six impossible things before breakfast 133ter buffalo and dreams of a great mozzarella. (Their names are Betsy and
Beau; she passed around photos.) Maybe we were all a little nuts, but be-
ing there made us feel like pilgrims of a secret order. We had turned our
backs on our nation’s golden calf of cellophane- wrapped Cheese Product
Singles. Our common wish was to understand a food we cared about, and
take back one more measure of control over our own care and feeding.
We examined the stainless steel bowls, thermometers, and culture
packets assembled before us while Ricki began to talk us into her world.
Cheese is a simple idea: a way to store milk, which goes bad quickly with-
out refrigeration but keeps indefinitely—improves, even—in the form
of cheese. From humble beginnings it has become a global fascination.
“Artisanal cheesemakers combine science and art. All over the world,
without scientific instruments, people make cheeses the way their grand-
parents did.” In the Republic of Georgia, she told us, she watched cheese-
makers stir their curd with a twig and then swaddle the warm pot (in lieu
of monitoring it with a thermometer) in a kitty- print sweater, a baby blan-
ket, and a cape.
Forging ahead, Ricki announced we were making queso blanco, whole
milk ricotta, mascarpone, mozzarella, and farmhouse cheddar. Yes, us,
right here, today. We looked on in utter doubt as she led us into our fi rst
cheese, explaining that we’d make all this with ordinary milk from the
grocery. Raw milk from a farm is wonderful to work with, unhomogenized
is great, but any milk will do, so long as it’s not labeled “ultra- pasteurized.”
Ultra-high-temperature pasteurization, Ricki explained, denatures pro-
teins and destroys the curd. The sole purpose of UHP is to ship milk over
long distances; after this process it can sit for many weeks without any
change in its chemistry.
Because its chemistry is already so altered, though, UHP milk will not
make cheese, period. This discussion confirmed what I’d learned the hard
way at home in my earliest efforts. Before I knew to look for the term
“UHP” and avoid it, I’d used some to create a messy mozzarella failure.
The curd won’t firm up, it just turns into glop.
“Ask your grocer where your milk comes from,” Ricki instructed us;
the closer to home your source, the better. Reading labels in your dairy
case may lead you to discover a dairy that isn’t too far away, and hasn’t