{"id":116,"date":"2016-10-26T15:22:34","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T15:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/puntofisso.net\/cheese\/?p=116"},"modified":"2016-10-26T15:22:34","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T15:22:34","slug":"bel-paese-italico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/puntofisso.net\/wordpress_blogs\/cheese\/index.php\/2016\/10\/26\/bel-paese-italico\/","title":{"rendered":"Bel Paese Italico"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bel Paese (Italian for “Beautiful Country”), or Italico, is a relatively recent cheese. It was invented by\u00a0Egidio Galbani (founder of one of the biggest industrial cheese-making companies in Italy) in 1906, as a response to the overwhelming quantities of French cheeses found in the shops in Milan. That’s where the vaguely nationalistic name comes from.<\/p>\n

It’s not a particularly difficult cheese to make, which suits both the home and the industrial cheesemakers. It is a fresh cheese, which goes under a short period of maturation. I took inspiration from two recipes: one from Giallo Zafferano<\/a> and one from Atlante Caseario<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As usual, start by preparing some brine, as you will need it later. For this recipe use 3 liters of water and 333g of salt, bring it to the boil, and let it cool until ~10C.<\/p>\n

\"img_20161022_135052\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Do the usual trick: about 8 pints of milk with 70g of yogurt, bring this to 39C and let it cool for about 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"img_20161022_123035\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At this stage, add rennet, cover up, and wait for 40 minutes. Break the curd in 4x4cm cubes, cover again, and let it set for 10 minutes. After this, take a whisk and give the whey and curd a good stir.<\/p>\n

\"img_20161022_135732\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wait about 5 minutes to let it gently set, then start filling your molds. You might use a cheese cloth if there is too much whey.\"img_20161022_140701\"<\/a>\"img_20161022_140727\"<\/a>\"img_20161022_140807\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s time to stew the curd. Place it as usual in the switched off oven to drain the whey, as seen for example in my Crescenza<\/a> recipe. In this case, I’ve put quite a bit of hot water below to make sure temperature and humidity are high.<\/p>\n

\"img_20161022_141638\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Turn it over after 30′, then after 60′ from the first turning it, then after another 60′, then after another 60′. Wait 30′ and put it in brine for 4-5 hours, after which you can put the cheese in the molds, and in the fridge, covered.<\/p>\n

For the first 3 days, turn it over twice a day, throw away the whey, and if the surface of the cheese is too wet, dry it with a cloth.<\/p>\n

After this, turn it over every 1-2 days. Your Bel Paese is ready to eat after 20 to 40 days.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/strong>\u00a0Two weeks later, this is how it looks. I’ve kept turning it every 1-2 days. It’s definitely more “wet” than crescenza, so I’ve also had to dry it a little with a clean cloth sometimes.<\/p>\n

\"belpaese\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bel Paese (Italian for “Beautiful Country”), or Italico, is a relatively recent cheese. It was invented by\u00a0Egidio Galbani (founder of one of the biggest industrial cheese-making companies in Italy) in 1906, as a response to the overwhelming quantities of French cheeses found in the shops in Milan. That’s where the vaguely nationalistic name comes from. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,5,7],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-belpaese","tag-galbani","tag-italico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/puntofisso.net\/wordpress_blogs\/cheese\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/puntofisso.net\/wordpress_blogs\/cheese\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/puntofisso.net\/wordpress_blogs\/cheese\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puntofisso.net\/wordpress_blogs\/cheese\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puntofisso.net\/wordpress_blogs\/cheese\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/puntofisso.net\/wordpress_blogs\/cheese\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/puntofisso.net\/wordpress_blogs\/cheese\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puntofisso.net\/wordpress_blogs\/cheese\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puntofisso.net\/wordpress_blogs\/cheese\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}