The Home Creamery [Paperback]

Kathy Farrell-Kingsley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 18, 2008

Butter, yogurt, ricotta, and other fresh dairy products have been made in home kitchens around the world for centuries. They are not difficult to make, require no complicated aging techniques, and offer the home cook a wonderful range of tart, sweet, nutty, silky, creamy, melty textures and flavors. With the growing availability of local, organic milk and the soaring popularity of raw milk, now is the perfect time to bring fresh dairy products back to the home kitchen.

Author Kathy Farrell-Kingsley begins with simple, step-by-step instructions for making sour cream, buttermilk, créme fraîche, mozzarella, fresh goat cheese, and 10 other fresh milk products. Home cooks will be thrilled with the simple but magical process of turning milk or cream into cultured dairy products and soft, unripened cheeses. There's nothing quite like watching cream turn into butter or tasting the slightly chewy tang of homemade mozzarella.

Following the dairy instructions are 75 delicious cooking and baking recipes developed to showcase products from The Home Creamery. Cheese Blintzes, Herbed Goat Cheese Bites, Mozzarella Panini, Spinach Ricotta Pie, Coleslaw with Buttermilk Dressing, Chocolate Sour Cream Cake, and Tiramisu are that much sweeter when made with the rich creamy goodness of homemade dairy items.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Farrell-Kingsley's thorough but unintimidating recipe instructions will enable any reader to make a variety of dairy products, and many home cooks will be eager to try them.”

Library Journal

 

“You won't churn out any award-winning artisanal brie, but you could make a darn fine mozzarella. Kathy Farrell-Kingsley is ready to walk you through the latter (as well as a variety of other easy soft cheese and dairy products) in her recent book, "The Home Creamery." This isn't the book for serious cheesemakers (as in, those who hope to ditch the corporate life for a dairy farm in Vermont), but rather those who enjoy playing in the kitchen or want bragging rights at their next dinner party. The recipes are simple, easy to follow and would be great projects to do with the kids. Cheeses include cream cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta, goat cheese, mozzarella and marscapone. The book also includes recipes for using the cheeses. Farrell-Kingsley also explains how to make yogurt, kefir, butter, creme fraiche and sour cream.”

Associated Press

“Imagine crème fraiche that’s really fresh.  If you’re up for a really fringy pursuit, you can learn to make your own dairy products – butter, yogurt, sour cream, cheeses – from Kathy Ferrell-Kingsley’s new book, The Home Creamery. With this guide, you’re biggest challenge might be finding a source for milk-curdling rennet.”

The Newark Star-Ledger

 

About the Author

Kathy Farrell-Kingsley is the author of many cookbooks, including Chocolate Therapy, The Big Book of Vegetarian, and Chocolate Cakes, selected as one of the best cookbooks of 1993 by Julia Child. Kathy was the food editor of Vegetarian Times for five years, and she has written numerous articles for other publications, such as Cooking Light, Eating Well, and McCall's. She was the founder of Great Cakes Bakery, which still operates in Westport, Connecticut. Kathy lives in Newtown, Connecticut, with her husband and two daughters.

Product Details

• Paperback: 214 pages
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC (June 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1603420312
• ISBN-13: 978-1603420310
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #116,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #46 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Cooking by Ingredient > Cheese & Dairy

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good primer, but not a great resource, February 3, 2009

By 

Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Home Creamery (Paperback)

If you've never tried making butter, yogurt, etc. and you just want to learn how to make a reasonable quart of yogurt or marscapone (as opposed to trying to be a diary expert), this is a good and useful book. The instructions are clear and concise, and it doesn't bog you down with too much technical data. After all, showing the kids how to make butter shouldn't require a master's level course in chemistry. If you have illusions about becoming some kind of master craftsman with your homemade ricotta, this book probably will disappoint.

Two things potential buyers should be aware of:
1. About 2/3 of the book is recipes for using basic dairy items. Maybe that's helpful to some, but wouldn't someone wanting to make their own cottage cheese already know what to do with it? The recipes are fairly run-of-the-mill. I didn't see any that I didn't already have in another source.

2. While the font size is large, the font style (the actual lines) is very thin, and the text is in a medium-brown ink against a off-white page. In other words, there is little contrast and it makes for poor legibililty unless you have extremely good vision (which I don't). Even my eagle-eyed spouse found the font color/type annoying and difficult. In addition, the binding doesn't allow th book to lay the book flat unless you break the spine. To publishing houses: How-to and cookbooks should be functional first and foremost. Attractive is nice, but the user shouldn't have to fight to read the font or keep the book open so s/he can work from it.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars leaves much to be desired, April 2, 2009

By 

J. Carlile (Hannover, Germany) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Home Creamery (Paperback)

I have a lot of cookbooks, and besides making recipes from them, I simply enjoy reading them, getting the author's perspective etc. I bought this book hoping for an in depth introduction to making cheeses at home, plus some tips and tricks from someone who knows what they are doing. And well, this book is just boring. It certainly has easy to follow recipes for the basics -- yogurt, ricotta, butter, farmer's cheese -- but doesn't go beyond this. And the writing is sterile and without character.

Basically, my takeaway message is there is nothing in this cookbook (recipes, directions, witty writing even) that I couldn't easily find elsewhere, and is a boring read. Don't waste your money.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good place to start, October 14, 2009

By 

Elaina M. Hancock (Willimantic CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Home Creamery (Paperback)

This is a good beginners book for soft cheese making. There are lots of easy-to-follow recipes for everything from butter to creme fraiche to mozzarella, just about any soft cheese you can imagine. Another nice quality this book has is that there are usually a few variations for a particular recipe, which comes in handy if you are short on a particular ingredient. I've made several recipes from this book with both cow's milk as well as goat's milk that have all come out well. Some of the recipes are a little confusing and leave a little room for guessing. As with anything, the first time trying a new recipe may be a little awkward, but you'll soon get the hang of it. I would definitely recommend this book to new cheese makers.