Stirring the vat at a cheese class at Three Shepherds in Warren, Vermont
I am located in Edwardsville, Illinois, which is a college town located about 15 miles from St. Louis, Missouri.
I became interested in making cheese on a farm-to-table themed visit to Vermont in 2015. Part of the program was a mozzarella making session at a kitchen store in Burlington, VT. I was instantly hooked.
When I came home I tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to make a decent mozzarella. I then cast about for somewhere to take a cheese making class and happened upon one in St. Louis given by Merryl Winstein.
Merryl with Ricki Carroll (The Cheese Queen) at Ricki’s home in Ashfield in 2011 – click here
After that class and after watching a lot videos and buying lots of books I launched myself into trying to make all sorts of different cheeses in rapid succession. I didn’t have to throw anything out, but the results were hard to assess except for the fact that my friends seemed to like them.
Vat set-up at home
Cheese press
How to keep the heat up using a mylar emergency blanket (REI for $5)
Merryl Winstein is the one who really opened the door for me to making decent, maybe even good, cheese. First, I attended her classes in St. Louis, but more importantly, her book, Successful Cheesemaking, published in 2017, is the go-to work for the home cheesemaker.
It is a step by step guide which explains the process but does not over-explain. Believe me I have every major cheese making book on the market, and hers is the best of the lot. I owe her a great debt for her help, as do most of her students.
In 2016, I went on a kind of foodie tour with my sister and brother-in-law to northern Italy where we visited all family owned, food-related businesses, including wineries, a balsamic vinegar making operation in Modena, tortellini making in another small town, and cheese making in Roncà. I think we were there about 8 days all together. I have some good photos of the cheesemaking because we were actually inside the make room:
In Roncà, Italy at La Casara Roncolato, a family owned and operated cheese factory
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In 2017, I took both a beginning class and advanced class from Larry and Linda Faillace at Three Shepherds in Warren, VT.
Larry and Linda Faillace
Then, last fall and winter I took a stab at making cheeses which needed aging or could be aged. I made Tomme, and an Alpine style cheese and a cloth bound cheddar, each of which is are now about 10-11 months old.
Test slice out of my naturally aged Tomme
I took along samples of the Alpine and the aged Tomme for Linda and Larry to assess when I visited them on October 9, 2019. I had contacted them about stopping by because I was traveling around New England with a British friend. They invited us to lunch. They had lived in England for a few years, so we had a nice chat and a cheese tasting lunch. Linda has an amazing palate, so I really appreciated her feedback on my cheeses.
I am at left, Linda is in the center and Juan, a cheese class student is on the right. My friend, Vivien Rolf has her back to the camera.
Because I was traveling from October 8th to November 9th this year, I have not been making any cheeses. Sometimes you can get someone to water your houseplants once a week, but no one wants to turn your cheeses and air them out on a daily basis. Also, the milk I use dries up more or less during the winter months. If it is available, it is not as good when the cows are eating hay, which they do until late spring. Over the winter months, I like to play around with making sourdough breads.
Since I don’t have time to age any cheeses for the next six months, I will be making feta and Camembert and a simple yogurt cheese called Shanklish from David Asher’s book, The Art of Natural Cheesemaking. I generally use the Camembert for Christmas gifts and to take to parties.
The feta I store in brine and just use as needed. I love that it keeps just about forever.
Finished feta stored in brine
Strangely, even though I set off to learn how to make mozzarella, I have never gone back to it.
My goals are modest. I want to get more proficient at cheese making and do some cheese-related travel.
As to advice for beginning cheesemakers, I would say that both watching videos such as those produced by Gavin Webber and Promiseland Farm, and taking a cheesemaking class are the best ways to introduce yourself to the process.
There are many, many books out there, but again I would recommend Merryl Winstein’s two-volume, Successful Cheesemaking, as the one to get, though it is pricey. However, I have spent a lot of money on books that, while interesting and somewhat helpful, didn’t really nail down the process and the why’s and wherefore’s behind the process.
