Features of making French cheese with a washed crust. Calorie content, composition, product benefits and possible harm when consumed. Recipes, interesting facts.
Rollo is a washed-rind French cheese made in Picardy, in the Somme department. In food factories, pasteurized milk is used as a raw material, and in farms it is more often raw milk. The texture is soft; color - pale yellow; taste - creamy salty with a light pleasant bitterness; the crust is dense, reddish-orange, with embossed stripes. In private cheese factories, the heads are shaped into cylinders, 4-7 cm high and 8-10 cm in diameter. Weight - 450-500 g. But in food factories, this variety can be immediately distinguished from others by its original shape - in the form of a heart. The weight of such heads is up to 300 g. Maturation can last from 3 weeks to 3 months.
How is Rollo cheese made?
To obtain a high quality product, milk is collected from Friesian black Dutch cows, which were grazed in the meadows after mowing in early August. It is allowed to use milk yields from cows fed with bran, alfalfa and fodder beets for cooking cheese. The use of branch feed for animals, if it is planned to make this variety from milk, is not allowed.
How Rollo cheese is made in private households:
- Mix 1 part raw whole milk and 2 pasteurized milk.
- Heated to 28 ° C in summer and 32 ° C in winter.
- Pour in thermophilic starter culture and liquid rennet for coagulation. The fatter the feedstock, the more clotting solution is required.
- Cala formation time varies from 1 to 3 hours.
- A third of the whey is cast, the cheese grains are cut - the finer, the better the final product will be.
- To separate the whey, the cheese mass is thrown onto a dense cotton cloth and after a few hours, when the liquid stops flowing, it is laid out in forms lined with a cloth with rare weaving. This pattern is then imprinted on the crust.
- To prepare Rollo cheese, it takes 3 days for self-pressing and drying.
- Salted, roll in coarse salt, and again left to dry at room temperature.
- For fermentation, it is lowered into the basement, where after 7-10 days, growth begins on a crust of white mold.
- First, the crust is washed every day, then after 3 days. The brine with mold cultures and natural annatto dye is not drained, but left, squeezing out the cloth with which the crust was rubbed.
The recipe for Rollo cheese used in food factories differs slightly from the farm one. The raw material is not collected and cooled, it comes directly from the milking machine, in closed flasks or through a special milk pipeline - the temperature of 35-36 ° C is considered ideal for the introduction of the starter culture.
The formation of calcium is accelerated, the coagulation time is no more than 1 hour. Further, before pressing, the processes are the same as in the preparation of farm Rollo cheese. During pressing, it is possible to add flavors and pierce the crust to speed up fermentation and add additional mold culture. The most delicious product is obtained if the heads are lowered into the cellar (or placed in the chamber) from the end of August to the beginning of October.
Composition and calorie content of Rollo cheese
The fat content of the product relative to dry matter is 45-50%. Attempts have been made to make dietary options by skimming pasteurized milk, but these have been unsuccessful.
Calorie content of Rollo cheese is 274-308 kcal per 100 g, of which:
- Proteins - 21-23 g;
- Fat - 27-29 g;
- Carbohydrates - 0.8-1 g.
Of the vitamins, retinol, choline, calciferol, pantothenic and folic acid predominate; in the mineral composition - calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron and manganese. It is worth mentioning separately sodium and chlorine - a large amount of these substances is explained by salting during manufacture.
Rollo cheese contains cholesterol, nonessential and essential amino acids, fatty acids, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids.
Milk protein transformed during fermentation is absorbed in full, replenishing the reserve of nutrients. A balanced complex of nutrients and minerals helps to maintain the vital functions of the body and normalizes metabolic processes at the cellular level.
Useful properties of Rollo cheese
Like all delicious foods, white blue cheese has a beneficial effect on the nervous system. Stimulates the production of serotonin, improves mood, prevents the development of depression.
The benefits of Rollo cheese:
- Strengthens muscle tissue and accelerates regeneration. The product has a high content of proteins and easily digestible milk protein.
- Increases the production of melanin, protects against the aggressive effects of ultraviolet radiation.
- Improves the functioning of the reproductive organs, normalizes the menstrual cycle in women and the production of semen in men.
- Accelerates the absorption of calcium, supplied not only with this variety, but also in the composition of other products consumed at the same time. Prevents the development of osteoporosis and degenerative-dystrophic processes of bone and cartilage tissue.
- Normalizes the work of the digestive tract, accelerates the digestion of food, creates favorable conditions for increasing the activity of the intestinal flora.
- Increases the general immunity of the body and has an antioxidant effect.
- Maintains blood pressure at the same level. It stabilizes lipid-protein metabolism, stimulates the production of hormones and reduces the absorption of cholesterol.
- Increases hemoglobin synthesis, accelerates recovery from anemia.
- Accelerates the regeneration of epithelial tissues.
- Due to its high sodium content, it prevents fluid loss at the cellular level.
- Stimulates cognitive function and improves memory properties.
Thanks to the raw milk in the composition of Rollo cheese and the peculiarities of manufacturing - the absence of heat treatment - the nutrients are retained in full and their assimilation is facilitated. The product is most useful for women: it reduces the likelihood of breast cancer and promotes the breakdown of the fatty layer.
Contraindications and harm of Rollo cheese
You should not introduce a variety with white mold into the diet for diseases of the digestive system and intestinal dysbiosis. It is undesirable to use this product during pregnancy and lactation, children under 5 years old and the elderly. Molds can inhibit the beneficial flora.
Rollo cheese can cause harm due to the high amount of salt. Overeating can provoke kidney malfunction, metabolic changes, which manifests itself as edema and weight gain. Since the product contains whole cow's milk, those who regularly consume the product may develop hormonal imbalances. And then, instead of a beneficial effect, the development of osteoporosis is possible.
It is worth dwelling separately on the likelihood of allergies. It can be caused by intolerance to cow's milk or molds used in cheese making.
You should be especially careful when using farm products. When collecting milk from several animals, it is difficult to control the quality of the raw materials. If negligent owners injected animals with hormones and antibiotics to increase milk yield, all these substances will enter the human body along with the cheese. The result can be both an allergic reaction and metabolic disturbances. The consequences of using a product made from low-quality raw milk and mold-accelerating mold cannot be predicted.
Rollo cheese recipes
If there is an opportunity to purchase a head from a reliable manufacturer, regardless of whether it is a cylinder or a heart, you should definitely serve it to your guests on a cheese plate with Camembert and Brie. The delicacies are washed down with dry red wines - Burgundy, Bon or Bandol, champagne - Coteau du Layone or Sauternes, dry white wines - Alsace Pinot Gris, Meursault or Chablis. Despite the fact that the product is not cheap, it can be used to prepare various dishes - cheese casseroles, salads and pastries.
Rollo cheese recipes:
- Cabbage casserole … The dish is simple and quick - common cabbage turns into a delicacy. White cabbage is finely chopped. Beat 2-3 eggs with a little milk and salt, pepper. Cabbage is lowered in refined sunflower oil for 1-2 minutes, not for long, so that a crusty crust appears on it, but the pieces should not become soft. Lubricate the refractory mold with butter, lay out the cabbage, mix with pieces of crushed cheese, pour in an egg and sprinkle with another layer of Rollo. Bake for no more than 5 minutes in an oven preheated to 200 ° C. Sprinkle with curry before serving.
- Cheese soup … Fry a very finely chopped onion, add a little flour and a bay leaf broken into 2-3 pieces. As soon as the contents of the pan turn golden brown, remove the dishes from heat for 1-2 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180 ° C. The contents of the pan are heated again, the meat broth is poured in - 2 liters, boiled for 15 minutes, everything is interrupted with a blender and rubbed through a sieve. Grease the bottom of the ceramic mold with butter, lay out a few croutons, sprinkled with grated cheese, and pour the soup. Carefully lay the cheese slices on top so that they do not drown, place in the oven and leave for as long as it takes to melt the Rollo. When serving, sprinkle fresh herbs on each plate.
- Rice with cheese … Finely chop the onion and brown in a hot frying pan with sunflower oil and add 250 g of washed jasmine rice. When the cereal grains become transparent, pour in 0.5 liters of pre-cooked meat broth, salt, pepper and bring the dish to readiness. Separately, 6-8 cut champignons are fried in a pan, put the tomatoes - bring them to soften, add 70 g of chopped Roll and stir until the cheese melts. Combine the cheese-tomato-mushroom mixture with rice, stir without removing from the heat for 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle each serving with cheese.
Interesting facts about Rollo cheese
For the first time, the variety began to be made by monks from Morocco, who came to the abbey located in the village of the same name in the Somme department in northern France. They took the recipes of Munster and Marual as a basis, but they got a new product with an original taste.
In 1678, Louis XIV, traveling through France and heading for Flanders, stopped for lunch at Orquillera, where he was served new cheese. The king appreciated the taste and even "sponsored" the cheese maker, giving him 600 pounds sterling for the development of the cheese dairy.
Small heads were used to pay taxes instead of a cash equivalent, and by the middle of the 18th century. the rich bourgeois already considered it good taste to serve this variety for dinner.
Since 1850, Rollo cheese has been included in all dairy product catalogs produced in the area. In 1856 it could also be tasted in Paris. Of course, it was consumed less than other varieties, but still its popularity grew.
According to the report on agricultural trade (statistical studies were carried out in 1908), it was found that most of it was acquired by peasants living in Picardy, and residents of the Parisian outskirts.
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the shape of the heads has changed - they began to be made in the shape of a heart, but despite the know-how, the production was constantly decreasing. The last food factory to make the variety closed in 1955, and cheese could only be bought from private farms.
So the variety described in 1894 by Maurice Garrett in a poem would have disappeared:
“Rollot is the winner of exhibitions, in the heart, The most delicious dessert.
Cream with a magic effect …
All Picard knows value."
But the patent was bought by a cheese factory located in this region, and the variety was revived again.
Nowadays, several food factories and private cheese dairies are engaged in the manufacture of Rollo. On the farms, cheese is made in the form of cylinders - industrial production produces hearts and squares. But the taste of all products is similar.
Quality control is carried out at the state level, and work has already begun on assigning international certificates to this variety. It is hoped that this issue will be resolved in the near future.
Watch the video about Rollo cheese:
