Caciotta cheese

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

Heat on the stove: 10 min, Mix: 5 min, Let it stand: 45 min, Cooking: 35 min, Let it stand: 40 min, Water bath: 3 h 30 min, Chill in the refrigerator: 10 h, Let it stand: 2 day 12 h, Let it stand: 5 day

Pasteurize the milk (10 liters).

Heat to 38 degrees and turn off the heating.

Add starters and rennet

Add calcium chloride, mix well, and add the mesophilic-thermophilic starter. After that, wait for 3 minutes and mix well.

Wait for 45 minutes for the starter to activate.

After that, add the milk coagulating rennet, mix well, and stop the movement of the milk.

Wait for 20 minutes and conduct a clean break test.

Forming curds

When the curd is ready, cut it perpendicular and parallel with a step of 2 centimeters. Then wait for 2 minutes.

Next, cut horizontally and wait another 2 minutes.

During this time, turn on the water heating. For 10 liters of milk, we need 1.4 liters of water at a temperature of 45 degrees.

Then, for 15 minutes, stir the curds with a spatula.

Wait a few minutes for the curds to settle, after which remove about 30% of the whey (until the curds begin to show above the whey).

Then, for 10-15 minutes, start stirring the curds while gradually adding the prepared water at 45 degrees. After that, wait for 2 minutes for the curds to settle again.

Again, remove the excess whey so that the curds appear above the whey.

Pressing and aging the cheese

Transfer the curds to pressing molds (with holes).

Leave the cheese for self-pressing for 40 minutes, turning it every 10 minutes.

Then the cheese needs to be placed in an aging chamber. For this, you can:

• Pour water at a temperature of 55 degrees into a large pot;
• Place a bowl in the water, on which to put a dish; the dish should not touch the water;
• Put the molds with cheese on this dish;
• Cover the pot with a lid.

After 15 minutes, turn the cheese, then after another 15 minutes, then after 30, and finally again after 30 minutes. During all this time, the water temperature should be maintained at 55 degrees.

Then, for 2 hours, turn the cheese every 30 minutes, no longer maintaining the water temperature.

Wrap each mold with cheese in a bag and place it in the refrigerator for 10 hours.

Salting and drying

After 10 hours, place the cheese heads in a 20% salt brine.

For 4 liters of boiled water, use 1 kg of regular, non-iodized salt.

The salting time depends on the weight of the cheese head. For every 500 grams of weight, 6 hours of salting is required.

After salting, place the cheese heads in the refrigerator for 2 days to dry. Turn them at least once a day.

Aging the cheese

After that, place each head in a shrink-wrap bag without sealing it. And place it for aging, turning it daily and checking for mold.

If there is mold, wipe it off with vinegar.

The aging time is 5 days.