Local Halloumi

Posted by Lance Goodman on Jun 23, 2011 | 0 comments

Last week, the class went to film a local cheese maker.  The woman specializes in halloumi cheese, which is the traditional cheese of Cyprus and the east Meditteranean.  The traditional milk to use is a mixture of sheep and goat milk, although cow milk is mixed in at times.

One of the unique features of halloumi is its relatively high melting temperature compared to other cheeses.  This allows it to be grilled without falling apart and burning too quickly.  I personally prefer the cheese to be grilled.  We were brought some halloumi while sitting outside the cheesemaker’s home, but it had not been put on the grill.  Eating it this way makes the cheese seem a bit too rubbery.

It’s also very salty due to the brine solution used as a preservative, which in my opinion makes it less than ideal if you’re wanting to eat it by itself.  We were served the cheese with cucumber slices and bread.  This tends to help with the salt factor.  Mint leaves are a popular garnish for halloumi, and many Cypriots are known to eat it with watermelon in the summer months.

Admittedly, the smell of the cheese making process is mildly unpleasant at best.  The tiny cheese making room consisted of two large metal pots and stainless steel draining table.  I was relieved I didn’t have to film that day because there is simply no way I would have been able to stay in that cramped space without any fresh air.  While standing around the pots, you’re greeted with a waft of hot mist that smells like a boiling pot of spoiled milk.  In fact, that’s exactly what it is!

The newly boiled cheese-curds are not aesthetically appealing to say the least.  It looks kind of like a slimy lump of cottage cheese.  They use a metal box and cheese cloth in order to press out all of the excess water.  This milky substance is then collected and turned into another type of cheese.

After the experience, it will be a while before I can eat cheese without remembering that smell.  But aside from that, one of the main memories from the excursion will be the hospitality of the people we were filming, and their willingness to help us understand what the process of cheese making is all about.  What’s so fascinating about small-scale food production is the thought and care that’s put into the food.  This is opposed to huge factories that churn out massive quantities of a homogenized product.  Everything that comes out of small-scale operations is personal in a sense, or in the words of the bread baker from a few weeks ago, a certain amount of love is put into the process.