John's Cheese #056 - Halloumi #1

[Cheese Head]

A few other members here have made Halloumi (also spelt Haloumi) Cheese, this my first time based on the several recipes compared here.

RECORDS

• Jan 16, 2010
• 2:30PM: Poured 2 US gallons of US Kroger's Springdale brand store bought pasteurized and homogenized whole cow's milk into 3 US gallon stockpot on front large gas burner on range. As milk pasteurized, to aid in rennet coagulation, trickled and whisked in 1/2 teaspoon diluted CaCl2. Warmed milk with gas ring to 32°C/90 °F.
• 2:55PM: Poured ~0.3 grams CHR Hansen Powdered Rennet onto mini digital scale, tapped off into 1/2 cup water, stirred to dilute, trickled onto milk and stirred up and down for 1 minute without breaking surface. Covered and set aside for curd to set.
• 3:35PM: Checked for clean break with knife, poor, waited another 10 minutes, clean break cut curd into ~1 cm3 cubes.
• 3:55PM: Started cooking slowly, stirring occasionally, heated slightly too fast.
• 4:35PM: Ended warming at 104 F/40 C, stirring occasionally.
• 4:55PM: End cooking phase, drained curds and whey into 2 kg Gouda shaped Kadova brand mold inside 2 US gallon stockpot, lifted mold up out of drained whey, held above stockpot while draining, placed in tray on floor, placed 10 lb weight on mold for 5 minutes, then placed bathroom scales under hoop, measured 3.5 kg, placed stepladder weight light end on mold to press, 13 kg total, thus light end is 9.5 kg/21 lb.
• 5:30PM: Turned cheese, hoop mesh liner starting to impregnate into soft curd, replaced stepladder weight light end on mold to press.
• 6:30PM: Turned cheese, hoop mesh liner minimal impregnated into soft curd, replaced stepladder weight light end on mold to press.
• 8:45PM: Started heating whey, removed pressed curd from mold, weighed at 1.5 kg / 3.3 pounds, cut curd into serving portions.
• 9:00PM: Whey at target 185F / 85C, turned off heat, placed portioned curd into hot whey to "boil", instantly sunk.
• 9:25PM: Checked cheeses, already floating, twice as fast as expected, left in whey to "boil".
• 9:50PM: Removed floating portiones from whey and placed on draining mat on cookie tray to drain, dry, and cool. Measured whey at 145 F/65 C, dropped as added portioned curds.
• 10:15PM: Sprinked cheeses with 2 ounces by volume of salt onto cheeses. Placed mint leaves on one side of cheeses and folded cheeses over into a "mint sandwich", first cheese split, second doing the same, stopped. Placed in plastic container with lid in household fridge.
• Jan 19, 2010
• 6:00PM: Cut to 1/2 cm / 1/4" slices and pan fried in small amount of Olive Oil, gave off a lot of water/whey as cooked, eventually dried dry and browned the cheese, no melting. Had plain for dinner, little foamy-rubbery, makes small squeaks on teeth, nothing audible to others, very light milk taste but salty with dry salt still on one side.

NOTES

• Needs more slightly rennet than other cheeses as no starter culture thus no acidification to help rennet coagulate milk.
• Next time warm on smaller back burner as slower to heat, halve amount of dry salt, and boil for longer to determine difference.

[Cheese Head]

Pictures #1 . . .

[Cheese Head]

Pictures #2 . . .

[Cheese Head]

Pictures #3 . . .

[Brie]

Wow-many variables in this post! I've used Ricki Carroll's recipe several times and have had no problems (I've always added dried mint to the curds). I adore this cheese broiled, doused with brandy or ouzo and then flamed--with a splash of lemon to put out the flames. Pita, mandatory. Let us know which recipe you've whittled yourself down to.

[DeejayDebi]

Looking great so far John - way to go!

[Cheese Head]

Brie, I think you are referring to so many variables in the long post I built comparing several Halloumi making recipes. Yes many, on ingredients they are milk type, lipase, starter culture, CaCl2, and then in process they are cutting size, whether to cook cut curds or not, how and at what wight press, what size to cut serving blocks to, time to boil serving blocks, and amount of salt to sprinkle on cheeses. Lots!

Debi, thanks, will add pictures when use them.

Well I'm not sure these turned out that well, will see when frying. Most recipes said sliced pressed curds should float after 45 minutes, like thebelgianpanda's Haloumi making, mine were when floating at 25 minutes. Also, I couldn't get mine to fold without cracking, so texture was not correct, or cheese had cooled to much when tried to fold. Any advise appreciated.

[DeejayDebi]

The slices look very soft and pliable. From here they look perfect! Nice looking mint leaves too!

[Johanyrh]

The Halloumi looks great!
I remove the cheese from the whey as soon as it surfaces (about 20 – 25 minutes). It is very soft and pliable at this stage and a person should be able to fold it over without it cracking. When I press my Halloumi it is about 12-14 mm thick, might be easier to fold!

[Cheese Head]

Hi Johany, I saw your post on removing after surfaces. I cut mine about 1.5 cm thick and cracked, maybe mine wasn't cooked and thus plasticy enough? In the picture above you can see the indents of the mat after 20 min cooling, so mine was still still I think too soft.

When I look at some of the pictures in the links posted here, it looks thicker before folded in half.

[Michelle]

Hi John,

When I make haloumi I sprinkle it with salt and fold it as soon as it comes out of the whey.  As soon as it starts to cool it looses a lot of its elasticity.  And mine usually only takes 25 minutes in the whey till it floats and is ready.

Cheers,
Michelle

[Cheese Head]

Michelle, thanks for the feedback, so that's 3 of us with floating after 25 minutes, Johany, you, and I. Way less than most of those recipes I compared.

Good idea on folding while still hot, also I didn't maintain the whey temp at ~ 185F but let it drop to 145F when I placed the initially cold slabs in it, next time I'll keep it hot.

Also, Francoise recommended here to salt the curds before pressing to keep the pH up to help avoid texture issues.

Johany & Michelle, any tips on texture issues to know if "boiled" enough?

[DeejayDebi]

Hey that looks mighty tasty there Giovanni! Good job!

[Johanyrh]

Sorry for taking so long to reply spent a couple of days in hospital.

From the photo in the pan the halloumi  looks normal to me! As far as I know the halloumi is cooked when it surfaces, so I remove it from the whey as soon as possible afterwards (I am not sure what the effect of over cooking would be). I wont be able to make cheese for a couple of weeks (at least four), when I make  halloumi again I will take photos of the slices just before I add them to the whey for boiling and you should then be able to compare with your results

Do you enjoy the taste of halloumi?

[Daznz]

So did it taste any good John