The Cheese Board Read Online Free PDF Page A

1973, I had opened my Pig-by-the-Tail Delicatessen across the street from Chez Panisse. Alice Medrich’s original Cocolat store soon followed. The Berkeley Gourmet Ghetto was suddenly there, not by the design of one person or a firm of developers, but by the confluence of people who wished to purvey the best of what there was in artisanal foods while paying respect to the notion of sustainable goods. Though those were not bywords at the time, they were themes of our endeavors, a legacy carried on by the Cheese Board. Quickly, we became friends in that spirit and in daily community life. We celebrated together with group picnics and softball games on the Fourth of July, clapped and smiled together when babies were born, applauded when things went right, cried together when there was loss. The remarkable thing about the Cheese Board is that it began as a genuine collective and continues to be so. That means that everyone gets the same amount of money for every hour worked, and the same benefits, and no one can position him- or herself in a certain job forever until death. It’s one of the most remarkable institutions/businesses in the world, and especially so because in spite of, or because of, its collective nature, it thrives and continues to grow. Well, they do have the best cheese shop in the world.
    —Victoria Wise
     
    With no boss running the show, it falls on all of us to be perceptive enough to see what needs to be done before it becomes critical. The Cheese Board is like a beautiful, functioning organic machine. The day is full of moments with all of us working together to get the job done. It’s like an improvisational dance.
    —JOHN
     
    There are as many different opinions about what the collective is as there are people working here. We are a cooperative, but there are forty different interpretations of what a cooperative is. People make it what they want it to be.
    —SHEHANNA

The Basics:Equipment, Ingredients, and Methods
    EQUIPMENT
    At the Cheese Board, we have improvised with equipment from the start. A plastic three-pound baker’s cheese bucket was the standard measure for all dry ingredients in making large and small doughs until the early 1990s, when we finally purchased a large floor scale. We didn’t use baskets to proof rising sourdough loaves until a few years ago, and we still don’t measure or weigh the sourdough starter; the dough maker just pours the starter into a huge spiral mixer, leaving an inch or two at the bottom of the bucket.
    To bake from this book, your collection of equipment need only include the basics. The following list is simply a guide and not a set of rules. Bread has been baked for hundreds of years without any specialized tools. Oh, but you do need a metal dough scraper!
    BAKING STONE
    A baking stone is a slab of heat-resistant ceramic that allows you to create artisanal-style breads and pizzas in your home oven by mimicking the effect of a wood-fired brick oven. At the Cheese Board, we finish baking focaccias and pizzas by placing them directly on the stone for the final minutes of the bake, which results in a crisp bottom crust. A baking stone is also useful when baking certain sourdough breads at home, either for the entire bake or, as we prefer, for just the final minutes.
    If you choose to use a baking stone, remember that you will need to preheat your oven 45 minutes in advance rather than the usual 15; the oven will not reach the desired temperature otherwise. Transfer focaccias and breads from the baking sheet to the stone 5 minutes before the end of the bake, at which point your baked good should be firm and starting to color. Using a metal spatula and an oven mitt, loosen the bread gently and lift or slide it off the sheet onto the stone to crisp the bottom crust. Pizzas are more delicate and therefore should be baked on an inverted sheet so that they can be loosened with a metal spatula and easily slid off the baking sheet directly onto the stone.
    CHEESE