Artisan Vegan Cheese Kindle Edition

There are a few points I think it would be good for anyone considering this book to realize:-This is not a recipe book. This is a cheese-making book with some recipes for how to use the cheeses at the end. The difference? Real cheeses are cultured and take time. The same is true of real dairy cheeses, which most of us have never tried making before. Many vegan cheezy recipes in other cookbooks try to use flavorings to make them taste like regular cheeses so they are made quickly. Except for a chapter of almost-instant cheeses, don’t expect to make your favorite cheese for dinner tonight. Understanding this will set the expectations for this book.-Culturing will also lead to hits and misses as you learn how to do it. My previous experience with culturing before this was with sourdough, which has been invaluable when starting this book. The first few loaves of sourdough I made were bricks and tasted horrible. The ambient temperature, humidity, and the culture that you start with (the rejuvelac or yogurt for the cheeses) will all affect how your culturing goes. Do not tightly close the cultures. Living organisms release carbon dioxide just like we do, and your cheeses may expand in the container, and the pressure of the gas may even make the container break. If you are culturing a thick mixture and it never expands, you probably need to wait longer. I suspect some people who did not find the cheeses to be flavorful were not successful in their culturing. Live and learn.-The ingredients are important and something that I think needed to be better emphasized in this book (and is emphasized well in The Nondairy Formulary). Only use uniodized salt, as iodine can prevent culturing. Only use filtered water, the chlorine from the tap can prevent culturing. To be safe, only soak the nuts with filtered water too. Rather than buying water, I keep a pitcher of water in the fridge. If it sits for a few days, the chlorine dissipates. For the yogurt, only use soymilk or almondmilk without additives (i.e. soybeans or almonds + water, nothing else), the additives can affect how your cultures proceed. Also, you are more likely to have success with the yogurt using soymilk (versus almond milk). Don’t use nuts that have been sitting around for a long time, if they don’t taste good raw, they won’t taste good in your cheese.-If you have a nut allergy, do not buy this book. A better one for you would be the nondairy formulary. However, if you don’t have a nut allergy, I find Miyoko’s book to be superior and like that the nuts make the cheeses nutritious.-If you go into drinking soymilk thinking that it’s going to be the exact same as dairy milk, you’ll be disappointed. But if you drink it thinking that it could be its own tasty beverage, then you can like it. Same for these cheeses. They are not going to fool anyone into thinking that they are dairy cheeses (unless they are a spread or sauce that is very strongly flavored). The texture is different and in some it is possible to notice a slight nutty taste (which I like). But they are tasty in their own right and do have flavors like the flavors of the dairy cheeses.Other tips:-It is possible to reduce to the time associated with these recipes by using store-bought yogurt and rejuvelac, and nut butters (look for raw or unroasted, as the roasting will change the flavors). However, I found the yogurt and rejuvelac with quinoa to be super easy and it keeps for awhile. I love this yogurt recipe so I don’t plan on buying store bought yogurt anymore. This yogurt is also clean eating (Versus store bought vegan, which usually has additives to firm it up more). If it is not thick enough for you, strain it in cheesecloth overnight and it will be Greek style (or what Miyoko calls yogurt cheese).-It is possible to get away without a high speed blender if you have nut butters. Sprouts supermarket here carries store-made cashew butter, and Artisana brand is available at Whole Foods and on Amazon also carries it. Note that the nut butters themselves can be expensive, but it lets you get away without a blender that costs a lot more. For nut butters, replace 1 cup whole nuts with ½ cup nut butter.-Don’t feel like you have to use cashews. I think the reason cashews are the preferred nut is because they blend the easiest. I find the cashews a little too sweet for some of the milder cheeses. I love using Macadamias in the yogurt (though they are even more expensive than cashews). A cheaper alternative is almonds, though you will probably need a high speed blender for this (unless, if anyone knows of a raw almond butter-do NOT use roasted! the flavor will be different). Brazil nuts may also work. Go for milder nuts if you experiment.-I personally boil the nuts before using them in these recipes. A lot of my nuts come from bulk bins and I worry about insect larvae. I have found that boiling does not affect the recipe. Just don’t roast them. Nuts roast at a higher temperature and can alter the flavor quite a bit.-It is possible to avoid using carrageenan if you are worried about it. Miyoko explains her use of carrageenan and that it helps the cheeses melt better. I have been using agar and it works alright. 1 Tbsp carrageenan = 2 Tbsp agar powder = 6 Tbsp agar flakes. I’d recommend the powder over the flakes if you don’t blend the flakes, the flakes do not always dissolved in thick solutions.-I got this book for Christmas and so far have made rejuvelac, yogurt (twice, once with cashews and once with macadamias), cream cheese, yogurt cheese, sharp cheddar, meltable muenster, nut parmesan, and tofu ricotta. I have made cashew cream previously and it is a great base to sauces or desserts that you might otherwise use dairy cream for (but don't expect it to whip, use coconut cream for that). All have turned out well but again, don’t think it’s going to be exactly the same as their dairy counterparts. I currently have air dried parmesan in the works. I noticed that some other people have had issues with this and it does seem like the drying may be taking longer than the book suggests but I am optimistic. Tasting the mixture before it started air drying it already tasted amazing. Next up is camembert, gruyere, and provolone. Looking forward to trying all the cheeses in this book!

Love this book! I've already made the hard cheddar, mozzarella, tofu ricotta and yogurt cheese. FYI: you will need additional ingredientes like agar agar, kappa carrageenan and xantham gum; you can find all those product on amazon as well so you might as well order the lot.

This book is wonderful, but be prepared to have carrageenan powder, xanthan gum (not guar gum), tapioca flour, and agar powder on hand. These recipes are time consuming, but delicious and you may not be able to start these right away unless you have most of these products. In addition, you may wish to make homemade rejuvelac and yogurt ahead of time.Aside from this, the recipes are delicious and we have thoroughly enjoyed the ones we have tried. The sharp cheddar is very good and that is the one we started with. It takes more than the 3 to 5 minutes (at least it did for me) to cook til completion, but once it comes together, it is worth the effort. I'm determined to fix the mozzarella tonight for pizza. I'm sure it will be equally as good. If not, I'll be back to add to this review. It's a good book and a lot of work went into the creation of these wonderful recipes. Oh BTW, there are different kinds of carrageenan and you may wish to visit some of the resources that the author has listed in the back of the book. Amazon does not tell you the difference between the different varieties.

I love most of her cheese bought at health food stores. As someone who’s lactose intolerant I was happy to buy this book. I tried 3 attempts but finally made the rejuvalac. Tried the meltable cheddar, it was gross & didn’t melt. I followed the recipe to a T. Then I tried to make sharp cheddar 3 times. Again following the recipe exactly, it never set up like she says it does in the book, it was a clumpy grainy ball, taste was OK. MADE MOZZARELLA was OK, but didn’t melt too well. Wasted so much $$ & time on ingredients. I don’t get all the rave reviews, wish I could watch her make some of these cheeses to see if I did something wrong or what. Is there a vegan cheese book out there that is actually decent?

I am still working my way through this cookbook. Even though I am an experienced cook, making vegan cheese requires learning new skills and using new ingredients. After a couple of failed attempts at making Rejuvelac, I was successful, but my yogurt making still needs work. I have made five different recipes. The two cheddars I tried, Air Dried and Sharp, taste really good! The Emmanthaler is pretty good too. My " Meltable Monterey Jack" was a flop, but I think it was because I did not cook it long enough because it tasted very starchy. The process has been fun, interesting and challenging and I will continue to try more recipes. Two reasons I did not give the cookbook five stars:1. I like more pictures in my cookbooks and 2. it was not clear which carrageenan to use as there are different types. Luckily that information was online. (It's Kappa). Carrageenan).

Great book with plenty of great recipes! It’s a real shame that there are no pictures to show you how to do things and what the final product should look like at the end of the process.It might not be a problem for some, I just like cooking books with pictures!

Excellent collection of basic and medium level cheese recipes. Nothing too advanced or requiring unusual equipment. Everything can be easily done in the home kitchen. One does need a good blender though, and some sort of cheese cloth; a cheese press can be improvised.The novelty in the book is (or was in 2012) to ferment home-made vegan cheeses. This works really very well. Fermentation transforms the taste of basic raw nut cheeses. The author presents a large range of different fermented cheeses, including replacements of all the most common dairy versions. As far as I tried (some eight), all turned out very well in taste and structure, although several are not very close to their name givers. They should be given non-dairy names anyway, because they are new foods.There are a few chapters in the second half of the book that provide ideas how to use the home-made treasures in sauces, starters and accompaniments, or sweets and dessert. Many of these examples read delicious and I will certainly try the Tiramisu.Most recipes are based on rejuvelac (a sort of naturally brewed germinated grain juice that one needs to prepare before starting any further work) or vegan yogurt. Special cultures are mentioned only in the introduction, but not used; they are indeed usually quite overpriced. However, preparing jeruvelac isn't entirely straightforward, which may present a hurdle to some. The restriction also leaves out various good alternatives to base vegan cheeses on, like chao (fermented tofu, there is one similar recipe), or probiotic or special cheese cultures, including even real vegan camembert or roquefort cultures (which can be bought on the web for not too much money).Like other reviewers mentioned, the book contains only a few pictures. I like to have one per recipe, and even if it only is to attract my attention. On the other hand, for a book about cheese there is perhaps not that much of a point in showing different cheeses .. and, after all, pictures make books expensive.

Yes, it is different of course. I was expecting a different recipe for making vegan cheeses and this is the book. The big difference is the culture. The book is based on this, which make the cheese gain a consistency and flavor which reminds you of real cheese.I have made the Cashew cheese with quinoa culture and it tastes just like Ricotta cheese. It is not suppose to be what she intended with the recipe, but it works for me, because i was missing Ricotta. Just try for yourself, it is a great pile of knowledge.

I like it but have fallen at the first post as although I've followed the recipe for Rejuvelac as suggested it hasn't worked for me, Still, reluctant to blame the book for this so I'll try again, Other than it's an interesting read and I'm intrigued by the idea of creating artisan vegan cheese

Just received my book and have quickly looked through the recipes which sound delicious. I also love the fact that she lists the calories for each one, although wish the cups were also written in grams