How NOT to Make Homemade Halloumi

4 litres of milk, 4 attempts, and I'm still on a journey to make perfect halloumi.  The good news is: I'm definitely seeing steady improvements each time I give it a go.

Halloumi is a brined, semi-hard cheese from Cyprus.  Cypriots eat it raw or grilled - I remember stuffing myself silly on watermelon and halloumi salad when I used to travel there for work.  Because halloumi has a very high melting point, it's great on the grill - think chorizo & halloumi kebabs, or grilled on its own and put in a salad or on top of a burger.

After successfully making ricotta and queso blanco, I thought I'd try my hand at halloumi.  And while I haven't yet mastered the art of making it, I've learned lots of tips on what NOT to do...  So here goes:

1) First attempt - Do not overheat the milk or the rennet won't work...  Rennet is the coagulant used to separate the curds and whey of the milk.  Overheating kills the enzymes in the rennet and therefore won't coagulate the milk...  

Here's what happens when you add rennet to overheated milk

2) Second Attempt - Once you've heated milk to appropriate 90 F (32 C) and successfully added the rennet, maintain this temperature for the next 30-45 minutes while the milk ripens.... (aka... don't go and do something else while assuming that your old-school stove will simply maintain this perfect temperature rather than BOIL the poor curds despite being on low heat.) -- oops.

Here's what happens when you accidentally boil the milk and rennet

3) Third Attempt - Once the curds have been strained, use a weight heavier than a bottle of Baileys to press the curds...  Despite this one looking and tasting like cheese, it was softer and blander than Halloumi.

 Bottle of Baileys does not equal 8 pounds in weight...

4) Fourth Attempt - Don't over-salt the brine and get a cheese-press to put the right amount of weight on the curds (instead of stacking bricks atop a plastic container which ends up toppling over a few times).  Definite improvements on this 4th try - tasted pretty good, but the texture was still a little too soft and not rubbery like it should be.

Not defeated, I'm still plugging away at this one - hopefully sometime soon I'll post a companion blog entry on How TO make Halloumi...  

If at first you don't succeed...