Imeretian cheese: a taste of Western Georgia

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Georgian national cuisine is known far beyond the Caucasus Mountains. Many of her dishes are familiar not only to gourmets - at least once in a lifetime everyone has tasted them, and even more so heard the names. Lobio, satsivi, khinkali, chakhokhbili, khachapuri, kharcho are very popular. This is not a complete list of wonderful dishes of Georgian cuisine.

However, the beautiful mountainous country is known not only for first and second courses, but also for excellent intoxicating drinks, which are traditionally served with various types of cheese. The amazing taste of golden sparkling wine and the mild spiciness of the national dairy product are timeless classics of gourmet cuisine.

Native to Imereti

Among the many varieties of national cheese, Imeretinsky is the most famous. It owes its name to the region of the same name in Western Georgia. The area here is very beautiful: there are mountains around, coniferous forests, many turbulent rivers and foamy waterfalls.

If you are lucky enough to visit Imereti, you should definitely see the local sights - the ancientfortresses, monasteries, Christian temples, national parks. A mandatory point of the program should be a tasting of local wines, the best of which are krahuna and tsolikauri. Such wonderful drinks are invariably served with a real brand of Western Georgia - Imeretian cheese.

Cheese-making traditions

The history of cheese production in this Caucasian republic dates back more than one century. In the "House of Cheese", which is located in Tbilisi, dishes are demonstrated in which this tasty and he althy food product was stored eight thousand (!) Years ago, while in other countries they began to produce cheese only four thousand years later. Therefore, Georgia can rightly be called the birthplace of cheese.

In the highlands of the country, older women still use ancient recipes for making cheese. For example, some of its varieties are kept in honey, chacha, covered with grape skins. After the revived recipes began to be widely used in production, they found admirers among the modern inhabitants of Georgia.

According to official data, now 14 varieties of cheese have been recorded in the country: chogi, k alti, tenili, kobi, dambal khacho, meskhuri chechili, Georgian, Adjarian chlechili, guda, Imeretinsky, suluguni, tushinsky guda, Megrelian suluguni, Svan suluguni. By the way, all these varieties can be tasted in the Tbilisi "House of Cheese", where you can also learn about the history of their occurrence and see objects with whichearlier, and in some mountain villages even now, cheese was produced.

The most favorite are Suluguni and Imeretian cheese

Imereti and Suluguni cheeses are the most famous. These varieties are so loved in Georgia that they are produced not only at special factories, but also at home. Moreover, along with well-deserved popularity, these two varieties are interconnected for one more reason: suluguni is made from Imereti cheese, for this they use heat treatment and kneading the cheese mass in the same way as the dough. As a result of all these actions, a pickled Suluguni cheese with a layered structure is obtained, which is very fond of Georgians.

If suddenly the Russians have a question: "I didn't find Imereti cheese. What can I replace it with?" - then the answer will be obvious: Suluguni. You can also try to cook it yourself. How? And this is what we will tell now!

Imeretian cheese: recipe

Unboiled fresh milk is used for its production, so all useful minerals and vitamins are preserved in the final product.

Imeretian cheese at home is easy to prepare. Its recipe includes:

• fresh cow's milk - 1 liter;
• pepsin - 60 ml;
• cold water - 1 liter;
• table s alt - 1 tablespoon;
• granulated sugar - 1 tablespoon.

Next steps:

1. Heat the milk to a temperature of 38 ºС and strain it into an enamel pan. After that, pour in the pepsin, mix with a spoon and leave in a warm place.
2. In half an hourthe milk will ferment, then the resulting cheese mass must be separated from the whey.
3. The resulting base should be placed in a special form with holes or a colander, and a tray should be placed under it. The surface of the future cheese must be leveled and s alted with coarse s alt.
4. In order for Imeretinsky cheese to ripen, it must be placed in a special solution - tsatkhi. To do this, water is poured into a glass container, s alt and sugar are added, and then cheese is placed. Everything is sealed with a lid and left in a warm place. In four days, homemade Imeretian cheese will be ready.

About the benefits and not only

First of all, the usefulness of this type of cheese will be appreciated by people who watch their figure - its calorie content is only 240 kilocalories. One hundred grams of Imereti cheese contains 18.5 grams of protein, 14 grams of fat, and 2.4 grams of carbohydrates.

Georgians can eat this product made from milk at any time of the day - for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with fragrant cakes, bread, with tea, used in salads, soups.

On this occasion, there was even a saying that says that only the one who died has no cheese. In small Georgia, about 80 thousand tons of cheese are produced annually.

Imeretian cheese dishes

The popular Imeretinsky cheese is used not only as an excellent appetizer for wine, but also as one of the ingredients in various dishes. For example, Imeretian khachapuri, khychins, penovani, various salads are very tasty.

Penovani is a kind of baked khachapuri, which is made from puff pastry, and the product we are considering is preferable as a filling.

Khichiny - a pie with boiled potatoes mixed with suluguni and Imeretian cheese. The peculiarity of this dish is that it is fried in a dry frying pan.

Khachapuri - baked yeast cakes stuffed with suluguni and Imeretian cheese.