Farm To Fork

Never Too Cheesy Never Too Cheesy YES, YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN RICOTTA

T M O D ill havarti, mozzarella with homegrown basil and fresh warm ricotta. What do these cheeses have in common? Kim Mack, the Cheese Queen, makes them all. Since beginning her cheese-making venture almost four years ago, Mack has experimented with about 40 different By Tessa Marguerite Outland types of hard and soft cheeses. Farm-to-Fork Mack was born in Sacramento and works as a contracts analyst for the county Department of Human

Kim Mack Photo by Linda Smolek

Assistance. She’s always been interested in culinary arts.

Several years ago, Mack started an online baking business. It soon led to cheese.

“My cannoli became very, very popular,” she says. “But ricotta at grocery stores is not the quality that you need for cannoli, not for my cannoli anyway.” She describes ordinary store-bought ricotta as grainy, wet and unpleasant on the palette.

Mack found some high-quality ricotta at a specialty grocery store, but it was too pricey for the amount she needed— about $30 in cheese per batch of cannoli. So she found a recipe online and tried to make her own.

Shock and surprise followed. It was easy to make. And it tasted good. “That was three and a half years ago and we’ve been off to the races ever since,” Mack says.

Mack began offering cheese-making classes from her home about three years ago. She saw a huge increase in interest for her online classes in 2020. Over the past year, she has taught more than 200 online students how to make cheese.

Mack begins by introducing students to equipment, talking about milk, and how to press and age the cheese. Since there is much waiting in cheese making, she prepares the cheese fi rst and does a demo class with the students.

When she started making cheese, Mack felt alone. “There were some very simple, basic things in cheese making that I couldn’t fi nd the answer to,” she says.

The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op offered some classes Mack tried, but she struggled to fi nd a cheese community. She created a Facebook group for all those other cheesy folks out there, which helped make connections.

“I try really hard not to lose that focus so I can teach at the introductory level,” Mack says. “I don’t want to ever forget that simple stuff.”

Mack teaches classes on baking, sausage making, canning, pickling, gardening and “putting it all together.” For a pizza class, students learn to make mozzarella, ricotta, crust and sauces, all from scratch.

“One of the things I really pride myself on is that to become a home cheesemaker, you don’t need to have a bunch of special equipment,” she says. “You don’t need to spend a lot of money. You probably have a lot of things at home that you can adapt for home cheese making.”

Mack’s next plan is to open a store called Valley Cheese with her business

partner Joe Bento. Bento owns Valley Milk Simply Bottled, which sells raw milk in the Central Valley. Valley Cheese would be a dedicated space to make and sell cheese, and a new home for classes.

Mack’s intent is to start with four raw milk artisanal cheeses: Topo, butterkase, buffalo blue and fl amin’ cheddar. Topo is a smooth, textured cheese with a buttery fi nish. It’s traditionally made in Azores Islands. Butterkase is a mellow, semi-soft German cheese. The other two, buffalo blue and fl amin’ cheddar, will be a stilton cheese with heat and a spicy cheddar.

Is this cheese talk making you melt? Maybe a nutty Dunlop or warm gruyere from one of Mack’s classes will satisfy those cravings. If all goes according to plan, gourmet cheese and cheesemaking classes will be available at Valley Cheese in January.

Mack’s recipes and classes can be found at scratchmadelife.com.

Tessa Marguerite Outland can be reached at tessa.m.outland@gmail.com. Previous columns can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento. n FROM PAGE 48

fund to help people who got sick to pay expenses. Everybody really takes care of each other.”

The chorus was forced to lay off all staff other than Walls and applied for every dollar of assistance to stay afl oat. Luckily, the group hung on long enough for vaccines to roll out and restrictions to ease. Now the chorus is back in the rehearsal room, fully vaccinated and masked, preparing for annual holiday concerts.

“We’re pretty confi dent we can do most of the things we’re used to doing,” Walls says, which includes the holiday show in December, a fundraiser in February and spring show in June, all under the direction of new Artistic Director Christian Bohm. “We’re ready to hit the ground running.”

“KSGMC 202.1FM: Holiday Hits with A Splash of Sass!” runs Dec. 10, 11, 12 and 14 at Pioneer Congregational Church, 2700 L St. For tickets and more information, visit sacgaymenschorus. org.

Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Previous profi les can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @ insidesacramento. n

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