Halloumi that melted and halloumi that squeaked
Halloumi is the cheese I most wanted to be able to make, because the shop version is salty, rubbery and dear in the ways that make you think it must be easy. The first batch, from four litres of whole milk, made six small blocks that looked exactly right, white and dense, and dissolved into a puddle the moment they touched a hot pan. The second batch, a week later, fried to a golden crust and squeaked against my teeth the way it should. The differences were three.
Both batches started the same way: milk to 32 °C, a little calcium chloride, rennet, forty minutes to a clean break, curd cut to about 1.5 cm and stirred gently for twenty minutes. Halloumi uses no starter culture at all, which is part of its appeal; there is nothing to buy except the rennet. The curd is drained, pressed, cut into blocks, and then comes the step that makes it halloumi: the blocks are cooked in the hot whey until they float, then salted and folded over a few leaves of dried mint.
First difference: pressing. Batch one was pressed for forty minutes under about 2 kg, which left the blocks soft and full of whey. Batch two was pressed for two hours under 4 kg, with a flip at the hour, and the blocks came out firm enough to cut with a clean edge.
Second: the whey temperature. In batch one I heated the whey to around 80 °C because I was nervous of boiling it, and the blocks took twenty-five minutes to float and never really firmed up. In batch two I held the whey between 88 and 92 °C with the thermometer clipped to the pot, and the blocks floated after about twelve minutes, visibly tighter and bouncy when pressed with a spoon. The heat is what sets the protein and gives halloumi its refusal to melt.
Third: salt and rest. Batch one was salted lightly and fried within the hour. Batch two was salted more generously on all sides, left overnight in the fridge wrapped in a cloth, and fried the next day. The yield from four litres was about 620 g, which is eight decent slabs. Half of it went on the barbecue that weekend, and the squeak was unanimous.