5 steps to a homemade Bulgarian kashkawal

Kashkawal is a yellow straw-colored semi-hard cheese from Bulgaria or the entire Balkans, usually made from either cow's or sheep's milk. It belongs to the yellow cheese varieties, but its taste and consistency is quite different from the usual yellow cheeses in the rest of Europe. With the right ingredients and a good preparation, you can also make the kashkawal yourself using the following instructions.

Basically, it is easy to make a Bulgarian Kashkawal with the starter culture Bacillus Bulgaricus. Only a few simple steps are required to produce the yellow semi-hard cheese on your own. You can use any kind of milk you like, not only the usual cow's and sheep's milk. Homemade Kashkawal can be made with goat's milk, raw milk, whole milk, skim milk and pasteurized milk. However, vegetable-based milk substitutes are not suitable, cheese-making does not work with them. You should also avoid using ultra-pasteurized or UHT milk, with these dairy products the taste in cheese will not be very good. For the best results, it is recommended to use whole milk, from which you can make a full-bodied kashkawal.

4 liters of milk* using the 800g set as an example
1 package of the Kashkawal starter culture
1/4 teaspoon of rennet diluted in 1/4 cup of cool water - the rennet is sold freely in stores
1/4 teaspoon of liquid calcium chloride diluted in 1/4 cup of cool water - the CaCl2 is also sold freely in stores.

Generally, the calcium chloride solution must be in the same amount as the solution of the rennet. The dilution is 1:10, where 1 part is CaCl2 or rennet and 10 parts is water. However, these are only guidelines. You can experiment a bit with this to find out what ratios work best for your needs.

Cheese molds in the sizes you need
Sea salt, rock salt or kosher salt.
A basic kitchen pH meter to measure the pH of curds and whey
1 cooking thermometer if at hand

* Kashkawal can only be made from animal milk. It does not matter if cow's milk, sheep's milk, goat's milk, buffalo milk or fancy types of milk are used as whole milk, UHT milk or skim milk. We recommend whole milk for the best taste. In Bulgaria, kashkawal is popularly made with cow's or sheep's milk.

Step 1: Prepare and culture milk - Heat the milk to 74-78°C. This is important to kill any bacteria present that may react with the Lactobacillus Bulgaricus culture. Allow the milk to cool to 34-37° C. Then add the starter culture to the milk. Let it soak in the milk for 5 minutes, then stir it into the milk with a gentle up-and-down motion to distribute it thoroughly. Let soak for another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the diluted calcium chloride solution and stir slowly into the milk for about 2-3 minutes. Add the rennet in small doses, stirring constantly, and mix for another 3-5 minutes. Cover the container and allow to steep for about an hour. At this point, the milk should have turned into a solid curd surrounded by liquid whey. The slightly solidified milk is not very solid at this point, try to push it inward with a spoon or knife in the container. The separation should be fairly obvious. If the separation line is still blurry, cover the pot again and let it steep for another 15 minutes, then test again.

Step 2: Process curds - Cut the curds into 1 cm squares with a knife. Try to cut accurately so that the pieces are more or less the same size. Then let them rest for another 5 minutes. This procedure will help to separate more whey. Now you need to slowly heat the container with the curd. The temperature should increase by 1 degree every 5 minutes or so. Start heating while stirring the curds and whey, and slowly as steadily increase the temperature to 35-38 degrees in 10 minutes. Then continue heating much more slowly, raising the temperature to 40-42° C in 20 minutes (total heating time is 30 minutes). Now let rest at this temperature 40-42° C until the curd has a pH of 5.6-5.7 (after about 2 hours).

Step 3: Drain and harden the curd - Next you need to drain the curd. At the end of the previous heating step, the curd grains should have settled to the bottom of the container. Now drain all the whey, but save it as you will need it later. Press the curds together into a block to form a doughy mass while you drain off the excess whey. Then let it drain for another 1 to 2 hours, removing the whey as it separates. Now comes the hardening part. To do this, you need to let the curds sit in a colder place at about 20-22° C to mature until they reach a pH of 5.2-5.3. This process usually takes between 2 to 10 hours. It is best to just let the Kashkawal sit overnight. The curd should now be ready to be stretched into shapes. Do a test on the stretching to see if this is the case. To do this, take a few small pieces of curd and dip them in tempered water, at about 75° C, for a few minutes. Then knead the pieces together for a few seconds and see if you can pull them into a shiny thread. If the curd is not ready, you can heat it again to renew bacterial growth and lower the pH.

Step 4: Stretch and shape the Kashkawal - The next step is to shape the Kashkawal. This is done in a hot bath. The curd block is cut into thin strips and placed in a hot brine at 72-75° C, mixed from water and 16-18% NaCl. Then boil for 3-5 minutes. Take out the strips, roll them up and gently knead them into a homogeneous mass. If the pieces do not stick together well, dip them into the hot brine for another 2-3 minutes. When you have achieved a smooth and shiny surface after kneading for a while, put the curd into a mold (any container will do). Really press it all the way down, it should be homogeneous at this point. Now the molded curd needs to cool. There are two ways to do this: cool it immediately in a cold water bath at 10-15° C for about 40-60 minutes, or let it cool on its own overnight in a cool place at 12-18° C.

Step 5: Salt and preserve kashkawal - There are two ways to preserve kashkawal when salting as well. Try both and see which one you like better. Dry salting - Salt the Kashkawal on the surface and let it rest for two days at a cool room temperature of 12-16°C. Then wipe the cashew and the salt again and repeat the process for about 20 days. Salting with brine: Prepare a brine of water with 18-20% salt, heat it to 75-80° C, and then let it cool to 10-15° C. Put the cashew in this brine for 2 hours. Then add a spoonful of lemon juice (or a pinch of citric acid) to the brine and dilute it with a little more water. Then use this brine to store the kashkawal in it for a week in the refrigerator at about 4°C.

As with any good recipe, you can vary this preparation the second or third time and add herbs, spiciness and many other ingredients. Garlic, for example, gives the cheese its own unique flavor, previously pickled peppercorns make it particularly strong. After 5 days of maceration in the brine in the refrigerator or at room temperature in salt, the cheese is ready to eat and ripe. If you want to let it ripen, you should store the Kashkawal in the refrigerator afterwards. We wish you success in experimenting with the Bacillus Bulgaricus Bulgarian Kashkawal Starter Culture Set for your genuine Bulgarian Kashkawal!