Sulguni

What is Sulguni Cheese?

Sulguni comes from Samegrelo in western Georgia. The Mingrelian name selegini joins a verb meaning to knead with a word for the cattle family whose milk goes into the cheese, and kneading really is the key step. Georgia has protected Sulguni as a geographical indication since 24 January 2012.

It is made from normalized cow milk, buffalo milk, or a mix of the two, clotted with rennet and pure lactic cultures. The milk and starter are scalded at 36 to 38 °C, or renneted with no scalding at all, then cheddared in whey at 34 to 35 °C for up to five hours.

The cheddared mass is diced into pieces one to three centimeters long and heated to 60 to 80 °C in a rotating mixer, sometimes with added whey or brine. Plasticizing takes five to seven minutes. Dry plasticizing gives a fatter, drier cheese with better taste. The mass is cooled, drained, shaped by hand, and cured in cold brine at 8 to 12 °C for 6 to 48 hours. Maturing takes only a day or two.

A typical wheel is a flat disc 2.5 to 3.5 centimeters thick, weighing 0.5 to 1.5 kg (1.1 to 3.3 lb). The paste runs white to pale yellow, dimpled and elastic, with 50% water, 1% to 5% salt, and an average dry fat content of 45%. It tastes sour and moderately salty.

Sulguni is often served in wedges and often deep-fried, which masks its odor. In the 1970s it accounted for about 27% of Georgian cheese production, and in 1987 it was the third most popular pickled cheese in the Soviet Union with a 16.5% share. Farmers made it on their own until 2012, when the Georgian dairy LTD Sante GMT products began turning out packaged Sulguni on an automated line. Russian production follows GOST R 53437-2009.