Milk Into Cheese: The Foundations of Natural Cheesemaking Using Traditional Concepts, Tools, and Techniques

Longlisted for the André Simon Award for Food Books for 2024

“Essential reading for anyone wanting to learn all they can about the ways in which humans, and our domesticates, share this world with microbes.”—David Zilber, chef and food scientist; coauthor of The Noma Guide to Fermentation

With recipes for over 80 natural cheeses and complimentary ferments, this groundbreaking, comprehensive book guarantees high-quality results and perfect flavors for every season.

Cheese is milk’s destiny. In Milk Into Cheese, cheesemakers at every scale will learn to produce a broad range of traditional cheeses, entirely naturally. Experienced educator, activist, and celebrated natural cheesemaker David Asher introduces the reader to the cultures and practices of cheesemakers, the role our agricultural practices play in making cheese, the biological evolution of cheese, and the transformation of milk into cheese through fermentation.

A perfect companion to David’s The Art of Natural Cheesemaking, Milk Into Cheese expands the cheesemaker’s tool kit through an exploration of cheesemaking styles from around the world. These natural cheesemaking processes are made simple, in contrast to the complicated, controversial, and confusing world of industrial cheesemaking, with its reliance on freeze-dried cultures, chemical additives, and ever-expanding use of expensive technology.

Milk Into Cheese also celebrates the world’s most delicious seasonal hand-made cheeses, including alpine, blue, and milled cheeses. Through gorgeous photography and detailed recipes, David prepares the reader for their own journey into traditional natural cheesemaking. He also shares simple recipes for fermented foods that complement and help us understand cheesemaking better, including pickles, sourdough bread, butter, and salami.

For home, small-scale, and larger-scale cheesemakers, Milk Into Cheese delivers a sophisticated look at the biological science that informs—and the ecological principles that guide—natural cheesemaking.

“An inspired how-to guide for the greatest of culinary transformations.”—Dan Barber, chef, Blue Hill

“In detail and with great passion [Asher explains] the hows and whys of making cheese in traditional and simple ways, based on extensive and broad experience with the incredibly varied ways in which people have, do, and can work with milk.”—Sandor Ellix Katz, fermentation revivalist; author of The Art of Fermentation and other fermentation bestsellers