Russian cheese

Perhaps there is no other cheese that is produced in such large quantities as Russian cheese. The technology was developed in the 1960s at the Uglich Scientific Research Institute in the Soviet Union and it has already spawned "twins" (Kostroma and Poshekhonye cheeses).

This semi-hard cheese with a mild, slightly tangy flavor was intended for mass consumption and quickly became popular due to its pleasant taste and versatile use.

Required:

    Recipe

    Preparing (1h 40min)
    • Before starting, we should disinfect all surfaces and dishes that may come into contact with milk.
    • Determine whether milk is suitable for making cheese. It has to go through the bactericidal phase (cold milk from the previous day usually works). If you have a PH meter, the PH level of milk should not be outside the PH 6.55–6.75 range (which is very rare).
    • Pasteurize milk: heat it to 65 °C and keep it at this temperature for 30 minutes. Can heat up to 70 °C and hold for 15 minutes.
    • Quickly cool the milk, for example, in a cold bath to 34 °C (it could take 15 minutes), or heat the already pasteurized milk.
      Processing (3h)
      • Add the cheese culture Micromilk ME at 1 gram (pH 6.37).
      • Wait for 5 minutes and stir the cheese culture into the milk.
      • Add calcium chloride - 2.5 ml, annatto - 8 drops, and rennet - 1 ml, stirring them into the milk within 30 seconds. Before adding to the milk, calcium chloride and rennet should be diluted separately with 50 ml of clean water. **Calcium chloride and rennet should be added separately.
      • The pH for adding the enzyme (rennet) is typically between 6.45-6.6. In our case, it was pH 6.39.
      • After adding the rennet, allow time for the milk to coagulate (form a solid curd) to determine the coagulation point. Typically, the coagulation point for most cheeses is 3. This means that if the milk has coagulated in 12 minutes, the next step can only be started 36 minutes after adding the rennet (12x3=36 minutes). The acceptable time for curd formation is 10-15 minutes. If it is shorter or longer, the physical properties of the cheese will change.
      • Testing this recipe, in our case, the milk coagulated after 15 minutes, so we leave it for an additional 30 minutes, making a total of 45 minutes since adding the rennet.
      • Cut the curd vertically with a 1.5 cm spacing and let it rest for 5 minutes.
      • Cut the curd horizontally with a 1.5 cm spacing and let it rest for 5 minutes.
      • Gently stir from the bottom up.
      • pH 6.42. Over the next 35 minutes, maintain a temperature of 34°C and stir every 5-10 minutes.
      • Let it rest for 5 minutes.
      • Pour off 1/3 of the whey (up to the level of the curd).
      • pH 6.37. Increase the temperature to 42°C over a period of 30 minutes, stirring every 5-10 minutes.
        Pressing and salting (4h)
        • If the pH level of your whey is higher than pH 6.45, keep the cheese at 42°C for a little longer. At this stage, our pH level is already pH 6.32, so we drain all the whey, sprinkle the salt, mix well, and let it rest for 20 minutes. ***
        • After 20 minutes, the pH is 6.30. Drain the separated whey and transfer the cheese curds to a cheese mold.
        • The first press is under its own weight for 20 minutes.
        • Subsequent presses are done as needed. Russian cheese does not require heavy pressing because then the mechanical cheese eyes, which are so characteristic of Russian cheese, will be small or disappear entirely.
        • Once the cheese has an aesthetic shape, place it in the refrigerator at 12°C and keep it for at least 3-4 weeks.****
        • Turn the cheese over once a day (or every three days).
        • After a week, the cheese can be covered with a protective coating, wax, or vacuum-sealed.
          We look forward to your feedback!

          * Freshly milked milk has bactericidal properties for a few hours, during the so-called bactericidal phase, when bacteria suppress reproduction. Cooling the milk prolongs the bactericidal phase. If the milk is obtained in strict compliance with sanitary regulations and rapidly cooled to +40 °C, the duration of the bactericidal phase is 24 hours and more. At the same temperature bactericidal phase period, impure milk has at least two to three times shorter temperature. The duration of the unrefrigerated milk phase is, on average, 2 hours.
          (Source: http://www.ezerzeme.lv/lv/zinas/noderigi/5222/par-piena-kvalitati)

          ** The time of milk coagulation (thickening) depends on the quantity of calcium chloride and rennet. It can be adjusted for best coagulation time, which should ideally be 12 minutes. For instance, if the first time your milk has thickened after 20 minutes, then increase the next dose of enzyme.

          *** Unlike other recipes where salting is done in a brine solution, this time the salt is added directly, thereby rapidly reducing the increase in acidity and preventing the cheese curds from sticking together. This, in turn, will allow us to obtain mechanical cheese eyes.

          **** If you use a thicker cheese cloth, the cheese surface will always be wrinkled. To fix this, during the final pressing, leave the cheese in the mold without the cloth, resulting in rounded edges and a smooth surface.

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