Hello-
I was wondering if I could suggest a few books that I've read that helped me go beyond recipes and into understanding what is happening in the vat. Forgive me if you already know about this stuff, I'm new here.
One of the problems with learning about making cheese is that there are basically three levels of books on cheesemaking. There are books and journals that are aimed at the home hobbyist, the artisanal cheesemaker, and textbooks and massive tomes for the industrial cheesemaker. The science is pretty much all the same but sometimes the difference in scale and the different techniques used can be intimidating.
Below are two books explain the science behind milk and cheese from a kitchen-based, culinary standpoint. The McGee has a great chapter on cheese and how and why milk turns into cheese in addition to chapters on proteins and fermentation, written in a manner that is easy to understand. The Mendelson is a cultural history of milk and dairy products and is a pretty interesting read too. It also includes some recipes for simple home cheese.
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages by Anne Mendelson
http://www.amazon.com/Milk-Surprising-Story-Through-Ages/dp/B004AYCXHK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299351277&sr=1-1---
As far as the science goes, if you're looking to understand what goes on in cheesemaking you have to wrap your mind around the acidification schedule that milk undergoes on its journey to becoming cheese. Measuring ph and temperature and time, and coupling these with technique; this is the best way to understand cheese making.
I've found the best descriptions and explanations of the cheesemaking process in the Kindstedt book American Farmstead Cheese. It's a bit hard to follow at times, mainly because it has a lot of chemistry and microbiology in it, but learning about the acidification curve will help you figure out what went wrong and maybe help you fix it or prevent it in the future. It's also written for the artisanal cheesemaker, so the issues of scale shouldn't be too intimidating.
If you're interested in making goat cheese, The Fabrication Of Farmstead Goat Cheese by Jean-Claude Le Jaouen is a good one that covers a lot of the basics for the artisanal goat cheesemaker. It even details how to design cheese make rooms and caves for aging.
http://www.amazon.com/Fabrication-Farmstead-Goat-Cheese/dp/0960740430/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299352607&sr=1-1There are also resources and journals for the small dairy or artisanal producer. I heartily recommend Peter Dixon's newsletter which has facts and recipes and explanations and all kinds of good stuff. His classes are great too, especially if he's coming to your area.
http://www.dairyfoodsconsulting.com/index.shtmlThere's also Creamline and The Cheese Enthusiast, which are useful newsletters for the small producer/hobbyist.
http://www.smalldairy.com/publications.htmlAs far as the big guys go, I'm working on reading Fundamentals of Cheese Science by Patrick F. Fox (Author), Paul McSweeney (Author), Timothy M. Cogan (Author), Timothy P. Guinee (Author).
http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Cheese-Science-Patrick-Fox/dp/0834212609/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299353301&sr=1-1This is the book for the people that make industrial cheese. Like I said, the science is there, but some of the practices and techniques that they discuss are not things that the home cheese maker needs to worry about. Some of the industrial methods would actually be bad practices for the artisanal cheese maker.
Also in the realm of the big industrial books is Technology of Cheesemaking (Society of Dairy Technology series) by Barry A. Law (Editor), Adnan Tamime (Editor).
http://www.amazon.com/Technology-Cheesemaking-Society-Dairy/dp/1405182989/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299353503&sr=1-2Both of these books are expensive and a bit unwieldy. I'm not suggesting that you do anything illegal or unethical, but I've seen both of them available online as bittorrents on places like demonoid.me (so that you would have an electronic copy to back up your hardcover version, of course).
Hope this works and gives you some ideas. Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks
Chvfromage