Author Topic: Stracchino Cheese Making Recipe - Optimization  (Read 17916 times)

jasonmolinari

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Re: Stracchino Cheese Making Recipe - Optimization
« Reply #15 on: September 16, 2011, 10:56:57 AM »
thanks everyone. keep the advice coming if there are any more ideas.

Offline george13

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Re: Stracchino Cheese Making Recipe - Optimization
« Reply #16 on: October 17, 2011, 06:04:21 PM »
I was wondering if you had any luck with further stracchino tests.  I am getting ready to try this week. 

jasonmolinari

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Re: Stracchino Cheese Making Recipe - Optimization
« Reply #17 on: October 17, 2011, 06:10:23 PM »
i have not tried again, but i would love to hear your results and experiments!

Offline george13

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Re: Stracchino Cheese Making Recipe - Optimization
« Reply #18 on: October 18, 2011, 08:53:04 AM »
I'll keep you posted and provide some pictures if I can.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Stracchino Cheese Making Recipe - Optimization
« Reply #19 on: November 01, 2011, 09:17:29 PM »
We have this cheese spread sort of thing used a lot like cream cheese my mother used to make with the kids. It was a part of a winter nights ritual after skating or sledding and before and after the bath.  I remember the magic of seeing the chunk of white cheese in the morning and anciously waiting for Sunday to eat it on fresh bread with basil and olive oil. I think it might be what you are looking for except we called it Stracchini. Could just be a dialect thing. I have noticed that depending on what part of Italy you are from things are pronounced a bit different. I never really though of it as cheese but I guess it is.  Hope this helps. I haven't made this since Mama passed. I may have to try it with my niece. Thanks for the stirring of memories!

Stracchini

1 gallon whole milk.
1 pint half and Half
3 to 4  tablespoons active plain yogurt
4 drops rennet dissolved in 1/4 cup distilled water
2 cups of cold pure water
4 tablespoons salt

Warm milk and yogurt to room temperature.to about  104°F
mix in yogurt straight from the container mix well
Heat milk slowly  to about  104°F to prevent scalding
Remove from heat
Put the pot in a warm oven about 90°F for about 2 to 3 hours. If you hae a light in your oven this is perfect!
Cut the curds into pieces about the size of plums and again let them sit in a warm oven for about 2 hours
Very gently scoop curds into a cheese cloth lined collander and drain for about 2 hours, carefully tunring after about an hour.
Mix the salt and salt until salt is disolved. Add cheese in cheese cloth and soak for about 1 hour turning after 30 minutes.
place  the cheese in a cheesecloth lines collender and sprinkle a pinch of salt on top. Let this drain covered at room temperature over night or at least 8 to 10 hours.
The cheese sold be light and springy. If still soft and sticky drain for another few hours.
Carefully unwrap the cheese from it's cloth and place in an air tight container to age for 24 hours.
When ready it should be similar in texture to a soft brie without the rind.

soleuy

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Re: Stracchino Cheese Making Recipe - Optimization
« Reply #20 on: May 22, 2012, 03:50:49 PM »
Hello I registered at this forum in November 2010, when I was beginning to learn about cheese making but then I stopped doing it during last year. As it's clear my English writing is poor but I'll do my best.
Now I decided to begin with an easy cheese and keep doing it till I get good results in several tests. I want an easy cheese to begin so I chose stracchino, a cheese I've first met in Italy where I've lived for two years 13 years ago.

Stracchino also known as crescenza is a type of Italian cow’s-milk cheese it is eaten very young, has no rind and a very soft, creamy texture and normally a mild and delicate flavor. It is normally square in form.
I use this recipe from an Italian forum http://www.forumdiagraria.org/ which I am very grateful.
Ingredients
4 liters whole milk.
Rennet
Starter cultures
Salt

PROCEDURE

*Warm milk to 65 |C pasteurization

*Cold to 37| C- 42 °

*Add salt 1 % ( 40 gr) This is recommended but it can salted in brine bath or dry salt
*Add starter cultures (Streptococcus termophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus (or 1, 5 % yogurt or 1 % termophile milk culture).
Add rennet to coagulate in 30 minutes.
Cut the curds into pieces 8- 10 cm wait 25 minutes
Cut nut size and stir gently, wait 5 to 10 minutes.
Very gently scoop curds into the molds I used two plastic pudding bowls with holes.
“Stufatura “(drain and mature) for 3 – 4 hours in a warm oven,  (I put a light on the oven  to create 30°  C and some warm water for a high humidity. The cheese mustn't touch the whey. You have to turn them over 3 or 4 times during this period.
Mature in the fridge for 2 days  being carefully that it doesn't touch the whey and cover.

After two days it's ready. It's a soft cheese milky taste.


This is my first proof; the result was good but a little salty. Moreover I had problems with the    rennet because its expiration date was November 2011 and it didn't coagulated after 30 minute and I put another dose and it took 2 hours to coagulate.

I've just bought a new one and I will repeat it, my idea is to keep doing this cheese till I'll get the same result for tree times.

Offline Boofer

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Re: Stracchino Cheese Making Recipe - Optimization
« Reply #21 on: May 22, 2012, 07:30:46 PM »
Welcome back! I never had any problem with your English.

Your cheese looks great. Nice picture. How long will it stay fresh?

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Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

soleuy

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Re: Stracchino Cheese Making Recipe - Optimization
« Reply #22 on: May 22, 2012, 09:07:16 PM »
Thank you!! I posted the photo |at  the Italian forum; I want their opinion and advice too.
I haven't got much experience about how long it will stay fresh but I read on the web that in the fridge at 0- 3 ° C it would last 6 days more or less.

soleuy

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Re: Stracchino Cheese Making Recipe - Optimization
« Reply #23 on: May 24, 2012, 09:42:00 PM »
Hello I made my second stracchino, so there are some corrections to the recipe I posted. At the Italian forum I've got two critics:  the form was too low and perhaps a little dry.
I think the reason of the first problem (stracchino or crescenza  are usually 4- 5 cm high) is the mold which is too low to be filed with all the curd ,but with  4 l I've got two filled pudding stamps so it is possible to put one over the other after the last turnover of the stuffatura”. The side that is touching is the dryer one (the top) to prevent some whey from been inside the cheese. I use pudding stamps but it would be better one with straight sides
I put my double stracchino” in the fridge but it crumbled   . So I reviewed the recipe and came on with I've made a mistake!!!
After the stuffatura it's necessary to put the cheese in the fridge inside the stamp for 24 – 36 hours. Then you take it out and put in the fridge again on a mat that allows the whey to drain with a film only on it
In the future l go ahead with this cheese and I promise to post a revise recipe when I get an almost perfect stracchino o crescenza

Next I add some general information about these cheeses and two photos.

Traditionally the term stracchino is use to name   all soft cheeses made with milk from cows “stracche”," that is tired, with reference to the cows which  after a long journey back from the pastures, arrived tired in the evening when they were milked. The soft cheese is a full-fat soft raw, cheese delicate and flavorful and is made only with whole cow's milk originating in Lombardy.

The crescenza is an Italian soft cheese, raw and fresh, made from whole cow's milk, pasteurized or skimmed. It belongs to the family of stracchini, which includes also the Carthusian, and Robiola cheese and is said to derive its name from the Latin word "Crescentia," because if keep warm swells like bread during leavening. It is a cheese without rind, the cheese is creamy, smooth, and white in color and the flavor is sweet and delicate flavor. The crescenza provides protein of high biological quality, calcium and vitamins A, B1, B2, PP, also contains high amounts of minerals such as sodium, potassium and phosphorus.
Many times crescenza and stracchino are used as synonyms, but the crescenza is softer and the stracchino dryer with a ripening time of about 20 days to 3 month for the Strachitund.