Reading · The Art of Eating

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Stretching the cow’s-milk cheese *tenili* in southern Georgia. Fully stretched, it forms a fine lacy web, is partly dried, then packed in cream. *Photograph by Trevor Warmedahl*

TO MAKE THE SIMPLEST fresh cream cheese, I wanted a starter culture that was more or less generic, leaving little or no imprint of its own on the milk. Starters are based on lactic acid bacteria, the essential creatures that ferment milk, turning its sugar into lactic acid. I hadn’t made any fresh cheese in a very long time, and looking at the starter choices from a company I’d used before, I couldn’t remember which one might be right. I emailed Mateo Kehler of Jasper Hill Farm to ask his advice, and instead of naming anything he responded, “Want to have a chat sometime? I have thoughts.”

Cheeses from Faraway and Beyond

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