Welcome Karen McAthy, author of The Art of Plant-Based Cheese Making

Please join me in welcoming Karen McAthy, author of The Art of Plant-Based Cheese Making: how to craft real, cultured, non-dairy cheese




Read the book review here!

Karen will be hanging out in the forums until Friday, April 21, answering questions and sharing her experiences with you all.

At the end of the week, we'll make a draw for 3 lucky winners to win a copy of her book! From now until Friday, all new posts in the vegan forum are eligible to win.

To win, you must use a name that follows our naming policy and you must have your email set up to receive  the Daily-ish email.

The winner will be notified by email and must respond within 48 hours. Only the winners who respond within that timeframe will receive their book. Watch for a PM, and a notice in this thread announcing the winners!

Please do not put Karen's name in the title of your thread. We like these threads to be accessible to everyone, and some people may not post their experiences if the thread is directed to Karen alone.

Posts in this thread won't count as an entry to win the book, but please say "Hi!" to Karen and make her feel welcome!

Welcome, Karen.  I'm really excited about your book.  I have lots of vegan friends and it would be delightful to make some cheese they can eat.  

I look forward to chatting plant-based cheese with folks!

Hi Karen, Welcome to the forum.

Plant-based cheese, huh? Sounds interesting. My sister and niece would really like this too. I'll have to spread the word.

Enjoy your week! (😁 "Cheese!" I couldn't resist.)

(Edit: punctuation)

Welcome Karen. I'm a medical vegan with celiac so anything resembling CHEESE would be wonderful. Really excited about your book. Glad you joined us, and hope you stay around. (edit, I can't spell today)

Hi Deb,

I teach classes and often have students who share your particular health issue, I'm happy to answer any questions, if you have any

Hi Karen. The book sounds great. I'm especially interested in the chapter, How to create and train plant-based cultures. That is an area not covered by the books I've seen and should be very useful. More information and expertise is always welcome, especially in the relatively new field of cultured, non dairy cheese.

Hi Karen,

I'm excited to read your book, (in my amazon cart) and I would like to welcome you to the forums. I waffle between vegetarian-vegan, and cheese is one of the factors that is hard to overcome. Thank you for your work!

Welcome Karen!  Wow, I'm so excited to see your book offered!  To be able to make some cheeses that have flavor and freshness - can't wait!

Hi Denise, Thank you for the welcome! Cheese, is the single biggest hurdle my students and guests (of restuarants I have cheffed at) have struggled with. I hope you find the book useful. It is only an introduction to a larger methodology that I am trying to pull together from the various practices of a number vegan cheesemakers  and my research.


Hi Kathy, Thank you the book should offer some core recipes that can work well for your own at home experimentation. I do offer some easy aging practices towards the end of the book to help folks age their cheeses.

Hi Polly, thank you. I'm glad you noticed that chapter. It is only introductory and is already a bit dated with respect to where my research has gone since, but I will be publishing a more in depth follow up book. The emphasis on culturing, and on differentiating cheeze (non-cultured) from cheese (cultured) is one of the distinctions I am trying to make with respect to identifying a prospective methodology for cultured vegan cheese. Additionally, as it is specifically the act of cultures in creating texture and flavor that I am interested in, I am mostly interesting in working with an increasing array of cultures in plant-based cheesemaking. I hope you find the book helpful in some way. I am always happy to answer questions.

Have the book winners been drawn? I don't see an announcement.

Polly Oz wrote:Have the book winners been drawn? I don't see an announcement.

I'll chase it up.  If not, I'll do the draw myself in a few hours.  

The three winners are

Simon Johnson
Polly Oz
D Logan

Congratulations guys - please respond to the PM I sent you within 48 hours.  

Hi Karen. I saw this thread too late as I had recently purchased Miyoko Schinner's Artisan Vegan Cheese as a gift. Any thoughts on her book or recipes from there you think are great? My wife was envious of the book I was giving as a gift to someone else, so that means I'll have to buy another one (yours!) for her.