Suluguni cheese

Milk, Calcium chloride, Mesophilic culture, Coagulating enzyme, Sea salt

Cooking: 20 min, Heat on the stove: 15 min, Mix: 3 min, Let it stand: 1 h, Let it stand: 1 h, Cooking: 25 min, Let it stand: 10 min, Cooking: 30 min, Water bath: 30 min, Cooking: 25 min, Let it stand: 2 h, Let it stand: 1 h

Pasteurize 10 liters of milk of any maturity.

Add calcium chloride.

Heat to 32 degrees.

Add mesophilic starter culture. After 3 minutes, mix well and let it sit for 1 hour, maintaining a temperature of 32 degrees.

Add rennet, mix well, stop the milk, and wait for 60 minutes.

Check the curd for a clean break. The curd should be very firm.

When the curd is ready, cut it into pieces of 1.5 centimeters using a metal whisk. To do this, gently stir with the whisk, starting at the top of the pot, then in the middle, and finally at the bottom.

Now wait for the curds to settle 1 cm down.

After the curds settle, begin to stir the curd with a spatula for 10 minutes.

Put on low heat and continue to stir the curds for another 15 minutes, lifting them from the bottom to prevent overheating. Gradually raise the temperature to 37 degrees on low heat, then turn off the heat.

Let it sit for 10 minutes for the curds to settle to the bottom.
Transfer the whey to another pot. We will need it later for stretching and salting the cheese.

Place the curd mass in a bowl and knead it for a minute like dough to separate excess whey. Drain the separated whey into the rest.

Next, pour some whey into the pot and set it on low heat. Heat to 45 degrees. On top, place a bowl with the curds, covered with a lid (creating a water bath). As a result, the temperature of the curd mass should be 37 degrees. And wait until the stretchability test is successful. Immediately conduct the first stretchability test, and then conduct them every 30 minutes. Also, every 30 minutes, gently press on the curd mass to release more whey, then drain all the whey from the bowl.

To conduct the stretchability test, heat some whey or water in a separate pot to 75-80 degrees.

Put on thick gloves, and then rubber gloves over them. Place a piece of curd mass into the pot and wait a bit.

After that, take out the piece and try to stretch it. If it stretches well and does not tear, increasing to 10 times its original size, the test is passed.

When the stretchability test passes, heat the whey to 85 degrees. Meanwhile, cut the curd mass into small cubes.

Put on thick gloves, then rubber gloves over them.

When the whey has heated to 85 degrees, pour some whey into the bowl with the curd pieces (to warm them up). Make sure that all the curd mass is submerged in the whey.

Gently mix the curd mass, then drain the whey back into the pot (its temperature has already dropped, so we need to pour in new whey instead).

If white clumps have formed on the surface of the whey, you can collect them into a separate mold – this is ricotta.

Pour new whey into the bowl with the curd mass and start kneading.

When all the curd pieces have fused into one large piece, take this piece in your hands and begin to stretch and fold it in half to create layers. Do this about 20-30 times.

If the curd mass becomes too firm, you can place it back in the whey for warming. However, do not do this too many times, or the suluguni will not be as tender as it should be.

Next, change the whey by pouring new whey instead of the cooled one. Divide the entire curd mass into separate balls – each ball is one cheese head. It is preferable to make all the balls of equal weight so that it is easier to salt them later.

Place all the balls back in the whey for warming. Then, begin to similarly stretch and fold each ball separately, adding more layers.

Stretch and fold one ball 10 times, then place that ball in a cheese mold. Move on to the next ball.

Leave the cheese heads in a cool place for a few hours to cool down.

When they have cooled a bit, you can place them in the refrigerator for further cooling.

After a few hours, place the cooled cheese heads in a 20% brine solution. For gentle salting, allocate 20 minutes for every 100 grams of cheese head. That is, if the cheese heads weigh 300 grams, they should be salted for 60 minutes.

After salting, the cheese is ready.