Brynza (бринза, brined sheep cheese)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 5-litre pot
• •Digital thermometer
• •Long knife for cutting curd
• •Butter muslin or clean cheesecloth
• •Colander
• •Digital scale
• •Clean 1-litre glass jar

Instructions

1. 1

   Warm the milk

   Pour the sheep's milk into a clean heavy pot and warm it gently to blood heat, about 32C. Stir slowly from the bottom so it warms evenly and doesn't catch. It should feel just warm against your knuckle, alive but not hot.

   Use pasteurized milk for home cheese-making unless you know your milk source and local rules very well. Avoid UHT milk; it won't set into a proper curd.
2. 2

   Culture the milk

   Sprinkle the culture over the surface, wait a minute for it to hydrate, then stir it in with slow up-and-down movements. Add the diluted calcium chloride and stir again. Cover the pot and let the milk ripen until it smells a little sweeter and rounder, like warm cream with a faint tang.

3. 3

   Set the curd

   Stir in the diluted rennet for one quiet minute, then stop the milk moving. Cover and leave it undisturbed until the curd sets firmly enough that a knife makes a clean break and pale whey slips into the cut. Don't jiggle the pot every five minutes like a nervous aunt. Let it become cheese.

4. 4

   Cut and settle

   Cut the curd into small cubes, about the size of hazelnuts, then let them sit so the edges firm up. Stir gently, lifting from the bottom, until the curds shrink slightly and feel springy between your fingers. The whey will turn clearer and yellow-green. That's sheep's milk giving up its richness.

5. 5

   Drain the curd

   Line a colander with clean butter muslin and ladle in the curds. Gather the cloth and let the whey run off, then hang the bundle or set it under a light weight until the cheese holds together but still feels moist. This draining is the step that decides the texture: too wet and it sours badly, too dry and it loses its soft crumble.

6. 6

   Salt the cheese

   Weigh the drained cheese, crumble it into a clean bowl, and mix in fine sea salt at 2 percent of the cheese weight. Use your hands. Rub lightly until the salt is even and the curds look like damp white pebbles, not paste.

7. 7

   Make the brine

   Stir 100g salt into 1 litre non-chlorinated water until dissolved, then add the vinegar or whey. Pack the salted cheese into a clean jar and pour over enough brine to cover it completely. The surface must stay under the brine; anything above the line is not being kept safe.

8. 8

   Chill and ripen

   Close the jar and refrigerate. After two days it will taste sharper and more settled; after a week it becomes properly salty, crumbly, and ready for banosh, potatoes, bread, tomatoes, or anything that needs a mountain waking it up.

Chef Tips

• •Sheep's milk is the flavor here. Goat's milk makes a good cheese, cow's milk makes a milder one, but neither gives that same grassy fat. A bit more modern is fine; just name it honestly at your own table.
• •The salt has two jobs: flavor and safety. Salt the drained curd at 2 percent, then store it under a 10 percent brine in the fridge.
• •If the cheese tastes too salty, soak the portion you plan to serve in cold water or milk for 20 minutes, then drain well. Don't dilute the storage brine.
• •Save the whey for bread dough, pancakes, or a sour soup. Waste nothing. The old kitchens didn't.
• •Brynza loves sweet vegetables: tomatoes, roasted peppers, boiled potatoes, cornmeal banosh, radishes, cucumbers, and dill. It doesn't need decoration.

Advance Preparation

• •The cheese needs at least 2 days in the fridge after brining for the salt to settle through the curd.
• •For a sharper brynza, keep it submerged in brine for 5 to 7 days before serving.
• •Stored under clean brine in the fridge, it keeps about 3 weeks. Use clean utensils every time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 100g)