John Davis

John's Schiz with wasabi and soy sauce

John Davis was born in England and moved to Japan in 1976. He has lived in Okinawa for the last 7 years, teaching primarily English.

Japanese cuisine does not, traditionally, include much cheese, so John has been making his own (including a fabulous brie with tumeric he calls "Uchinbrie").

He believes Japan is ready to embrace artisan cheeses, so he is starting his own website soon. It will be similar to ours (we're flattered, of course), but it will be in Japanese and English. It will include recipes, tips and information about finding good milks.

John told us that he owes his start to our book, Home Cheese Making. We have heard this from folks all over the world and we are honored.

Tip from John:

A few months ago, you put out a recipe for Schiz. I tried it and found it rather bland. Fried didn't move me either. I followed the recipe closely and it was very simple, so the only thing I could think of was that the milk is just too different.

So, because it looked and tasted like tofu, I put a spot of wasabi on it and a splash of soy sauce. (hint - if you can get some sake, add a touch of sake to the soy sauce. You don't have to drown it, but a little gives it a nice lift.)

Hunter Benedict (12)

Just wanted to take a moment to say kudos for what you do.

I learned to make cheese mainly from your website, then taught my 12 year old nephew. (His name is Hunter Benedict. He is 12 years old and he is in 4-H.)

He used your Gouda recipe to make a cheese that we cut into 2 rounds.

The first he entered at the county fair and won Grand Champion for his age group.

That earned him the right to send the other round to the state fair, where he won Overall Grand Champion in the food category (across all ages). Wow!

Attached is a picture of him with his state rosette, wearing a "cheesy" grin.

Lauri Onkka, Sheridan, Wyoming

Robin McPeek

Robin's whey drink

I have been making cheese from Ricki's book and reading the newsletter for several years now. I have access to good raw milk in Colorado where I live, so I feel fortunate.

What has prompted me to contact you now is a response to the short remarks from a woman on how she uses whey (from the August Moosletter). Those are very common uses.

When I make cheese, I consider the whey to be one of the greatest benefits of the process. Sometimes I make cheese just to have the whey. Here are some of the ways I use it (besides the uses mentioned by the woman in Delaware):

1) Protein shakes. Most of my whey gets used in this way. It never makes it as an additive to other things because I drink it so fast in very healthy shakes.

2) Fermentation facilitator. I love using this method also. I will take my favorite mix of grains, seeds and nuts, put them into a single serving cup or container, and add enough whey to cover. Then I leave it out on the counter overnight to let it ferment.

In the morning I take it to work and put it in the fridge there. When it's time to eat it, I add a little honey or banana or blueberries or peaches or.... you get the idea. It is WONDERFUL!

It has a slight tang like yogurt. Speaking about fermentation, I always put a little in whatever I'm fermenting- cabbage, carrots etc.

I also have recipes for various fermented drinks (ginger ale, beet kvas, grape cooler etc.) that I add it to. It gives an almost buttery aftertaste to the beverages I add it to. YUM!

3) On the counter, I keep a glass, one gallon jar filled with various grains in a constant state of fermentation, for the chickens. (I have 7.) (I love my chickens.) I started it with half whey and half water to cover the grains. They get regular grains in the morning, and this mixture in the afternoon. The amount of gusto with which they go after the fermented mixture is amazing to watch. You would think I hadn't fed them in weeks! When I take a cup out, I replace it with a cup of fresh grains to keep the process going, and then just make sure the mixture is completely covered, adding more water or whey as needed.

4) Sometimes, if there is anything left over, the dog even gets his food moistened with whey. He likes it too.

Robin McPeek, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Larry's first curds

Hi! I'm a Chef in Minneapolis and I just stumbled across your website yesterday and today I made my first cheese curds!

Thanks for the detail and pictures in your recipe. The cheese turned out pretty chewy the first time so I have a second batch going!

Larry Jones, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Our mission at NECS has always been to make it fun and easy for you to make your own homemade cheese. That's why, many years ago, Ricki came up with a way to make the soft cheese starter packets absolutely foolproof; she added a teeny bit of rennet to them.

This accomplished two things: 1) you could make these cheeses with a gallon of milk or less (because otherwise, the amount of rennet would have to be so miniscule that nobody could measure it), and 2) you wouldn't be able to make any mistakes ever when you made these fabulous cheeses.

We sell quite a lot of these soft cheese cultures with the rennet already included, so it can be difficult to choose one. You want to try at least three to see the difference. Hence, our new soft cheese sample pack: three different packs (with 5 packets each) sold together at a discount - a simple idea for three very simple cheeses to make.