Jāņu siers

As tradition built it

Makes about 10 kg of finished cheese (EU registered recipe ratio).

Ingredients

• 28 to 50 litres skimmed milk
• 10 to 13 kg curd (biezpiens)
• 1.0 to 1.2 kg butter, 82% fat (or 2.5 litres heavy cream)
• 0.6 to 1.0 kg egg
• 40 to 50 g caraway seed
• 100 to 120 g salt

Method

1. Combine the skimmed milk and curd with the caraway seed as the base of the cheese.
2. Work in the butter (or heavy cream) and egg.
3. Season with the salt.
4. Form into a round, flat cylinder 8 to 30 centimetres across and 4 to 6 centimetres deep.
5. The finished cheese should be light to golden yellow, with a clean lactic flavour and pronounced caraway.
6. Make specifically for Jāņi (Latvian Midsummer) and eat with beer.

Notes

Ratios are the EU Traditional Speciality Guaranteed registered recipe, scaled to 10 kg of finished cheese; the source does not give a separate step-by-step method beyond these ratios, the finished shape and the cheese's dairy character.

What a modern chef changes

Two caraway textures and a water-bath set

Rung 5

Method

1. Toast the caraway whole and grind it to order; fold half through the curd mixture.
2. Reserve the other half cracked rather than fully ground, and press it into the cheese's exterior just before its final set, for two distinct caraway textures.
3. Set the cheese in a temperature-controlled water bath at a gentle, consistent 65°C, to firm the egg and curd protein evenly without the graininess a stovetop reduction can introduce.
4. Finish with a thin glaze of reduced Jāņi-season honey brushed over the exterior once turned out.