Well curd nerds, I cracked the code. After watching a few YouTube videos, and with a bit of improvisation, I have created, what I believe to be, an authentic Halloumi / Helim cheese. This post shows you the steps to take on how to make Halloumi!
Now I have often said during the podcast that the home cheese maker will always get the best results when using the best milk that one can afford.
So, I really lashed out, opened the wallet and forked out for some of the best packaged milk I could buy around here. In the picture below, there are two types. The green cap is a pasteurised non-homogenised milk, and the orange cap bottles are extra special and are unpasteurised non-homogenised milk or better known as real fresh milk that was bottled one day ago! It is sold as cosmetic skin milk (or some such description), because it is not legal to be sold for consumption.
Consequently, this milk set the best curd I have ever experienced, and therefore made the best cheese possible. I really didn’t want my experiment to stuff up, just because I was stingy with the quality of the milk.
Here is my finished product. Out of 8 litres (just over 2 gallons) of milk, I made nine decent sized cheeses. Yes there are only seven in the photo above, but there are two in the frying pan below!
Now if you are a bit worried that I used some raw milk, don’t be. The process of making Halloumi requires that you cook the cheese after pressing at around 97°C (206°F) for around an hour. Certainly long enough to kill any harmful bacteria, whilst still preserving the delicious raw milk flavours.
As chance would have it, I did video my creation, and after a bit of post-production I managed to put together an easy-to-follow tutorial. If you can’t see the video below, here is the link; http://youtu.be/PPNQmV7roos
So to do that you will require a recipe. Without further ado, here it is;
Gavin’s Cypriot Halloumi / Helim
Ingredients
- 8 litres fresh full cream milk
- 2.5 ml (1/2 US teaspoon) liquid rennet diluted in 60ml (quarter cup) of non-chlorinated water
- 2.5 ml Calcium Chloride diluted in 60ml of non-chlorinated water (only required if using homogenised milk)
- Cheese Salt
- Dried Mint leaves
Method
- Sanitise all equipment.
- Heat milk to 32C (90F) and then add the rennet solution. Turn off heat.
- Stir well, cover, and allow the milk to set for 40 minutes. Upon a clean break, cut the curd into 12 mm (half inch) cubes and let rest for 5 minutes.
- Stir gently and slowly heat milk to 40C (104F) over the period of 20 minutes.
- Allow curds to rest for 10 minutes to form a solid mass. Place a second stockpot under your cheesecloth lined colander and drain the whey and strain the curds for three minutes.
- Removed the curds in the cheesecloth and place on a large wooden (or food safe plastic) board, and fold the cheesecloth so that the curd is square-shaped and the curd will not escape when pressed. Place a second board on top and then add 4 kg of weight to press. I used two 2 litre milk cartons filled with water as the weight.
- Press for 10 minutes, then remove weight and top board and flip over curd mass. Re-press for 20 minutes.
- Whilst waiting for the second pressing, return the whey back to the stove and heat to 90C. You will notice that excess curd will float to the top, so scoop off most of this froth to clear the whey. Continue to heat the whey to 97C. Don’t let the whey boil.
- Remove the weights and top board from the curds, then remove the cheesecloth carefully. Place the pancake like curd onto the bottom board and cut into 100 x 150 mm rectangles, and then place into the hot whey.
- They will sink to the bottom. After about 45 minutes, the cheese will float to the top. Allow the pieces to remain in the whey for another 15 minutes after floating.
- Remove cheese pieces from the whey one at a time (you may want to wear rubber gloves as the cheese may scald your hands), and coat in a cheese salt/mint leaf just like you would if you were crumbing or battering a piece of fish fillet. Whilst the cheese is still hot, fold the piece in half to increase its height.
- Allow cheese to drain for an hour, then either place in airtight container into the fridge and consume within a week. Allow 24 hours before using so that the salt permeates through cheese. Another method of storage is to vacuum pack for up to six months in the fridge (not that it will last that long, it is too yummy).
This cheese does not melt when heated, so it is perfect for frying. It tastes delicious when prepared in this style. Great for barbeques on hot summer days with a lovely green salad. The mint really complements this cheese.
Well I hope you have enjoyed this video tutorial and recipe creation. I am so pleased with the final outcome, and my family cannot get enough of this cheese. I dare say it will be all consumed within a week!
So that’s how to make Halloumi! Who is going to give this cheese a try? Go on. You know you want to!
Hi Gavin
I have been using your recipe for quite a few years, and it has never let me down. (Sometimes, user error has got in the way, but I have always managed to rescue things.)
However, I do have two questions.
Firstly, when I cook the cheeses in the whey, it never takes 45 minutes for them to rise to the top. Usually it takes about 15 minutes or less. I didn’t know what to do, so I have just kept cooking them for 45 minutes. Should I be be just cooking them until they rise instead?
Secondly, I have been leaving the heat on for the further 15 minutes you keep the cheeses in the whey. Should I be doing this, or should I turn the heat off?
Cheers
Darryl
Hi Darryl. 15 minutes is okay. The floating time depends on the fat content of the milk and the size of the pieces placed in the whey. I just turned the heat off when it reached temperature. You don’t want the whey to accidentally boil over.
Kind regards,
Gavin
Hi Gavin,
Just about to make my first batch of halloumi. The only question i have is, when you put the curds into the whey at 97 degrees, do you leave the heat on, or turn it off?
Thanks
Hi Mick, yes, just turn the heat off once the whey is at the correct temp. It should be stable enough during the “cooking” process. Gav
Hi,
I have just started making cheese (it’s so bloody expensive here in TZ), and only with acids (vinegar mostly) as rennet is really hard to find here in Tanzania. But finally got my hands on some rennet, watched your video and followed your steps and made THE MOST amazing, authentic tasting halloumi I have ever had in my life, THANK YOU!
You’re most welcome
What a brilliant recipe! Thank you for sharing. I just made my first ever batch of helim and it was perfect.👌
Gavin, I have to say THANK YOU ENORMOUSLY!
I found your recipe after two failed attempts at Halloumi and am now the proud muncher of four beautiful blocks of delicious, creamy, salty, squeaky cheese. It’s absolutely perfect.
Do you have any good instructions for any other cheeses?
What strength is the rennet you used…there are different strengths in your shop so I couldn’t work it out by that, here in UK standard is 150 strength
Well done, this is by far the best instructions I have found on the net so far and I have looked at many believe me. My only criticism is that Halloumi, in Turkish is spelt Hellim with 2 L’s!
This is what I have been looking for. If I make a half recipe do I need to adjust anything else, ie. the time it sits until set, the cooking etc?
Hi Gavin, your video has inspired me to give cheese making a go! Can I store the haloumi in a brine instead? If so, what percentage brine? I would probably cut the haloumi up in 100g blocks and store separately. Thanks for your help, I want to get it right the first time 🙂
Sab
Thank you Gavin, all the way from the land of Halloumi – Cyprus, for a very simple and nice recipe. Just a couple of comments if I may:1) please recommend a brand for the rennet you use; 2) what is exactly cheese salt ( sea salt ?) ; Sheep or goat milk is highly desirable – could we pasteurize the milk (60Deg C for 30 minutes) before we start?
thanks again- David
Hi David, I use Chymax Plus rennet from CHR Hanson. Cheese salt is just a medium-coarse salt that does not have iodine added to it. I would use the milk raw for Halloumi, as any bad bacteria is killed during the cooking process.
regards, Gavin
Your recipe says 2.5ml, the video says 2 ml, someone said in the comments it should be 4ml can we please have a clarification on this. I just made mine using 2ml and it didnt quite cut properly so I let it sit for another 15 minutes. It was my first try, thanks for all you do.
Upon a clean break, cut the curd into 12 mm (half inch) cubes and let rest for 5 minutes. What do you mean by ‘upon a clean break’ please?
Check out this video to see what I mean; https://youtu.be/DOJ93PHbud8 When you put a knife in at 45 degrees, twist it horizontally, then gently lift, you should see the cut without any slop.
Hi, I’ve made Halloumi a few times and sometimes it doesn’t sink when I poach it, it just sits on the top of the liquid. Any ideas what I’m doing wrong?
Not sure, every time that I’ve made it, it sinks then floats when ready.
Me too – mines not floating…. Do we turn the heat off when it is poaching ? Or keep the whey at constant temp 🙂
Your recipe says that 2 ml is one teaspoon. All of my american spoon measures say that one teaspoon is 5ml…..so is the amount needed 5ml or 2 ml please?
Hi Sheila. You are absolutely correct that there was an error. It should be half a teaspoon which equals 2.5ml. I have corrected the recipe.
do you use amimal rennet
No, I don’t use animal rennet.
This is one of my favorite cheeses!! I grew up with this! We are lucky enough to own Jersey cows! So I have lots of fresh milk and cheese! You by far are my absolute favorite cheese guru! Thank you so much for sharing your cheese knowledge!!
Ironically, crumbly, dry cheese can be an effect of using too much rennet.
Thank you for great tutorial. I am on final stage of cooking and hubby can’t wait to taste . All went so smoothly.
Excellent work Jules!
Hi, Could I use white vinegar instead of rennet and would it be the same quantity?
No, it won’t be halloumi otherwise. Rennet is an essential ingredient
Thanks for your wonderfully complete instructions.
You need to correct your rennet quantity: should be 4ml.
Also, the halloumi comes out and when you break it open it seems to be made up of very small granules. Is there any way to make it smooth?
Hi Gavin,
You don’t use any culture. Not even buttermilk?
No culture in this recipe at all.
Well done!
They did! It worked out just fine, aside from the folding. I think I will try butterkase next 🙂 Thanks for your videos, they’re wonderful!
Hi Gavin! Followed your recipe and it mostly worked out, except when I went to fold it at the end, it broke into two halves. Any ideas on what I did wrong? I tried re-doing it, but it did the same thing. Still tastes good though! But I’m not sure how it will hold up on the grill.
If the cheese cools down a little before it is folded, it usually breaks. When I make Halloumi now, I just cut the pieces smaller before cooking in the whey, so they don’t need to be folded. Good luck, I bet they grill perfectly.
Hi Gavin, Just wanted to say a big thank-you for this recipe. Wanted to share a few things I discovered about home made halloumi. It is so much better than supermarket cheese, we ran out of home made stuff a few months ago and I hadn’t made more so bought some, only ate a small amount before DH said he preferred mine and could I please make more soon. The quality of milk makes a big difference, my last batch I made with very cheap supermarket milk (with the CaCl to make it set), The flavour was almost completely missing, looks good, just doesn’t have the taste or the mouth feel we both like. Need to try mozzarella too soon.
Again, thanks Gavin for an excellent tutorial!
You’re most welcome Cat. Glad to hear that its working well for you.
I notice that you don’t test the PH of cheese at all, why not? I bought your book and love it. Thank you for making it so easy. I live in South Africa and my cheese supplier here makes the recipes so complicated that I lost my calm altogether and made so many mistakes. They also have a culture they call “mixed culture” (meso and thermo) and one inoculates long-life milk with this using just enough to fit on the tip of a butter knife, then use 130 ml of this in 5 lit milk. One keeps the culture going.It keeps for 3 weeks in the fridge, apparently.
Tried with whole milk the first time straight from a farmer. Worked great. Supermarket milk however doesn't work. Only whole milk (unpasturised, unhomoginised) works fully based on my experience. I've tried every combination of calcium chloride and rennets, and I've come to the conclusion that it's the milk. With the supermarket milk, you get something that tastes like it, but has the consistency of feta. Cheers.
Hi.
I'm trying to make halloumi at home, and seems to have a problem during boliting step. Instead of acquiring proper "rubbert" texture, my product retains it's original texture of pressed cottage cheese.
Any ideas what could be wrong ?
Hi Gavin I just tried this over the weekend and was very successful. The only time I was not sure about your instructions was if I was supposed to keep the milk at 97 degrees for the 45 minutes and then turn it off for the last 15 minutes or if I was supposed to turn it off after I put the cheese in. I turned mine off but left it covered so it retained a lot of heat and it worked. You can check out my blog post about it.
You're most welcome Suzanne. Glad you like it a lot!
Gav
Thank you so much. I'm a beginning cheese maker and tried this recipe last week. We've just finished the last one today and I've got more milk to make another batch. Not sure if that's a good thing, but it was pretty yummy!
Hi. Thanks for the recipe. Do you know how many grams of cheese you ended up with from 8 Liters?
Hi Nirvana, it makes about 1 kg of cheese.
Regards, Gav
Hi Gavin, If you can resist eating it and want to keep your halloumi longer, I store mine in brine in the fridge and it will last for months! Just make sure the cheese sits below the brine though as I have had some that went a bit mouldy on top.
Thanks for the tip Sue!
Gav x
Hey Gav where did you purchase the milk very hard to come by and I know it is expensive. Also the rennent and the calcium where does one buy these? Please
Email me please.
Well done Gavin, another excellent tutorial. I'll have to have a go at it as I remember eating this many years ago when I was in Cyprus and always thought it was very rubbery, but yours looks better than the 'real thing'!! Two little questions:- first, what happened to your curd cutter as you seem to have gone back to the knife? and second, I notice you only put the salt on the flat surfaces of the blocks and not the cut sides as well. Is that so it doesn't get too salty?
David
Cyprus eh? You are an well travelled man David!
Curd cutter is fine, I just wanted larger curd cubes so had to go back to the knife. As for the salt, yes I didn't want it too salty. I figured that the flat surfaces would suffice.
Gav
Hey, you have Swampy's raw milk! Cool, he's the guy who sells at my farmer's market!
Hi Cat. Yes, the Fruits of Life stock it in Bacchus Marsh which is close to me. It's not cheap at $9.50 for two litres. I might be getting ripped off?
Oh my, my mouth is watering at the thought of fried halloumi! It seems similar to mozzarella in some ways but even easier and with less ingredients. 🙂
Hi Jessie. Yes, it is quite similar to mozzarella, but different ;-). Give it a go, especially when Anna the goat comes into milk!
Gav x