Wielkopolski ser smażony

What is Wielkopolski ser smażony Cheese?

Wielkopolski ser smażony comes from the Wielkopolska voivodeship in Poland, and its name translates roughly as fried cheese from Greater Poland. Frying cheese here was most likely introduced by the Hauland settlers who colonized the west of the region from the end of the 18th century. Those settlers, along with the Bamberg tenant farmers who came from Upper Franconia, built up the dairy farming and milk production that still dominate the area.

Production begins with raw milk held no more than 24 hours at up to 6 degrees C. The milk is centrifuged down to at most 1 percent fat, then heated to 70 to 75 degrees C for at least 30 seconds. A lactococcus culture is prepared at 25 degrees C over eight to ten hours, 2 percent of it is added, and souring runs at 20 to 23 degrees C. The mass is heated to 32 to 33 degrees C for two hours, then cut and turned.

Whey is drained and the curd goes onto a press at 20 degrees C until its water content drops to about 64 percent. The curd is broken up and spread on trays, where it ripens at 16 to 27 degrees C for two to three days until it becomes glassy. Butter is mixed in and the cheese is fried at a minimum of 90 degrees C for around 15 minutes, in some batches with caraway.

The finished cheese has a ridged surface and a firm, homogeneous, plastic body running from light cream to yellow. Fat content is at least 7.5 percent in dry matter, with dry matter at 35 percent.