carroll's house in Ashfield attending a beginner's cheesemaking class. If you've read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, you know who Ricki is. If you haven't, suffice it to say she's a celebrity in the artisan cheese world who has been teaching cheesemaking since the 1970s. Ricki's business has quadrupled or so since Barbara Kingsolver's book came out, so it's good thing my husband registered me for this class back before Christmas (it was a Christmas present)--they fill up quickly and there are waiting lists.

So I spent the day with about 40 other people learning the process to make many different soft cheeses (fromage blanc, queso blanco, creme fraiche, yogurt (not really a cheese, but included anyway), etc), mozzarella, ricotta, and farmhouse cheddar. I went home exhausted and with my brain feeling overstuffed, but excited to give it a try myself. I bought her mozzarella and ricotta kit, along with a gallon of raw milk from Sidehill Farm (also in Ashfield). In the class we worked with both raw milk and regular pasteurized whole milk from the grocery store (not ultra-pasteurized, though--it doesn't work for cheese).

This morning I made my first attempt at mozzarella, and although it was not quite as exquisite as the example made in class, it wasn't half bad. I'm looking forward to experimenting with other cultures and cheeses and working on the mozzarella some more. I should note that the techniques for the mozzarella, ricotta, and soft cheeses are all quite simple and you end up with the final product in anywhere from 30 minutes for the mozzarella to 18 hours or so for something like fromage blanc.

Making your own cheese from local milk is about as local as you can get your food to be, unless you own and milk the cow (or goat) yourself. But of course, here in the Pioneer Valley, it's entirely unnecessary unless you want to do it for the fun and the challenge, like me. After all, we have several excellent local dairies making truly wonderful cheese, and certainly much more interesting and sophisticated cheese than I am ever going to produce at home. But if you're interested in learning more about the cheesemaking classes, or ordering Ricki's book or other cheesemaking supplies, check out her website: www.cheesemaking.com.