Description of Hood's cheese and the secrets of making. Caloric content, composition, useful and harmful properties for the human body. How the cultivar is eaten, its use as a culinary ingredient, the history of the cultivar.
Guda or Gudis Kveli is a Georgian cheese made from raw sheep's milk. Color - cream, ivory or light yellow; texture - brittle, firm, so dense that the cheese is easier to break than to cut, due to the fact that it crumbles. Many small round eyes that make the cut look like rising dough. The smell is more pronounced than that of French varieties with mold, made without pasteurization, the taste is cheesy, spicy-salty, creamy. The heads are shaped like a loaf of bread or a torus.
How is Guda cheese made?
A real Georgian kveli of this variety can be made only after the wineskin-guda is prepared for ripening. It is because of the sheepskin sack that the cheese got its name.
The skin is carefully removed from the sheep, being careful not to damage it. Pieces on the limbs are cut off, because the characteristic smell and taste can be obtained only upon contact with wool (it is cut to 3 cm in length). The skin itself is thoroughly cleaned, scraping off the meat, allowed to dry in the shade for a week, and then soaked in running water until it rinses out. Then they beat off to the required elasticity and only then they are sewn with fur inside. Before you put Hood's cheese into a wineskin, water is poured into it and salt is added.
How Good's cheese is made in peasant farms:
- Prepared sheep's milk is filtered through a sieve lined with fragrant herbs - nettle, steppe feather grass, mint or lemon balm.
- The milk is heated, rennet from the lamb's stomach is added to it, and the vat is wrapped in a felt cloak or blanket to keep the temperature constant.
- When the curd curd is formed, it is broken with a stirring stick, the curd pieces are allowed to settle to the bottom and some of the whey is drained.
- Stir several times, adding warm boiled water, collect curd grains in a bag of flax. Hang it up to glass the serum.
- After a day, the bag is removed, separate heads are formed, tamping the cheese mass into molds or rolling into a ball. Allow to dry for several hours.
- Wrapped again in cotton fabric separately and wrapped in felt, overlaid with slightly dried nettles. Leave for another 24 hours.
- Each head is rubbed with coarse gray (lime, collected in caves) salt and placed in a wineskin, into which 25% brine is periodically poured.
- The bag is turned over daily 2-3 times so that the salt is evenly distributed. In one wineskin, 2-3 heads ripen at the same time. You can taste it in 2 months.
In order to enhance the smell and characteristic taste, when making Hood's cheese, the wineskin with the heads is first kicked, beaten with sticks and beaten, and then left in brine for a day. Then they put it back in the bag, bury it in the ground, and make a fire on top. A day later, they are placed to ripen in natural grottoes. This cheese is the most fragrant and, according to gourmet reviews, the most delicious.
Making Good Cheese on Farms:
- The starting material (sheep milk or a mixture of sheep and cow 1 to 1) is heated in a water bath to 33 ° C, mixed with dry thermophilic starter culture and rennet, and left for 1 hour.
- Formed kale is cut only vertically, in strips 1 cm wide. Allow to "rest" for 5-10 minutes, and then grind in a horizontal plane.
- Cubes 1x1 cm are kneaded, slowly raising the temperature to 37 ° C for 5-7 minutes. The curd mass is allowed to settle. Drain so much whey that the rest only covers the curd grains. The brine is then prepared on the basis of the removed liquid.
- The cheese grains are transferred into molds covered with serpyanka (cheese cloth), left for 40 minutes for self-pressing. Turn over and leave for 1 hour. Oppression is not needed.
- The whey is heated to 80 ° C and so much salt is dissolved in it to obtain 18-20% brine. Cool it on ice to 10 ° C. Cheese is lowered into containers with brine, which are then placed in chambers.
- After 5-7 days, the heads are placed in a wineskin, beaten off, as already described, and in such a container they are placed in chambers for 20 days. The brine is added daily.
- For another 40 days, the cheese ripens on the shelves. The properties and taste of a product made in large batches do not differ much from those cooked by private cheese makers. But the aroma is more pleasant.
Read also how Lor Peinier cheese is made.
The composition and calorie content of Hood cheese
No preservatives or flavor enhancers are used in the manufacture of Goodies Kweli. It contains sheep's milk, rennet and salt. The properties of the variety are based on the raw material and special conditions of ripening. Fat content relative to dry matter - 45-50%.
The calorie content of Guda cheese is 294 kcal per 100 g, of which
- Protein - 31 g;
- Fat - 24 g;
- Carbohydrates - up to 1 g.
The product is easily digested due to its balanced vitamin and mineral complex. The Goode sheep cheese contains B vitamins, almost in full, with a predominance of folic acid, tocopherol, carotene, potassium, calcium, manganese, magnesium, zinc, selenium, iron. It is worth paying attention to the content of calcium and iron - there are more of these compounds than in other varieties made from sheep's milk.
Useful properties of Guda cheese
The working capacity and longevity of the peoples of the Caucasus are explained not only by the climate in which they live, but also by the peculiarity of the diet, which includes a large amount of fermented milk products.
Benefits of Good Cheese
- Strengthens the nervous system, reduces irritability, prevents the development of depression.
- Increases working capacity, maintains tone, reduces susceptibility to pathogenic microorganisms that penetrate from the external environment.
- Accelerates organic reactions.
- It normalizes the work of the cardiovascular system, reduces the permeability of the vascular walls, maintains the rhythm of heart contractions, and lowers blood pressure.
- Stabilizes metabolic processes.
- Prevents the development of dysbiosis, populates the intestines with the flora necessary for digesting food and assimilating nutrients.
- Suppresses the activity of putrefactive bacteria that colonize the intestines, protecting against dysbiosis.
- Strengthens bones, improves hair quality and increases nail strength.
Due to the ripening characteristics of Good's cheese, milk sugar, which is much less in sheep's milk than in cow's, is completely processed. There are no contraindications for its use in case of lactase deficiency. Adding to the diet 2-3 times a week normalizes hormones and slows down age-related changes, preserves the smoothness of the skin and the strength of the teeth.
Goodis Kweli will help you quickly recover from serious illness or physical exertion, accelerate recovery from tuberculosis and anemia caused by dysfunction of organic systems.
Contraindications and harm of Hood cheese
If you are allergic to sheep's milk, you should not get acquainted with the taste of Goodies Kweli. Despite the long-term fermentation, the basic properties of the feedstock are fully preserved.
The damage from Goode cheese can be caused by its high salt content. Because of it, the variety should be abandoned for gastritis with high acidity and erosive and ulcerative lesions in the stomach and intestines (including the duodenum), hypertension, impaired renal function, and a tendency to edema.
A high amount of potassium can provoke a violation of myocardial contraction, lead to hypertensive crisis, arrhythmias and angina pectoris. Despite the relatively low calorie content, with an inactive lifestyle, abuse of the variety leads to obesity. With hormonal disorders and diseases of the digestive organs in history, the use of Good cheese should be limited to 50 g per day.
The microbiological danger of Kweli Gudis, made by private cheese makers, is increased. Despite the fact that salt is considered a reliable preservative, conditions favorable for the development of pathogenic microorganisms are created in the fur coat of the guda. In addition, the feedstock was not pasteurized.
Therefore, such cheese should not be introduced into the diet of pregnant women, women with breastfeeding or small children.
The heads made on farms are fermented in a fur wineskin for no longer than 20 days, and then ripened on shelves. The addition of salt inhibits pathogenic microbes and makes it safer to use. But it should be borne in mind that a person who tries the product for the first time may not have enzymes in the stomach that contribute to the assimilation of Goodis Kweli. Therefore, it is advisable to introduce it into the daily menu in small pieces.
Good Cheese Recipes
Gudis Kweli is eaten with fresh bread and flat cakes, washed down with homemade wines and tarragon. It can be used as an ingredient in many Georgian dishes and salads, in which Suluguni and Feta were introduced.
Good Cheese Recipes:
- Lobio … Lima or white beans, 500 g, are poured overnight with cool water. Guda cheese, 200 g, is also soaked, but for 40 minutes, to get rid of excess salt and slightly remove the characteristic aroma. 2 onions and 1 leek are fried in a pan in sunflower oil, cut as finely as possible. The water is drained from the beans and set aside. Chop finely into a small bunch of cilantro and basil. When the onion turns golden brown, put the dried beans in a pan and stew for 2 minutes. 50 ml of wine vinegar is heated. Together with a handful of dried tarragon, ground walnuts, 70 g, with a garlic tooth and 1 tsp. sea salt. Season the beans with warm tarragon, a nut mixture, grated allspice (2 peas are enough), 1/3 tsp. cinnamon, sprinkle parsley leaves, cilantro, thyme on a pinch, 1/4 tsp each. suneli hops and coriander. Stew until tender. Grind the contents of the pan to the consistency of a thick sauce by adding chopped Goodis Kweli and pouring in the water remaining after soaking the beans.
- Cheese casserole … Multi-colored bell peppers, 4-5 pieces, cut into equal slices. Disassemble 400 g of cabbage - 200 g of broccoli and 20 g of cauliflower - for inflorescences. Blanch for 5 minutes and chill with cold running water to keep the green color. The form is greased with butter, the first layer is spread with pepper, and the second is a mixture of cabbage of different varieties. Beat 2 eggs with 150 ml of milk. From 0.25 h. L. black and allspice, with 0.5 tsp. salt. Crushed Guda, 100 g, pour in the egg-milk mixture. Pour vegetables and bake at 180 ° C until golden brown.
Note! Goodis Kweli is not used as a filling for baking. Baking with this addition will have an unpleasant odor.
Interesting facts about Hood's cheese
This variety is traditionally produced in the historical region of Georgia - the mountainous region of Tusheti. Locals call it "Gudis Kweli", literal translation - "cheese from a bag".
Guda cheese can be considered an analogue of Turkish Tulum or its analogue Turkish peynir. However, it should be noted that the Caucasian Kweli matures in a wineskin turned with the fur side inward, and the Turkish one is the other way around. And the animals whose skins are used for sacks are different.
The taste of Goode cheese is considered by many to be so "nauseous" that it is difficult to cope with vomiting when you get to know it. However, if you overcome yourself, you can get incomparable pleasure. However, not everyone can afford to try the delicacy: you can buy Guda cheese for about 20 euros per 1 kg, and most tourists are content with crumbs, which are sold in local markets at half price. You shouldn't try to take a bite with you on the plane. Even vacuum packaging cannot stop the aroma.
The variety was officially registered on the territory of Georgia in 1998, however, deviations from the described manufacturing technology are allowed. Each family of cheesemakers has their own secrets of making Georgian Guda cheese, which help to give a new flavor to their own product.
To try Gudis Kveli, you can visit the festival, which has been regularly held since 2010 on the territory of the Ethnographic Museum of Tbilisi. Producers of fermented milk products come there not only from this country, but also from Armenia and Azerbaijan. It will be possible to get acquainted not only with Guda cheese, but also with many products of the national cuisine of the Caucasus.
Watch the video about Hood's cheese:
