Secrets of making English hard cheese. Nutritional value, chemical composition and health effects. How Gloucester is eaten, culinary recipes and interesting facts about the variety.
Gloucester is a UK hard cheese made in 2 varieties - single and double. The starting material is unpasteurized cow's milk, skimmed or whole. Texture - dense, smooth, firm, without eyes; color - uniform, light or rich yellow, "ripe melon". The crust can be natural, brownish, thin and smooth, with a bloom of fluffy white mold and covered with wax or latex. Taste - from nutty with sourness to salty, with a hint of dried fruit. The aroma is from creamy to straw. Heads in the form of tall cylinders weighing from 1.5 to 5 kg.
How is Gloucester cheese made?
From 8 liters of feedstock, 1 kg of the final product is obtained. For the starter culture, a complex of thermophilic lactic acid and mesophilic gas-forming bacteria is used; for curdling - rennet calf enzyme, as a preservative - calcium chloride and sea salt. In order to obtain a yellow pulp, the natural annatto dye is added.
Single Gloucester is made like Gloucester double cheese, but the feedstock is different. For the first option - skim cow's milk, for the second - whole milk.
A short algorithm for making Gloucester cheese:
- The milk is heated to 32 ° C, calcium chloride is poured in, leaven is added and left for 15 minutes to activate, maintaining a constant temperature.
- Add the diluted dye and curd enzyme, determine the flocculation point and wait for the kale to form.
- Cutting curd is carried out in several stages, without removing the pan from the heat (or water bath), ensuring that all the pieces are the same size. Check by stirring from the bottom up, lifting the falling pieces of cottage cheese from the bottom.
- The temperature is raised slowly, up to 40 ° C, by 1 ° over 10 minutes. When the grain settles to the bottom of the pan, carefully drain off a third of the whey.
- For the complete separation of the liquid, the curd mass is thrown into a colander covered with gauze folded in several layers, mixed, achieving separation of the liquid. To speed up the process, add salt at this stage.
- The mold is covered with cheese cloth, the cheese mass is pressed in and everything is placed under a press. The weight of the oppression for 1 kg is 13.5 kg. Leave for 10 minutes, then increase the weight of the oppression to 18 kg and allow to stand for another 2 hours, turning over every 20 minutes. The load is again increased by another 4.5 kg and left for a day.
- Drying is carried out at room temperature until the crust is dry to the touch. Turn over every 12 hours.
- Aging conditions: temperature - 12 ° С, humidity - 80-85%. The duration of fermentation of a single version is 2 months, a double version is from 4 to 6. In England, the heads are lowered into the cellar and set at a distance of 20 cm from each other.
Features of the production of Gloucester Double cheese
: increase the number of annatto to obtain a brighter color of the heads in the section; increase the heating temperature when stirring the curd grains - the curd mass turns out to be more viscous, "rubbery". Some cheese makers additionally use a mill (a kitchen unit that resembles a submersible blender in appearance and action) for grinding.
Composition and calorie content of Gloucester cheese
The fat content of the fermented milk product is high - at least 55%. In terms of energy value, it surpasses the varieties of its group - Cheshire and Chester.
The calorie content of Gloucester cheese (double) is 405 kcal per 100 g, of which:
- Proteins - 24.6 g;
- Fat - 34 g;
- Carbohydrates - 0.1 g.
Vitamins per 100 g:
- Retinol - 345 mcg;
- Carotene - 195 mcg;
- Vitamin D - 0.3 mcg;
- Vitamin E - 0, 64 mg;
- Thiamine - 0.03 mg;
- Riboflavin - 0.45 mg;
- Niacin - 0.1 mg;
- Tryptophan - 5.8 mg;
- Vitamin B6 - 0, 11 mg;
- Vitamin B12 - 1.3 mcg;
- Vitamin B9 - 30 mcg;
- Biotin - 3.1 mcg.
Minerals:
- Sodium - 590 mg;
- Potassium - 79 mg;
- Calcium - 660 mg;
- Magnesium - 23 mg;
- Phosphorus - 460 mg;
- Iron - 0.40 mg;
- Copper - 0.03 mg;
- Zinc - 1.8 mg;
- Chlorine - 900 mg;
- Selenium - 12 mcg;
- Iodine - 46 mcg.
Fats in Gloucester cheese per 100 g:
- Saturated fatty acids - 21, 30 g;
- Polyunsaturated fatty acids - 1, 00 g;
- Cholesterol - 100-135 mg.
A 100 g slice of Gloucester is 1/5 of a full-fledged daily diet of an adult in terms of calories. People who have to monitor their weight should know that such a breakfast meets 50% of the need for protein and fat.
For a cheese diet, Gloucester is not suitable, even in combination with herbs and fruits. Despite active training, the weight will not decrease. The body will not waste energy on breaking down the fat layer, because it receives a sufficient amount of easily digestible milk protein and lipids, from which you can quickly extract energy.
Benefits of Gloucester Cheese
As already mentioned, the product is high in calories. 1 lb (0.46 kg) is a complete replacement for 1 kg of meat. But the benefits of Gloucester cheese are not only high in nutritional value.
Useful properties of the product:
- Protects muscle tissue from breakdown.
- Increases the ability to adapt when moving from darkness to light and, conversely, improves vision.
- It activates the body's defenses, creates favorable conditions for the vital activity of the intestinal flora that colonizes the small intestine.
- Accelerates the digestion of food, prevents the development of putrefactive processes in the intestines.
- Helps to quickly recover from anemia, exhaustion after nervous and physical exertion.
- Promotes falling asleep, relieves insomnia.
- Strengthens bone tissue, improves the quality of the skin, nails and teeth.
- Normalizes metabolic processes.
This variety is most useful for children. It supports psychophysiological development, accelerates growth. Women with such an addition to the diet can tolerate hormonal changes more easily and become calmer. The tasty product helps prevent the development of depression and facilitates the transition to menopause.
Gloucester Cheese Recipes
On a cheese plate, the Single subspecies is often served with strong red and semi-dry white wines. And Double is used for making sauces and hot dishes, added to salads, fried on the grill.
Gloucester Cheese Recipes:
- Julienne … Chicken breast, 400 g, fried under the lid in sunflower oil until half cooked. Pour in a very finely chopped onion and mix for 3-4 minutes. Chop 300 g of champignons into slices and add to the pan. Now the meat is brought to readiness and stir for a few more minutes to remove moisture and get a golden crust on all ingredients. Pour in a glass of heavy cream - at least 30%, let it boil, salt, pepper. Pour 200 g of grated Gloucester on top and leave under the lid for enough time to melt the cheese. Serve immediately. You can complement the dish with herbs - salad leaves or basil.
- Cheese buns … Rub 300 g of cheese. Mix half with an egg, 1 cup flour, salt, dried garlic, drive in an extra yolk and a little lemon pepper. Knead the tough dough and put it in the refrigerator, after wrapping it in cling film. After 30 minutes, the dough is rolled out into a thin layer, greased with butter and whipped protein and sprinkled with the rest of the cheese. Cut into ribbons 2-2.5 cm wide, roll up the buns. Bake at 180-200 ° C until the dough turns golden. If the buns are small, they can be pan-fried or deep-fried.
- Spaghetti in a creamy sauce … Cut into small cubes 150 g of bacon or not very fatty ham, rub with 100 g of Gloucester. Fry the cold cuts in butter, so that the fat does not have time to melt, and the pieces are browned. Boil spaghetti, 200-300 g, until al dente, that is, so that they are ready, but do not fall apart. Pour half a glass of low-fat (15-20%) cream into a frying pan with ham and add the squeezed clove of garlic, let the liquid evaporate halfway. Pour in cheese and simmer for 3-4 minutes on the fire, so that everything thickens. Spaghetti is discarded in a colander and then transferred to the pan. Cover and leave for another 5 minutes. Sprinkle dill on each plate when serving.
- Royal salad … Peel and boil 300 g of shrimp, better than royal ones. Grate 150 g of Gloucester and 2 hard-boiled eggs, cut a large fresh cucumber into cubes. Cut the shrimp in half and cut the salted trout, 200 g, into thin strips. Mix for dressing in 3 tbsp. l. sour cream and mayonnaise (you can replace the fat sauce with salad yogurt and add a drop of Dijon mustard), pour in the juice of half a lemon and bring to a homogeneous consistency. Combine all the ingredients, pour in the sauce, carefully so as not to damage the shrimp pieces, mix. Served on lettuce leaves.
- Cheese soup … 2 onions, 2 celery stalks and 3 potatoes are fried in a pan in butter. Despite the fact that in the future all the ingredients are grinded, you need to chop finely to achieve high-quality frying. If the pan is deep, cook the soup without transferring the frying to the pan. Pour in 0.5 glasses of white wine. Remove the dishes from the heat and let stand for 3-4 minutes. Again put on fire, pour in 1, 5-2 liters of wine, boil until the potatoes and celery are cooked. Lower the immersion blender, interrupt everything until smooth, add 200 g of grated cheese, pour in 100 g of 20% cream, 3 tbsp. l. wheat flour, a third teaspoon of nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste. They interrupt again with a blender, without removing from the heat, then turn off the gas. While the soup is infused, croutons, onion rings are fried, rubbed with 100 g of Gloucester. When serving, put onion rings into each plate, add a little grated cheese. Served with croutons.
Interesting facts about Gloucester cheese
At first, the initial raw material for the manufacture of this variety was sheep milk, but with the rise of agriculture to a higher level, by the 15th century, they switched to cow milk. Used milk yield of the breed "Gloucestershire". The production was seasonal - summer.
In the meadows of the County of Gloucestershire, special herbs grew - with a high content of carotene (vitamin A). Therefore, the cheese makers could tell by the appearance of the milk where the animals were grazed. In the future, a similar shade of cheese mass began to be achieved with the help of annatto dye and switched to year-round production.
But despite the fact that now the requirements for the feedstock have softened (milk is collected from cows of different breeds), thanks to this type of fermented milk product, the Gloucestershire herd has been revived. By 1972, only 68 animals remained. Currently, there are more than 800 such cows. It is from their milk that the Single subspecies is made, and it is valued much higher than Double. Single Gloucester is only sold within the county and is PDO certified.
On the basis of the recipe already given, they make another version of the cheese - the Cotswold cheese. Prepared like Gloucester Double cheese, only at the stage of salting add chopped green onion feathers and chives. The properties of the Cotswolds are similar to those of Gloucester.
In a small town on the territory of Gloucester (Cooper’s Hill), competitions have been held for 250 years: a 2 kg Double Gloucester circle is rolled down a steep slope, and whoever stops and catches wins. The prize is this head. Participants fall, roll, sometimes get serious injuries. In the 18th century, zeal could be explained by the ability to feed the family for a month, now - only by excitement. Insurance companies are raising the issue of stopping such entertainment, but have not yet achieved success. The British hold sacred to traditions.
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