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CHEESE TYPE BOARDS (for Cheese Lovers and Cheese Makers) => RENNET COAGULATED - Soft => Topic started by: DaggerDoggie on June 15, 2008, 09:43:07 PM
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I was just talking to my daughter on Skype. She has been in Slovakia on Rotary exchange for the past year. She comes home in a month, I can't wait. ;D
I have been telling her about my cheese escapades. I sent her a link to this forum so she could see my cheeses and she started telling me about what they eat there.
They eat a lot of soft cheeses and the most common, perhaps national dish is BryndzovÉ haluŠky which is a potato and dumplings soup with bacon made with Bryndza. I did a search and it looks like it is basically feta cheese made from ewe's milk. Katrina told me it is not like feta since it is soft and spreadable...ah, but she only knows the store-bought feta, not the very soft, fresh stuff. I'm thinking if I use a lot of cream and follow a feta recipe, I may be able to replicate this cheese to some extent when she comes home. Or I could buy a freshened ewe. She said it comes in plastic bags with a lot of water around it and is salty. Sound like feta to me.
She also said they eat a lot of crusty bread on which they put salty lard. She likes it, but probably the most healthy way to eat bread. I'm going to have to try it. I don't even know if you can buy lard any more...I'll have to check.
Other unique cheeses are:
Parenica is a sheep’s cheese that rolled up like a long ribbon. I found this online: (http://www.fgslovakia.com/assets/2007/11/9/Parenica.jpg)
Oštiepok sounded very interesting to me. She's going to try and bring some home. It's a smoked sheep's milk cheese that is hard. They also put that on bread in slices. I did a search on how it is made and it sounds interesting. No recipes found yet.
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Does sound somewhat like Feta for which I think you need a special culture or Lipase Powder if using Cow's milk. The only time I tried making Feta (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?topic=63.0) was without any of that and I basically got salty curds.
Our 16 year old just left today for San Antonio for a 1 week mission trip, working in food bank, soup kitchen, and making wheel chairs, will do here good, I expect she'll come back a little different from middle class suburbia ;). Already miss her, 1 year, wow . . . :o.
When I was a poor student backpacking around Europe I was in a working men's bar in Spain and they had free whiteish creamed honey and toast! Put a big dolop on and bit in, yikes not honey but what, yes, bacon grill type drippings! OK close to lard, yuk :P :P :P.
I ended up going through what was then Yugoslavia to Greece, nice people and some parts very picturesque!
Maybe she can dig up a couple recipes in her spare time?
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Dumb de dumb dumb, must read, Slovak as in ex Czechoslovakia, nothing to do with Yugoslavia . . .
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No, not dumb...I'm not sure most people even know of Slovakia...it was past over in WWII so we really have no history with them. Besides, Yugoslavia has a somewhat similar resent history, although Slovakia has been spared the violence. Since it has only been independent from Czechoslovakia since 1989, not many Americans go there. My daughter says people there are intrigued to meet an American.
It is tough having our kids leave home. A week may not seem like a long time, but when she left for the year, the first week is the toughest, so I know what you are going through. :'(
I asked her if she could try to go to a cheese monger or farm to get a recipe in methods, she said she will try. She is in a relatively large city, Kosice, so not many farms right there. We'll see what she comes up with. :)
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Here it is, BryndzovÉ haluŠky, around the 2:00 mark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smj1NW-F0yY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smj1NW-F0yY)
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Well I know that I live in Aussie, but according to US soapers that I know, lard can still be bought in the supermakets. Not sure where it will be kept, but here it is in the fridge section along with the butter, and other hard blocks of frying fats.
Or you could contact a butcher and render your own, it you feel that keen.
Ok in regards to a soft feta, (got some on the go now), I add ??? what percentage of cream, to make a soft feta. I much prefer the soft feta's, but have only been able to make the harder version.
Any information greatly appreciated.
Tracey
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Hi Tea
That sounds posh as in High Tea :)! OK old joke I suspect.
I can't find a Feta recipe where you add cream. Salt brine hardens cheese, is it possible that your's is getting too hard in brine as either too long or brine is too strong?
The only time I've made feta (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?topic=63.0) it turned out too soft as still too moist with whey.
Molly at Fias Farm Co (http://fiascofarm.com/) has a great example of making Feta here (http://fiascofarm.com/dairy/feta.html), albeit without cream.
Hope helps . . .
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mmm high tea ... now that's new, no one has said that to me before. Can assure you that there is nothing posh, or high and mighty about me.
tea for two ... now that worked while I had 4 girls and 2 boys, but now I have 5 girls and 3 boys, so that's out.
Truth be told they're my initials.
Tracey
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I forgot to add in my last post about the cream.
I was responding to Dagger Doggie's post in regards to adding cream to make a softer feta. I am aware that the salt is what makes it harder, and I brine mine at around 12%, which I have read is the lowest percentage that should be used for a feta. I only turn the curds twice, in the hope that minimal breakage of the curd might promote a softer cheese, but so far no luck. So I guess I am looking for any hints on how to get a soft feta, as that is my preference in a feta.
Tracey
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I'm going to experiment with this during the week sometime. I would like to try and get it perfected when my daughter comes home.
I did use the broken pieces from my Manchego cheese disaster last night in a salad. It had the texture of store-bought feta and was fairly salty. It tasted good in the salad, or at least my son and finance were being really nice to me. It was one of the few cheeses I have made that I have actually eaten so far and we're all still alive. ;D
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Welcome to the final stage, albeit with a piece of cheese you picked up off the floor . . . . good to hear toy are still alive ;D.
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I find myself holding my breath every time the family tries something new.
Great to hear that it went down well.
Congrats.
Tracey
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Well Thanks!
Now for the others...my moldy cheeses are molding up nicely, if that is nice, and my blue cheese is getting a little furry. I'm told that is a good sign, but we'll see.
I'm starting to like the looks of the washed rind cheeses better, but the truth will be in the taste. That's the problem with waxing cheese, you can't see what it is doing.
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Oh great mysterious cheese, what mischief doest thou covet behind ye cover, soon all will be revealed, say I.
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Opened up and tried my smoked Manchigo Cheese. It was a little dry, somewhat salty, not sure why. Anyway, it was my first sampling of my ageg cheese. It was good, but I was somewhat disappointed.
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Well it certainly looks good!
Your Manchego is the first time you've made, it, the one you dropped and broke and tossed on the barbi to give it a bit of smoke, aged part of time in your hard to control humidity plastic cooler before you got your more stable Cheese Cave freezer set up, and you are somewhat disappointed? Not fair!
Next time little less salt or time brining and more careful aging for humidity control in your new Cheese Cave freezer and it should be perfect! OK maybe perfect on the third try. Like I said, it looks great!
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PS: Kind of funny that yours is a little dry like my earlier unsealed cheeses, and my newer vacuum bag sealed cheeses are too moist . . . this aging is quite and art.
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" this aging is quite and art. "
thats an understatement CH :-)
reg