The New American Cheese

by Laura Werlin, Martin Jacobs (Photographer), Steven Jenkins (Contributor)

A look at the art and craft of cheese-making.

Genres: Cookbooks

280 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2000

About the author

Laura Werlin is a highly respected authority on cheese. As the author of four books on the subject, each of which have been honored with an award, including a James Beard, IACP, and the World Gourmand Award for Best Cheese Book for her classic, Great Grilled Cheese, Werlin is frequently invited to lead professionaland consumer-level seminars and classes at events, including the prestigious Food & Wine magazine Classic at Aspen, the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta, and The Cheese School of San Francisco. She is also often asked to judge food and wine competitions across the country, including the American Cheese Society annual cheese competition and most recently the Grilled Cheese Invitational in Los Angeles."

Reviews

[Beth Cato · Rating 3 out of 5]

A coffee table book released in 2000, it features profiles of American makers and a wide range of recipes. I'm very familiar with Werlin as an online cheese influencer, so I've long been interested in reading this earlier work by her.

First of all, it's a beautiful book, quite solid and well made, with full color photographs throughout of the recipe results, cheese labels, and the makers. An "All About Cheese" intro leads into the major body of the work, progressing from snacks to various meal elements to end with desserts and classics. Of course, the maker profiles are very out of date (I am not letting that impact my rating, as I knew the book's age when I bought it!) and several of the cheese companies are now out of business. My biggest disappointment, though, was that not a single recipe appealed to me.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good detail about particular cheese-makers but I don't really need that sort of detail. I'd rather have a book that details differences in how the varieties are produced than a biography of each company.