Halloumi Cheese

Ingredients
8 pints fresh milk (a gallon), either goats or ewe or cow
1 Teaspoon Rennet or special cheese rennet
1/4 Teaspoon calcium carbonate
a little salt if desired

Equipments
Pan
2-3 Muslin bags or similar

Instructions

• Bring the milk to room temperature or heat it slightly on the stove. I didn't do this for my first attempt and the curds did not form. I later figured out my milk was too cold.

• Add the calcium carbonate to the milk only if you are using store bought milk. Apparently (I learned this the hard way) this milk has a lot of the calcium removed during processing.

• Next add rennet to the milk and let it set for 30 minutes.

• Break up the curds that form and put them into one or two muslin bags and hang to drain for about 30 minutes. (I didn't have bags, so I used cheese cloth and tied the 4 corners together)

• Take the liquid (whey) that drains and put it into a pot.

• The solids in the muslin will be firmer and oval in shape. Leave them hanging while you continue.

• Bring whey you put in the pot to the boil. If any curds form on the top, use a slotted spoon to remove them. Set these aside for the extra treat described below.

• Once the whey comes to a boil, lower the heat to just a simmer, remove the soft curds from your hanging muslin bags and lower them into the boiling whey. Let them simmer gently until the cheese floats to the top, approximately 20 minutes.

• Remove the cheese and sprinkle it with salt, and fold it in half and wrap it in cheese cloth.
  

• Place a weight on top of it and put it in the fridge for 2 hours.
  

• Save a small amount of the whey left in the pot in a airtight container that will also fit the cheese. After two hours, you can eat the cheese, but any that is left should be stored in the air-tight container with the small amount of whey.

This recipe makes 2 or 3 rounds of cheese.

Results and Taste testing: Well all looked to be going well once I figured out to warm up my milk. When I put the final product in the fridge under the weight, it looked just as expected, a pure cream color.

The next morning, when I checked on it, it had changed color. 80% of the cheese had gone from white to grey/clear. It was not appetizing looking at all!

However, I was determined to taste it. Halloumi's claim to fame is that you can grill it in a pan with no oil and it get browned and soft but doesn't melt away like other cheeses. So I sliced off a few slices and put them in a small pan. To my delight, as it heated, the color changed instantly back to all white and then it began to brown just like Halloumi from the store. I was also delighted to find that it tasted exactly like the cheese from the store too. My only disappointment is that it looks hideous before it is heated.

If anyone knows why this happened I would love to know what I could do differently to prevent this color change from happening the next time. Thanks
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Extra Treats
The curds that you skimmed from the whey and set aside can now be hung in the muslin bag and hung to dry. They will form a hard cheese that can be grated over spaghetti and other foods.

Or, instead of drying it, you can mix in some sugar and cinnamon into the soft curds for sweet snack.

You can use the left over whey that the cheese was simmered in to cook spaghetti noodles.