The Fine Art of Family Magazine

In the book Mastering Cheese: Lessons for Connoisseurship from a Maitre Fromager, the James Beard Award-winning author Max McCalman breaks down everything you need to know about the sensational stuff—from understanding its history and benefits to identifying various types and pairing them with the best wines and beers.

In this excerpt, learn how McCalman’s passion began and how to make homemade curd with only two ingredients tonight.

One of my earliest childhood memories is of sitting at my mother’s kitchen counter one day when I had a cold. A piece of cheese beckoned. Yet Mom told me not to touch it, no doubt because she thought I might transmit my germs to it. This was pretty much what we were tall taught in the United States during the cold war—that we should be afraid of all bacteria. Hovering near the top of the list of foods to be avoided was cheese.

Quite probably the cheese I was told not to touch represented precisely the nourishment that would have benefited me the most when I was under the weather. As is so often the case, the foods we like are ultimately the ones that are best for us. Much later, it was one of the questions I was most frequently asked: Is cheese really good for you? Early on, I asked myself the same question and the answer was yes—contrary to what I was told growing up in the 1950s and ’60s and to the public consciousness of emerging “health concerns” in the ’70s and ’80s.

After that early incident in the kitchen, I don’t remember seeing any cheese on my family’s table for the rest of my formative years. You might say I was essentially drawn to cheese because I was denied it when I was young. Having been cheese starved early in life, I’ve been trying to get my hands on it ever since—for nutrition and also for enjoyment and pleasure.

Cheese has become my life mission, a passionate pursuit, and a professional calling card far beyond any dreams or expectations. One of my biggest goals is education—spreading the word about the curd. This book has grown organically out of my urge to teach people about cheese and get them as excited about it was I am.

A Simple Cheese You Can Make At Home

This recipe for “queso blanco” is adapted from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Co., courtesy of its founder and owner, Ricki Carroll. The company’s website (cheesemaking.com) features many home recipes as well as ingredients and supplies.

This one yields approximately 1 ½ pounds of cheese. Like Indian panir, which is essentially identical, it can be cut into 1/2-inch cubes for use in various recipes and will not melt—even if you fry it. (Always remember the better the milk, the better the cheese. So try this recipe with a good, local, organic whole milk and enjoy the cheese’s mild, sweet, taste.)

1 gallon whole milk
¼ cup vinegar (cider, grain, or herbal type)

Place the milk in a large, nonreactive pot over medium heat, stirring often to prevent scorching. When the milk reaches 195 degree F, stir the vinegar then turn off the burner and allow the hot milk to set for 5 minutes. It will quickly coagulate into curds (sold, white) and whey (clear, green liquid).

Line a colander with a fine cheese-cloth and pour the contents of the pot into the colander to drain off the whey. Gather the ends of the cloth and tie them with a string to form a bag. Hang the bag of curd over your sink to drain for 1 hour or until they reach the desired consistency.

Remove the cheese from the cloth, cover loosely in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

Reprinted from MASTERING CHEESE Copyright (c) 2009 by Max McCalman and David Gibbons. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, Inc.

Published on July 8, 2010

Tags: Celebrating, Food, Our Experts, See It Their Way