Description and production of Añejo cheese, energy value, composition. Action on the human body and use in cooking. Interesting about the variety.
Anejo is a Mexican cheese that is often made from sheep's milk. It is sold both unripe with an inexpressive curd taste and pasty pulp, and after a long aging - oily, spicy and piquant, with an elastic texture. The smell is sour, cheesy; White color. The crust is edible, grayish, covered with a mixture of paprika and salt. Heads in the form of cylinders, briquettes with rounded edges, small rectangles.
How is Anejo cheese made?
A complex of thermophilic and lactic acid bacteria is used as a starter, as a preservative - calcium chloride and salt, a flavoring additive - paprika. Curdling sheep milk requires 3 times more rennet than cow's milk. In farms, the raw materials are not pasteurized, but quite often they are partially degreased.
Anejo cheese is made, like other semi-hard varieties:
- Milk is heated to 35 ° C, calcium chloride is added, dry sourdough is added, allowed to spread and stir. The rennet is poured in.
- The resulting clot must be very dense. If lifted with a knife blade, it cracks. Serum hardly separates.
- The curd is cut, the container is placed in a water bath and, slowly heating to 40 ° C, is kneaded for a long time - at least 40 minutes. Then you should wait until the curd flakes sink to the bottom of the pan.
- To make Anejo cheese dense, to separate the whey, the curd mass is first squeezed out, transferred into a cheese cloth folded in several layers, then suspended by tightening the knot, and only then set for self-pressing. Part of the salt is added during shaping by mixing into the curd. At the same stage, primary salting is possible, adding paprika or dried piquant herbs.
- During the day, the head is turned over every 2 hours. Readiness is checked by cutting off a piece with a very sharp knife. The surface is notched, and then forcefully separated from the resulting mass. The structure is grainy and difficult to dissect. The intermediate product tastes like feta cheese and is slightly salty.
- Rub the surface of the cheese with a mixture of salt and paprika. It is possible to add jalapeno pepper and epazote herb (Mexicans use it as a tea brew). Leave for 1-3 days at room temperature.
Aging is long - from 4 to 7 months. During this time, the taste and structure of the cheese changes. The chamber maintains a constant microclimate: temperature - 12-16 ° C, air humidity - 85-92%, constant ventilation. The first 2 weeks, the heads are turned over and examined 2 times a day, then - 2 times a week. The formation of eyes in the pulp is allowed.
Interestingly, the Mexicans taste this variety no earlier than 240 days after being placed in a cell. That is why the name literally translates as "age" or "old".
