Salting Cheese: Essential Step for Texture and Taste

Salt in Cheesemaking

  The salting of cheese has not only the purpose of enhancing its flavor but also significantly affects the ripening and preservation of the cheese. Salt content at a level of 1-2% significantly inhibits unwanted microflora. 

    During the salting of cheese, salt penetrates the interior while removing a certain amount of moisture. This is usually about 4-6% for hard cheeses and even twice as much for soft cheeses. 

  For cheese, we use non-iodized salt because iodine affects the fermentation process and kills bacteria and fungi. In table salt, the iodine content ranges from 30mg to 40mg per 1kg of salt. It is not a large amount, and most likely, we will not kill all the bacteria that are still working at this stage. However, considering that non-iodized salt is readily available, it doesn't make sense to find out firsthand whether there will be problems with ripening or not.

     The reasons for salting cheeses are:

 -Enhancement of cheese flavor - Cheese without salt is simply much less tasty. Have you ever eaten potatoes without salt? ;) 

-Aiding in the formation of rind - As I mentioned earlier, salt draws water out of the cheese. Right after salting, its concentration is the highest near the rind, which aids in the drying of the surface. 

-Slowing down bacterial action - The main task of bacteria is to convert lactose in milk into lactic acid. In most cases, cheeses at the salting stage have a pH of 4.9-5.5. The purpose of salt at this stage is to slow down the conversion of lactose into lactic acid, which is synonymous with slowing down or stopping further acidification. Proper salt concentration in cheese helps maintain the acidity of the cheese at the desired level. 

-Preserving the cheese - Salt works not only on lactic acid bacteria. The appropriate salt concentration protects the cheese to some extent from the action of undesirable bacteria. 

 There are three basic methods of salting cheese: 

-Salting in brine: 

In my opinion, the easiest and simplest way of salting cheese. At the appropriate stage, after cheese production, the cheese is placed in brine with a concentration of about 18%. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, and some people salt cheese in brine at 16% or 26%. Both are not a huge mistake, but in brine below 16%, the casein begins to swell, which manifests as a slippery surface of the cheese, while in brine at 26%+, salt absorption is very slow. Excessive salt concentration causes a kind of crust to form on the surface, which prevents effective salt absorption. In brine, we can salt any type of cheese. I must admit that I have also salted Camembert-type cheeses or other similarly sized or smaller cheeses in brine. It is generally accepted that a cheese weighing 1kg should stay in brine for about 10 hours. In reality, much depends on the type of cheese, its density (whether it is a soft, semi-hard, or hard cheese). Of course, taste preferences play a very important role here, but it is essential to ensure that at least 1% of salt remains in the cheese. 

Pasta filata cheeses in brine

-Dry salting: 

The method most commonly used for blue, acid, and rennet-acid cheeses. When dry salting, we usually use 1.5-3% salt by weight of the cheese. The measured salt is applied to the surface of the cheese and left to absorb. For cheeses larger than about 300g, it is best if the salt dose is divided into two or three portions and applied gradually. The goal is to give the previous dose of salt time to be absorbed. Of course, there is nothing preventing you from dry salting semi-hard and hard cheeses as well, but in my experience, it is easier to "throw" the cheese into a brine than to weigh the salt and dry salt the cheese. 

Dry salting

-Salting to the curd: 

Some types of cheese, such as Cheddar or Stilton, are salted to the curd. At the appropriate stage of production, the measured salt is added directly to the curd. This procedure is intended to stop the acidification process and, at the same time, enrich the cheese with the desired taste and aroma.

-A negligible percentage of cheese production involves salt added at an early stage of production or during the curd washing. This process is aimed at slowing down the action of bacteria. An example of such cheese is Italian crescenza.