BellaVitano type cheese recipe?

[TailPipe]

Has anyone been successful in finding or experimenting with making a BellaVitano type cheese? Parmesan/Cheddar hybrid?

I did a forum search and it was in a couple threads a few years ago but it doesn't look like anyone ever posted a recipe they thought would work. Just wondering. Would love to give this a try. I might experiment a bit to see what i can come up with but would love to hear from anyone else that has tried something like this.

Cheers

[Gromit]

It's not much but this may help on working out the process.
https://culturecheesemag.com/cheese-library/bellavitano-gold

[fattyacid]

Here you go

TA-61                 .01g/gal Streptococcus thermophilus

Flora Danica        .06g/gal Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris, Lactococcus lactis       subsp. biovar. diacetylactis, Leuconostoc

LH 100               .04g/gal Lactobacillus helveticus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis

FLAV 54             .01g/gal Lactobacillus helveticus  not redundant, pay attention, different strain of LH than LH 100

Liquid CaCl for store bought milk  .4ml/ gal

Single strength VEAL RENNET by Walcoren  .36 ml/gal

To get both texture and flavor right you need 10 gallons of milk to get a cheese that is 10-11 in Dia. and 2.5-3 in thick for a natural rinded cheese.

Buy the best quality whole milk 3.25+% butterfat, higher is alright up to 4.5%.
Heat milk to 90 degrees Fahrenheit and add cultures stir in for 5 min. Ripen milk for 25 min more-maintain 90 degrees.
At the end of ripening, stir in CaCl diluted 40:1 in  warm non-clorinated water for 5 min.

Stir in rennet, diluted 40:1 in cool non-chlorinated water  for 2 min. Still the milk, check for a clean break around 30-40 min. Your clean break should be glassy and smooth when ready to cut.

Cut to the size of corn kernel, rest/heal the curd for 5 min.
Stir slowly and continuously for 30 min while slowly heating to 100 degrees. Ideal curd is firm/slightly springy but not rubbery hard.
Press under whey with 10 lbs for 15 min.
Transfer curd mass to an large tomme cheese mold described above-size
Press over night with 40 lbs in a warm room 70 degrees.
Cheese should be flipped and rewrapped (cheesecloth) every hour for the first 4 hours.

Save a gallon and a half of whey from the cheesemake and add a 1/4 cup vinegar, soak your cheesecloth in this mixture and wring out to keep the cheese from sticking while pressing.
Next day
Dry salt with about 6.5-8 oz of KOSHER salt or natural sea salt, place back in mold for 24 hrs.
Age at 45-50 degrees 90% humidity for 6 month minimum, ideal 9 months.

[mikekchar]

Looks super interesting.  I'm especially interested in dry salting what seems to be a 10 lb cheese!  Do you salt the edges or just the faces?

[fattyacid]

Salt the entire cheese body, brush off the excess. For those patient enough this cheese has legs to age past a year out to 18 months-gets very Parm-like in texture and flavor. I'll post a photo when I pull one from the cheese cave soon.

[Bantams]

That seems like such a short/low cook time for such a dense cheese. I'm curious if you've tried any made from this recipe yet?

[fattyacid]

I have made a variation of this cheese recipe for over ten years commercially, 10's of thousands of lbs. I have changed the culture blend for my own needs but the recipe as stated is rock solid. If you want a faster maturing, softer bodied cheese you can cut the curd stir for 20 min, remove 30% whey (starting volume) add 130 degree F water and stir for 20-30 min. This type of cheese falls into the category of an Alpine hybrid cheese-if you had a mating of a cheddar a tomme and an alpine cheese this is the tasty mongrel you end up with.

[Bantams]

Thanks so much! I just dried off the cows but I'm excited to try this recipe in the spring.  ;D