Yulia, my wife, who’s russian, has been teasing me since we know each other with the exceptionally fresh and tasty russian curd. Being a french man and therefore being seen abroad as wearing a label on my forehead saying “hey ! I’am an expert in smelly cheeses ! Come and ask me questions …” I got sort of challenged. And I must admit that I was seduced with what I tried.
Now, this may be obvious to some people, but thick curd is not something we’re used to here in France, or at least to my knowledge. Aspect wise it is a smooth creamy cheese that sticks to the spoon. It’s got a more or less yellowish color according to the percentage of fat that you choose. It hasn’t got a strong taste though according to how old it is, you may be getting a more pronounced acidic smell.
Well contrarily to our smelly guys we produce down here, the real approach begins once you taste it… A slightly dry or fat-free cheese sensation on your tong at first. But then, while the cheese slightly warms up in your mouth it reveals this amazing fresh milk taste … gorgeous !
The one we tasted was bought from a traditional market from a women who’s not too talketive about her cheeses. I mean you can’t really ask questions as to where it’s from, nor how, but in the purchase process, you do get to try it before you buy. It’s like automatic and you get to tell afterward if you want it or not. My wife once refused to buy and went to some different shelve. I wouldn’t have felt comfortable with this decision, but it looked natural to both. I understood that the stocks this lady was offering had been here for quite some time.
Curd seems to be quite popular in Russia, at least from what I have seen around St. Petersburg, there’s a whole range available from fat free to around 25% fat. People have it fresh for breakfast with sour cream and sugar, or mixed with dry fruits, honey, or again fried, they call it sirniki.
Anyway, my wife loves this curd, it takes an important part in her diet. At first we tried finding something similar, but in vain. The closest product we found was goat fresh cheese… good, but not the real stuff :(
So we decided on finding the way to make it ourselves. First willing to find the exact recipe, to no avail.
We’re lucky enough to find a farm 2km from the house, there, a farm with real cows, real farmers and therefore real milk ! Fresh milk to be bought between 4pm and 6pm because it’s not a shop that sells pasteurized tasteless milk but people milking cows and occasionally selling it. On top of being good quality, it is half the price of what you find in shops. To be honest, that is one thing I never understood, France pretends to be the cheese champion right ? Well here 99,9% of the milk sold in supermarkets is pasteurized and therefore with no-taste. I happened to find out in school that it can be filtered with micron size membranes, then flash boiled etc .. yeurk !
Now, a long story short, we get fantastic fresh milk near the house, I bought a yogurt machine + some extra equipment, so we’re now set to making cheese. It doesn’t mean people who don’t have a farm near home can’t try this, right .. just showing off a bit here ;) Anyhow below is the result. In a next post I will detail how we got there.
