GetCulture - How To Make Cheese | Madison, WI

Making your own cheese always sounds like a great idea.

Then the painful hunt begins for such uncommon ingredients as liquid veal rennet and lipase enzymes.

So, in the past, we just gave up on our milky dreams. Now, though, we're inspired all over because of the debut of GetCulture, a cheesemaking supply shop based in Madison, Wisconsin, that just opened last month.

The shop is the little sister of Dairy Connection, a cheese-industry stalwart that sells ingredients to major cheesemakers, including Uplands Cheese Company and Cypress Grove. But the recent growth in hobbyist and small-batch cheesemaking prompted founders Cathy and Dave Potter to angle for the home consumer.

GetCulture's retail store hosts bi-weekly cheesemaking classes, in addition to stocking everything from yogurt cultures to various molds to equipment. The comprehensive selection is mirrored online: GetCulture ships its wares across the country, and has a reliable "live chat" function for troubleshooting if, say, you're wondering if your cheese wheels are molding correctly.

If you don't even know how to begin, the site also has a solid collection of recipes, including introductory cheeses (queso blanco, chèvre) and more advanced ones (brie, mozzarella).

Whey cool, we say.