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Lighvan Cheese

The curd is drained in triangular cloth bags and then ripened in brine for three or four months.

Not vegetarian — contains rennet the source does not identify as animal or microbial.

Ingredients

Method

  1. THE CURD IS DRAINED IN TRIANGULAR CLOTH BAGS AND THEN RIPENED IN BRINE FOR THREE OR FOUR MONTHS. Its article gives both and they are the shape of the cheese in both senses. The curd goes into triangular cloth bags and is allowed to drain thoroughly, which is what gives the finished blocks their wedge shape; then the blocks go into an earthenware pot, are covered with salt and left for two days; and then they ripen in a 10 to 12 per cent salt brine for three or four months at around 10C. The two salting stages are separate and both are needed -- the dry salt pulls the last water out of the block, and the brine is where the flavour develops.
  2. IT IS STARTER-FREE, WHICH ITS ARTICLE STATES AND WHICH IS THE INTERESTING PART. No culture is added. The fermentation comes from whatever is already in the raw ewe's milk, which is also why the article notes there is little study of its microbial communities and why no two makers get quite the same result.
  3. IT IS RAW EWE'S MILK AND PASTEURISING IT DEFEATS THE POINT. With no starter, pasteurised milk has nothing left in it to do the work. This is also why the cheese cannot really be reproduced outside the place it is made -- and why this page is a description of a method rather than a promise about the result.
  4. THE MILK IS COAGULATED WITH RENNET AND NOTHING ELSE. Its article says rennet tablets. It does not say whether they are animal or microbial, so this page does not say either, and the dish is not described as suitable for vegetarians.
  5. THE CURD IS CUT AND LEFT TO DRAIN BY GRAVITY. No pressing in a mould and no weights: the bags hang until the whey has stopped running, which takes most of a day. The blocks come out a few centimetres thick.
  6. THE BRINE IS STRONG AND THE TEMPERATURE IS COOL AND STEADY. Twelve hundred grams of salt to four litres of water is about 10 per cent. Its article gives the ripening temperature as 10C give or take two degrees -- a cellar or the warmest part of a fridge, held steady for the whole three or four months.
  7. IT COMES OUT SOUR AND SALTY AND IT IS BREAKFAST FOOD. Its article says it is usually served at breakfast or at dinner with fresh bread.
  8. IT IS ONE OF A WIDE FAMILY OF BRINED WHITE CHEESES, AND ITS ARTICLE LISTS FOURTEEN COMPARABLE ONES. Worth knowing for one practical reason: if you want to taste what this method produces without spending four months on it, a sheep-milk feta is the nearest thing on a shop shelf. It will be milder, because it was made with a starter culture and this was not.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Iran · All recipes