Brinza zburata ( a strange cheese)

(from Radu Anton Roman teachings)

It's a very refined stuff, with a gentle taste and a texture of peaches.I asked shepherds about her curdling technology : all know it, all do it  but at home and only at home. It does not have a name all over, it's not canned, it's more like a grandmother's recipe, on a day to day.

It's soft as a fresh cow cheese but much more delicate.

Mystery: you can do this cheese of buffalo milk or cow, but also of goat or sheep milk, provided to it a little curd, as much as a peanut. Depending on the proportion of boiled milk, unboiled milk and curd you got to get  a softer or harder cheese .

Directions:

2 l fresh milk, unboiled

3 l boiled milk 

5 l curded milk

Boil the fresh milk . When it begins to boil, add the rest of 'white ingredients' and stir into the mixture with a wooden spoon. Allow all to heat up and it will coagulates at the first boil. Stop de heat and drain the cheese from whey for a day and night. 

This cheese is rubbed then with salt, as much you like (I don't do it at all because it's not worthing to ruin such unbelievable  finesse ).

In Fagaras, but also in other places from Romania, it's doing the same sweet cheese, from unboiled buffalo or cow milk but in a different way: before boiling milk, it's dripping in few drops of apple vinegar, then  cheese coagulates and is removed with a strainer from the whey, suddenly became clear. The rest of the process is the same. 

(My adnotation: the name of this product is a kind of metaphor, couldn't be translated. I chose to let the original name in the English version too, for not altering the truth to a faulty translation. But just to have a clue about what that meals name in Romanian means, well, I can  say it is talking about ... some of "Fly out cheese".)

Update made today(10.06.2012): a friend of mine, from Maramures area (N-W of Romania) says ...this kind of cheese is called SCOAPTA CHEESE . Another friend of mine( from Southern Romania) told me that...Scoapta cheese has a much more developed manufacturing  process ). 

Huh, I told you that's a strange cheese !

BRINZA ZBURATA 

E  usoara ca brinza dulce de vaci dar mult mai delicata. E o chestie foarte rafinata, cu gust blind si textura piersicoasa. Am intrebat ciobanii si brinzarii despre tehnologia ei de inchegare: toti o stiu, toti o fac, dar acasa si numai pentru acasa. N-are nume peste tot, nu se conserva, e un fel de reteta a bunicii, de pe-o zi pe alta.

Taina: se poate face brinza zburata din lapte de bivolita sau de vaca, dar si din cel de capra sau de oaie, cu conditia sa-i adaugi putin cheag, cit o aluna. In functie de proportia de lapte fiert, nefiert si prins, se obtine o brinza mai moale sau mai tare.

Tehnologie:

2 l lapte dulce, nefiert

3 l lapte fiert

5 l lapte prins

Se pune laptele dulce la fiert. 

Cind a fiert, se adauga restul 'albiturilor'; se amesteca cu o lingura de lemn.

Se lasa sa se incinga iar; va coagula la primul clocot.

Se toarna intr-un tifon, pe masura, si se lasa sa se scurga o zi si-o noapte.

Se freaca brinza asta cu cita sare va place( eu unul nu-i pun sare deloc, caci are o finete fara egal care nu merita stricata).

In Tara Fagarasului, dar si in alte locuri, se mai face aceeasi brinzica dulce din lapte de bivolita sau de vaca nefiert si altfel:

- se pune laptele la fiert

- inainte de-a da in clocot se picura putin otet de mere

- brinza coaguleaza si se scoate cu sita din zerul brusc, limpede, ce o inconjoara.

-restul procedeului e la fel.

Enjoy!