Halloumi cheese (without using culture)

Pasteurize the milk (5 liters), preferably as fresh as possible.

After cooling, add calcium chloride.

Prepare the curd

Heat the milk to 37 degrees. It is advisable to do this quickly so that the milk does not become acidic. But ensure that the milk does not burn.

You can use a water bath to prevent burning.

While the milk is heating, prepare the rennet. Use 1.5 times more milk coagulating enzyme than the manufacturer’s recommended amount.

This will help the milk curdle faster and prevent it from becoming acidic.

When the temperature reaches 37 degrees, add the milk coagulating enzyme, stir well, and stop the milk. Wait for 10 minutes and check the curd for a clean break.

If the clean break test fails, wait another 10 minutes.

Form the curds

When the clean break is good, cut the curd into 1-1.5 centimeter pieces both parallel and perpendicular, as well as horizontally. After that, wait for 5 minutes.

Then, for 20 minutes, carefully stir the curds. If you encounter particularly large curds, cut them. Meanwhile, heat the curds to a temperature of 40 degrees over the lowest heat.

Form the cheese mass

Remove excess whey so that mainly curds remain in the pot.

Do not discard the whey – we will use it to make halloumi later (if you want to make ricotta from whey, you can cook halloumi in water instead of whey).

Transfer the curds into molds and compress them slightly. After that, for 30 minutes, turn the cheese every 10 minutes.

Form the cheese

Next, heat the whey to 90 degrees (or water if you will be making ricotta from whey).

Place the cheese in the heated whey and gently stir until the temperature reaches 90 degrees again (since the cheese is at room temperature, the whey temperature will drop after you add the cheese).

Then wait for the cheese to float (usually 15-30 minutes). Stir occasionally to prevent the cheese from burning, and ensure the whey temperature does not drop below 90 degrees.

If you are worried about the cheese burning, you can cook it in a water bath.

After the cheese heads float, turn off the heat and remove the cheese heads.

If you cooked the cheese in whey, you can check for any ricotta curds in your whey and collect them as well.

Put on cotton gloves and then rubber gloves over them. Then flatten the cheese heads into thinner patties. Wait for them to cool slightly.

For 5 liters of milk, use 1.5 teaspoons of salt. Evenly salt all the cheese patties.

You can also sprinkle with dried mint.

After that, fold the cheese patties in half (you can choose not to fold them if you wish). You can sprinkle more mint on top.

Halloumi is ready. Once it cools, place it in a vacuum-sealed or regular bag to prevent it from drying out, and store it in the refrigerator.

For longer storage, you can place it in the freezer. Halloumi does not lose its properties in the freezer.