What is needed for soft cheese?
- Chy-max microbial rennet
- Milk - cow's, goat's, sheep's - whatever you have available
How to make soft cheese?
First we pasteurize the milk. Let's heat it up to 64°C, turn it off and let it stand for half an hour.
After thirty minutes, cool the pot with milk to a temperature of 35-37°C and add the mesophilic culture.
Let the culture ferment for about 50 minutes (at least half an hour), then add calcium chloride and lye. Milk should be between 28-33 degrees during curdling. Add chloride and rennet and mix thoroughly.
Adjust the level of milk and let it curdle. The curdling time varies according to the amount of rennet, for soft cheese we will want to curdle for about 50 minutes. So we dose chy-max rennet (1 ml per 15 liters).
We curd for as long as we have a broken curd. We can tell by sticking a knife into the milk and lifting it slightly. If the so-called meringue is formed, if we simply manage to lift the curd slightly, we are done. If not, we'll wait.
If the curd is solid, cut it vertically and horizontally, on a grid about 1.5 cm in size, let the curd set for a while, i.e. rest for about 10 minutes.
Now we take the mold and carefully scoop the curd into it, the whey flows out and the cheese grain remains inside.
Put the filled molds in a warm place, for example back in the heated pot, the temperature should be around 28°C for at least the first few hours.
Turn the cheese in the mold (turn the cheese over on your hand and put it back in the mold) at least 4 times for the time it will soak - about 18 hours.
After this time, turn the cheese out of the mold and put it in a salt bath, where the cheese is salted (about 25 dkg of cheese is salted for 30 minutes). Preparation of a salt bath - mix cold water approx. 16°C and add 20 salt.
After salting, let the cheese drain and then store it.