Cheese - Primo Sale

This is one of the easiest yet successful cheeses I have made.  I usually make two batches as 15 litres of fresh milk yield only 6 small size cheeses.  After 21 days of drying, the cheese will develop a delicate taste and so far I never managed to save one for any longer than this, as there is always someone who by mistake take a wedge!  Hopefully, I will get back to this post in a while to tell you about the 3 month old taste and texture! I am giving 3 cheese batch and I used 12cm cheese molds.  Do not throw away the whey as after this recipe I will post a recipe for Ricotta. Be precise with temperatures and brine mix.

Ingredients

7.5l Cow's Milk, preferably from Jersey Cow

110g plain yogurt

1gr rennet powder mixed with tbsp water

220g sea salt

1.4 liters water

 

 Method

1. Put milk and yogurt in a large non corrosive pan and heat till temperature reach 38°C. Turn off heat
2. Add rennet and mix with wooden spoon in slow circular moves. Cover and stand for 1 hour
3. 
   Cut the curds by making criss cross shapes using a knife, then using a whisk break the curds to small pieces
   
4. Turn on heat again and heat the curds to 50°C stirring slowly. When temperature is reached, turn off heat.
5. Divide curds between 3  12cm diameter cheese molds, and press curds down to extract whey.
6. Place cheese in container , cover loosely with lid  and let it stand for 1 hour.
7. Remove the cheese from mold, then put it back in mold upside down, so that both sides will have the same stencil shape.  Cover loosely and let it stand for another hour.
   
8. Take 3 empty cheese molds and put them upside down in a clean bucket (or large high container), put the cheese in mold one on top of each empty mold (so that cheese will bi lifted from the bottom of the bucket)
9. Boil 1.5litres water and pour in bucket (not over cheese but from the side). Cover the bucket with lid, and let it stand for 24 hours.  This is called  'Stewing'.
10. Make brine by mixing 220g salt to 1.4litres of filtered water till all salt is dissolved.
11. Remove cheese from molds and transfer to brine.  Stand cheese in brine for 3-4 hours)
12. Remove cheese from brine, refrigerate on a wire rack, turning every other day.
    

You may eat the cheese after just 2 days, but if you wait even two weeks, the taste will mature nicely.  The cheese will develop a nice yellowish rind