Suluguni cheese on sourdough “pasta filata cheeses” from Bakzdrav

. Pour fresh milk into a saucepan, put it on medium heat and, stirring constantly, heat up to 72-74 degrees (use a thermometer).

Once the milk has reached the right temperature, cover the pan with a lid and let stand for 30 seconds.

After 30 seconds, place the pan in a container of cold water.

Cool quickly to 30-32ºС.

All! Milk is pasteurized.

Let’s move on to cheese making.

. Dissolve 1.5 g of calcium chloride in 20 ml of boiled chilled water.

Pour into milk.

To stir thoroughly.

. Dissolve 0.2 g of BakZdrav Cheese Pasta Filata starter in 20 ml of milk and add to a common container with milk.

Mix thoroughly until the starter is completely dissolved.

Cover the pot with a lid and leave for 30 minutes to activate the bacteria.

. Dissolve 0.2 g of rennet “Cheese” in 20 ml of chilled boiled water.

Pour in a thin stream into the milk, mixing thoroughly.

Cover the pan with a lid and leave until a clot (cheese kale) forms for about 20-30 minutes (I had a clot after 25 minutes).

Now you need to withstand another 40 minutes to 2 hours, until the clot stabilizes.

. After 40 minutes, the clot can be checked for a clear separation of whey.

Make a small incision on the surface of the clot, 1-2 cm deep and, moving the knife to the side, inspect the surface.

The whey in the section should be transparent, the clot should be dense and elastic, the knife should be clean, without curdled traces. If the clot is not fully formed, leave the mixture for some more time.

It took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to get clean.

. Cut the clot into columns with sides of about 1 cm, let stand for 5 minutes.

Then cut the columns into cubes.

Cover the pan with a lid and hold for another 10 minutes so that the future cheese grain gives off more whey and thickens.

. After the time has elapsed, begin to gently mix the cubes.

We make one promise, wait 2 minutes and then gently mix for 20 minutes.

As they begin to thicken, stir more often and a little more vigorously.

At the same time, over medium heat, heat the milk to a temperature of 34-37ºC.

At this time, the cheese grain will give off whey and compact.

If you notice large cubes while mixing, cut them up and continue kneading.

. After kneading, leave the cheese grain for 5 minutes.

Then shift the cheese grain into a wide form or colander.

Heat whey to 40ºC.

Place a colander with the cheese mass over the whey, cover with a lid and heat for 30 minutes, turning the cheese mass from time to time.

This is done to ripen the cheese mass and achieve the desired acidity.

This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 5 hours.

. Every 30 minutes we check whether the cheese mass is ready for molding.

To do this, heat the water to 70ºС, immerse a small piece of cheese mass in it for 20-40 seconds, remove it and stretch it with your hands. A piece of cheese should stretch well.

If this does not happen, we continue to withstand the cheese mass under the same conditions for another 30 minutes.

My cheese mass matured for three and a half hours.

. Heat water in a clean saucepan to a temperature of about 70ºС and lower the pieces of cheese into it.

Stir the pieces of cheese in the water until they are melted and have a uniform consistency.

The temperature of the cheese mass during kneading should be 62-66ºС.

Stretching and folding the cheese mass to form a ball, turning the edges down and to the center.

Shape the cheese and let it cool completely.

. From 3 liters of milk, I got Suluguni cheese weighing 369 grams.

Cheese salt.

Prepare a salt solution with a concentration of 18%.

To do this, dissolve 180 g of table salt in 500-600 ml of chilled boiled water.

Then bring the volume to 1 liter. Dip the completely cooled ready-made cheese ball into the brine.

Salt from 6 to 48 hours.

The cheese is ready to eat!

Storage

Store the finished Suluguni cheese in the refrigerator for no more than 5 days.

When stored in brine, the period increases to 2 months.