About Gayle

Gayle Starbuck

Innovations for the Portland,Oregon
Home Cheesemakers

Gayle was raised on a ranch where she learned the art of making cheese, butter and ice cream in their farmstead kitchen. The abundance of fresh, creamy Jersey milk was never wasted and always put to good use.

She has taught classes in all areas of Home Preserving, including cheese making, bread baking and general cooking courses.

Keeping in mind everyone's busy life style, she is constantly developing innovative up-to-date ideas and recipes for the home cheese maker and feels it is within the realm of the normal home kitchen to create the many soft to medium~firm cheeses such as Fromage Blanc, Ricotta, Feta, Mozzarella and several others.

The use of a Direct Set, all-in-one packet of cheese culture, along with the easy access to quality dairy products available at your local market you can create not only the above soft~firm cheeses, but also Crème Fraiche, Mascarpone, Sour Cream, Cream Cheese, Chevre, Buttermilk and several types of Yogurt, all with delightful, rich consistencies and flavors.

This all brings an easier dimension to the classes she teaches.

Come and learn the ins and outs, some innovative ideas, and the way all

cheese making starts by taking a cheese class in the Portland, Or. area.

It is the ideal way to start making all of the above cheeses in your own home!

Note from Gayle

While maintaining the tried and true practices of basic keep-it-clean and sanitized and watch-the-temperature standards, my methods scale down cheese making projects to fast and manageable sizes for storing and serving.

With "Hands On" classes and using basic kitchen utensils, class demonstrations and printed instructions, you'll be ready to make any soft to semi-soft cheese, from Crème fraîche to Fromage Blanc. Then you can say I "Did It Myself ! "

Go to the contact page, fill out your name and email.
Post any questions in the comment box, hit sumit and I will return an answer to you.

I look forward to meeting you in class,
Gayle

Cheese from a Home Kitchen

My friend made some wonderful cheese recently.

It was made with a buttermilk culture, adding roasted garlic and five different herbs to the mixture of milk and half and half as it was being heated.
She said it took a little longer culturing the buttermilk in the cool weather than it takes in the warmer weather.
After culturing, heating, cooling and draining, it was packed into individual cheesecloth lined baskets.
The results compared remarkably in taste and texture with such elegant and delicate French cheeses as boursin or petit suisse.
She has sent me some photos of the steps she took to make them in her own kitchen.