Ibores cheese

Milk, Cooking salt, Olive oil, Paprika, Calcium chloride, Mesophilic culture, Coagulating enzyme

Cooking: 25 min, Heat on the stove: 10 min, Mix: 3 min, Let it stand: 30 min, Cooking: 1 h 45 min, Let it stand: 8 h 30 min, Let it stand: 12 h, Let it stand: 2 day, Let it stand: 30 day, Let it stand: 30 day

Forming the Curd

Pasteurize 15 liters of milk.

Add calcium chloride.

Heat to a temperature of 32 degrees and add meso-thermophilic starter culture according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. After 3 minutes, stir well and wait 30 minutes if the milk ripeness is 50%. If the milk ripeness is 30%, wait 45 minutes.

If you do not know the milk ripeness, wait 30 minutes to prevent the acidity of the milk from rising above the required level.

Add rennet, stir well, and stop the milk. After 20 minutes, check for a clean break.

Forming the Cheese Curd

When the curd is ready, cut it parallel and perpendicular with a step of 2 cm, and also cut horizontally. Then wait 5 minutes.

Take a metal whisk and start stirring the cheese curd to make it smaller. First stir at the top of the pot, then in the middle, and finally at the bottom.

Next, continue stirring the cheese curd with a spatula for another 5 minutes. Then wait 5 minutes.

Stir the cheese curd again with a spatula for 10 minutes. After that, wait 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat 1.5 liters of water to 60 degrees.

Remove 1.5 liters of whey. Then stir the cheese curd with a spatula for 10 minutes, gradually pouring the prepared hot water into the pot. After that, wait 10 minutes. At the same time, heat 5 liters of water to 43 degrees.

Remove 5 liters of whey.

For 20 minutes, knead the cheese curd while gradually adding 5 liters of water heated to 43 degrees. Check the temperature of the cheese curd in the pot. If the cheese curd reaches 37 degrees, stop adding water and just knead for the remaining time.

Knead the curd for another 20 minutes. Then let the curd rest for 20 minutes.

Forming Cheese Heads

Prepare the molds by placing drainage cloth (cheesecloth) in them. Then drain all the whey from the pot. During this, first moisten the drainage cloth and the molds with this whey.

Next, transfer the cheese curd into the molds, pressing and packing it well.

Weigh the amount of cheese mass to know what weight to use for pressing.

Cover the cheese mass with the drainage cloth and place a weight on top that is twice the weight of the cheese mass. For example, if there are 500 grams of cheese mass in the mold, place a weight of 1 kg on it.

Wait 30 minutes.

After that, remove the drainage cloth, rinse it with warm water, and re-place the cheese in the mold, having flipped it over beforehand.

Double the pressing weight (for 500 grams of cheese, place 2 kg of weight). Leave the cheese for 8 hours.

Brining the Cheese

After 8 hours, weigh the resulting cheese heads. Then place them in a brine solution for salting.

The salting time depends on the weight of the cheese head – it takes 12 hours to brine one kilogram of cheese.

It is best to brine cheese at a temperature of 14-18 degrees.

Drying and Aging

Next, leave the cheese to dry at room temperature for 1-2 days.

After that, place it for aging at a temperature of 10-12 degrees. The aging time is 1 month.

Periodically check the cheese for mold. If mold appears, rinse the cheese in boiled or clean water, and remove the mold with a brush. After that, apply olive or rapeseed oil to the cheese for additional protection against mold.

If you do not have a refrigerator for aging, and you leave the cheese in a regular refrigerator, to achieve the necessary humidity, place the cheese in a container with a slightly open lid (do not close the container completely).

After a month of aging, take smoked paprika mixed with olive oil and rub this mixture on the cheese head.

This will give the cheese a smoky flavor and further protect it from mold.

After the first rubbing, wait an hour and rub it with paprika again. Then leave the cheese head for another month for aging.

If mold appears during aging, scrape it off with a knife, then cover the cleaned area with paprika again.