Primo Sale cheese

Primo Sale is an Italian cheese from the regions of Sicily and Sardinia. The name translates to “first salt,” which indicates the initial stage of cheese maturation when it is first salted.

This cheese is traditionally made from sheep’s milk, although in some regions cow’s milk may also be used.

The preparation of Primo Sale cheese begins with pasteurizing the milk (5 liters). At this point, just before cooling the milk, add salt (50 grams) to it. After that, cool the milk to a temperature of 37-39 degrees.

Then we add calcium chloride.

After 5 minutes, we introduce the rennet. We stir the mixture for 20-30 seconds, after which we stop the milk.

After 20 minutes, we check the curd for a clean break. If the curd is ready, take a whisk and start cutting the curd. The whisking movements are circular, starting from the edge of the pot to the center. First, we work at the top of the pot, then descend to the middle and continue at the bottom of the pot.

Next, we move the whisk from the middle of the pot to the edges, lifting the whisk from the bottom to the top.

After that, we let the mixture sit for 5 minutes and start kneading the mass with a spatula for half an hour. If large lumps are encountered during kneading, we cut them with the whisk. If the temperature of the mixture drops below 38 degrees and 30 minutes of kneading has not yet passed, we place the pot on low heat and bring it back to 38 degrees.

We remove excess whey from the pot. At this stage, you can add various herbs to the mixture, such as arugula, olives, or spices. If you add anything, then mix the cheese curd.

Then we transfer the cheese curd along with the herbs and other additions into molds. We wait 10 minutes, after which we flip the cheese. For the next 3 hours, we flip the cheese every half hour.

After the flipping process is complete, we place the mold with the cheese in a bag to prevent it from drying out and put it in the refrigerator overnight. The cheese is ready!

This cheese should be eaten within 3 days. It is not stored longer than that.