Cheesemaker Soyoung Scanlan isn't just one of the most respected cheesemakers in America. She's become one of the most admired cheesemakers in France, too. She's aging traditional French-style cheeses that could compete with some of the best in France. Not bad for a woman who started her Andante Dairy in Petaluma, California, only 12 years ago. More

For years, as the great cheese renaissance took off, there was no magazine to unify those making the cheese or tell the serious cheese-philes where to buy it. Then in 2008, at the bottom of the worst recession in generations, Culture magazine started. I loved it but feared its future. But, thankfully, two and half years later it's thriving like the wheels of goat-gouda at your local cheese shop. The magazine's editor wouldn't be surprised if McDonalds started selling cheeseplates in ten years. More

There is more great cheese available to Americans than ever before, but a lot of it is expensive. Very expensive, as you all pointed out in my last column on shopping for cheese. Here are four simple tips for the cheese enthusiast on a budget. Did you know the fresh chevre made for the Trader Joe's in-house label comes from Laura Chenel, one of the pioneera of the contemporary American hand-crafted cheesemaking movement? More

Retailers are flooded with mediocre examples of classic cheeses, resulting in a situation that may be counterintuitive: it takes more knowledge and discernment to shop for classic cheeses than it does to buy a new local creation. More

After five and half years of teaching cheese and beverage pairing classes I've come to a startling conclusion: beer and cheese go together better than wine and cheese. That said, you can't just pair any cheese with any beer and expect bliss. Here's a primer on pairing cheese with lagers, ales, IPAs, and saisons. More

Want to up the ante on your cheese plate? Pick cheeses that will complement the beverages you're serving. Here are a few choices that will be delicious with whatever you and your guests choose to drink. More

We can only speculate, but it seems likely that cheese was a prominent part of the first few Thanksgivings. Many of the Puritans came from dairy farming communities in England. Some historians estimate that nearly half of the settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were dairy farmers. Thus, it's probable that the early dinners featured new world interpretations of Cheddar, Wensleydale and Cheshire. Let's look at six stellar American hand-crafted cheeses that should highlight your Thanksgiving cheese plate. More

Twelve years ago, two brothers, Mateo and Andy Kehler, bought a farm in Greensboro, Vermont and set out to make beer; it's a good thing they failed. Then they tried their hand at tofu, and it's a good thing that didn't work out either. This isn't schadenfreude; what happened next is that the Kehler brothers turned their attention to cheese. That worked out really, really well. In a mere decade, they have gone from novices to leaders in one of the one busiest cheesemaking states in America. More

Shopping for cheese should be fun but for many people it's a daunting task. The reason is simple. There's too much of a good thing! With so many good cheeses out there now, how do you even begin to choose? Here are four things that will guide all of your future cheese-shopping trips. More

Every August, the American Cheese Society lures cheesemongers and makers from all over the U.S. and Canada to one city for a weekend of hot-headed cheese talk, judging, and fun. This year the conference was held in Seattle, the temperate home of many beautiful public markets and nearby dairies. American cheesemakers can submit their products to be assessed and graded by a panel of cheese-industry professionals who evaluate the cheeses within their categories and also on the whole. This year's winner of the much-coveted Best in Show title: Extra Aged Pleasant Ridge Reserve, a cheese from Uplands Cheese Company in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. More

Made with raw, pasture-fed Jersey cows' milk, the color is bright golden yellow, and the aroma is of grass, butter, and toasted nuts. The texture is dense, even and toothsome, turning creamy and buttery on the tongue. SBT starts off with a mellow flavor that ranges from sweet to savory as it opens on the palate, finishing with a spicy zing. It melts, it slices, it squidges between your fingers. In sum: It's cheese, and it's good. This is lucky for Spring Brook Farm, because their cheese is the means to support a bigger project: the Farms for City Kids Foundation. More

What to drink is, obviously, an important question in my life. With cheese, the obvious, go-to alcoholic beverage is wine. But wine is tricky, and sometimes you get a pairing that, like misaligned soundwaves, is destructive, rather than additive. Since it's a lot of work to pair a cheese with wine, I tend to reach for other beverages when I pull out the cheese plate. There are a number of other, less finicky options that can pair just as well, if not better, with your fermented cheese of choice. More

What better way to welcome the return of life to earth's bare surface—and to exhibit our contempt for winter's failing, icy, gray grasp—than with cheese wrapped in the earth's green and leafy bounty? The wrapping offers a consistently moist, protected environment for the cheese to mature in, and the leaves can lend their own flavor to the cheese. More

If you're interested in finding your own cheese CSA, here are a couple of great online resources that will help you get started. Of course, these online sources take a little mining, but they have a lot of great noncheese-related information that you'll probably be glad to have learned. More

The step in cheese-making that turns boring milk into fantastic cheese is curdling, the process which gave Little Miss Muffett her favorite pastime. As I believe I've mentioned before, not counting the unusual properties of some thistles, there are essentially two ways to set curd: rennet, and acid. And right there is the critical choice for whether your cheese is going to melt or not. More