Poshekhonsky cheese

We are all well aware of the centuries-old traditions and successes of European cheesemakers. Foodies sing French and Italian blue cheeses with mold for their unsurpassed taste and savory aroma. Dutch cheeses are incredibly popular. We make sandwiches or sushi with Philadelphia's famous soft cream cheese.

Nowadays, you won't surprise anyone with names like Ricotta, Cheddar or Dor Blue. We have learned to understand cheeses and for special or festive occasions we choose only famous and proven varieties. Today we would like to draw your attention to the successes of domestic cheese makers, which usually do not remain an inheritance.

Often, the products of our production, including cheeses, are not so advertised and known, but this does not diminish their advantages. There is a small town in the Yaroslavl region, which bears the beautiful and sonorous name Poshekhonye. The history of the city dates back a century. The city of Poshekhonye is famous for its temples and cheese.

A resident of the city named Pavel Anatolyevich Avdienko worked at a local cheese factory for many years, which eventually resulted in his invention of Poshekhonsky cheese. It turns out that the domestic cheesemaker closely studied the history of cheesemaking in Russia and Holland in order to make his own variety of hard rennet cheese from ancient recipes.

Cheese maker Avdienko set himself the difficult task of reducing the ripening time of Dutch cheese as much as possible, but not losing the taste and consumer qualities of the product. Constant experiments with ingredients eventually led to the development of a unique recipe and method for the production of Poshekhonsky cheese.

What is noteworthy, the domestic cheese maker constantly consulted with the famous German specialist in Dutch cheeses and Moscow professor part-time R. E. Gerlach. The production of Poshekhonsky cheese began in the USSR in the post-war years. At the time, every food item was worth its weight in gold. Therefore, the masters of cheese makers in Yaroslavl, under the leadership of Avdienko, decided that they would begin to make a new Poshekhon cheese from pasteurized or normalized milk.

The fat content of such cow's milk is reduced, which reduces the cost of the cheese production process. To produce Poshekhonsky cheese, bacterial sourdough and rennet are added to cow's milk. The ripening process of Poshekhonsky cheese takes only 30 days, the cheese is produced in the form of round heads. Poshekhonsky cheese is characterized by a color scheme from white to light yellow, oval or rounded eyes (cheese holes) are visible on the cheese section.