Natural Small Batch Cheesemaking

Anyone can make cheese…

Making home dairy products was an essential skill in the past, and a skill that continues to create resilience, reduce food costs, and provide healthy food in the face of supply disruptions and uncertainty.

Wherever you are, you can make delicious cheeses in your home kitchen, starting with just one litre (one quart) of milk, and less time than you may think, with recipes and techniques that can be scaled up or down. Natural Small Batch Cheesemaking is perfect for homesteaders, farmers, and anyone who appreciates good cheese.

Topics covered include:

-Milk: Working with different types of milk and seasonal conditions, best practises for storing and handling milk.

-Rennet: Homemade rennet recipes, plus how to source and work with high quality purchased rennet.

-Homemade cheese cultures.

-Budget-friendly cheesemaking equipment: Getting started with gear you already have, making your own equipment, pressing cheese without a cheese press, and how to achieve great results at home.

-Cheesemaking in detail: All the steps of cheesemaking explained, both the “why” and the “how”, learn to change recipes around to suit your lifestyle and tastes and make your own unique cheeses.

-Aging cheeses – how to age cheeses at home, on or off the grid.

-How to use leftover whey.

-Easy-to-follow recipes for small batch cheeses, plus other dairy products including yoghurt, kefir, sour cream, butter, and ice cream.

-Troubleshooting: What to do when things don’t go according to plan.

-Cheesemaking for survival and self-reliance: Techniques for making dairy self-sufficiency more flexible, adaptable, affordable, and achievable, from a successful off-grid cheesemaker.

“For those who have wanted to make cheese at home but didn’t know where to start, this book is for you. From rennet to cultures to equipment, Kate Downham supplies you with everything you need to know to make outstanding natural cheese!”

Sally Fallon Morell, president, The Weston A. Price Foundation and cheesemaker, P A Bowen Farmstead

“This is precisely the cheesemaking book I wish had existed when I started my cheesemaking journey years ago. Most books just give you a quick list of steps, with no real instruction, and it always leaves you wondering, why? Kate starts with the “whys” of cheesemaking, explaining each step and its purpose right from the start, giving you a solid cheesemaking foundation before diving into recipes.”

Ashley Adamant, Practical Self Reliance