Do you know the secret behind our passion for cheese that translates into flavor?

Cheese is an indispensable part of our society and Anatolian cuisine. It is a food that accompanies breakfast, salads, and many dishes in all its varieties. Cheese, which is indispensable in every kitchen, is one of our main products, and our cheese production is meticulously carried out thanks to our food engineers and masters.

Remaining faithful to naturalness and freshness, we produce our own milk at our Sütiş Farm, located on 50 acres of land in the Vize district of Kırklareli. From our farm to your table, we transform our milk through many stages into natural, fresh and delicious cheeses .

We produce and offer you our Kashar Cheese, Hellim Cheese, and Dil Cheese using 5 tons of cow and buffalo milk produced daily in our production facilities.

So, what stages do our natural and fresh cheeses go through from our farm to your table? How are they made?

Every day, approximately 4 tons of full-fat cow’s milk and 850 liters of buffalo milk arrive fresh at our production facility in our refrigerated vehicles. The milk that arrives at our production facility is transferred to the cow and buffalo milk tanks in the milk section using an automated system without human contact and waits there ready for production.

The milk arriving at our production facility first passes through our “Milk Analyzer” device, where the milk’s fat content, dry matter, temperature, pH, and antibiotic levels are analyzed. After examination, milk suitable for production undergoes pasteurization, and the cheese preparation stage begins.

As is well known, the pasteurization process of milk is an important stage that eliminates harmful microorganisms while not killing beneficial ones. The milk must be heated quickly and cooled at the same speed. Paying attention to this, our milk is heated to 85-90⁰ degrees in 1 minute in the pasteurization tank. During this time, the milk is homogenized using a homogenizer, which separates the cream residue formed on the upper layer of the heated milk, balancing the fat and water content of the milk. After the milk heating and homogenization processes, the pasteurization process is completed by reducing the temperature to 4⁰ degrees within a maximum of 5 minutes, and the milk is prepared for cheese production.

Two factors are very important in cheese making: the temperature of the milk—which must be at a different temperature for each type of cheese—and the pH level. The pH level of the cheese is controlled while it is in the curd stage, which is formed during the curdling process.

HELLIM CHEESE

First, our pasteurized milk is heated to a curdling temperature of 34°C for processing into hellim cheese and transferred to the hellim curdling process tank via milk intake pipes.

After the milk is placed in the curdling tank, it is curdled using our special hellim cheese cultures imported from Cyprus, forming clots called “teleme” in the milk. The teleme formed at 37°C is transferred to milk vats, and the teleme is broken up, separating the curds from the whey. After the whey is completely drained, the curds are placed in special hellim molds and pressed, and the cheeses undergo a cooking-boiling stage at 85°C. As soon as the boiling process is complete, the cheeses are rested for one night in brine consisting of ice, water, and salt.

As the final stage of our hellim cheese production, the rested cheeses are removed from the brine and left for another 5 hours to drain. They are then packaged without human contact in vacuum or MAP packaging and made ready for shipment.

CASHERE CHEESE

We use approximately 3 tons of milk for Caşere cheese. First, our pasteurized milk is heated to a curdling temperature of 36°C and transferred to the Caşere cheese curdling process tank via milk intake pipes. Caşere cheese rennet is added for curdling. The curd formed during milk fermentation is transferred to the curd vat. Unlike halloumi cheese, the curds formed in Kashar cheese production are larger and more abundant. Cold water is added to prevent the pH of the curds from dropping, and once a specific pH level is achieved, the curds are cut into smaller pieces using knives.

There are two separate processes in making Kashar cheese: dry boiling and wet boiling.

In the dry boiling stage, the curds and salt are placed in a dry boiling vat and heated while being stirred by blades inside the vat at a specific temperature. After this process, our cheese takes the form of melted cheese curds and is transferred to the wet cooking unit in a cylindrical shape using molds. After this process, our masters shape the cheese curds by hand into molds. The molded cheddar cheeses are left to rest for 1 day, dried, and during this resting period, they acquire their characteristic yellow color. Once the resting period is complete, our cheddar cheeses are removed from their molds, vacuum-packed, and made ready for shipment.

At the same time, teleme cheeses that are taken directly to the wet cooking stage without dry cooking are also shaped. Unlike dry boiling, salt does not need to be added to the cheese during the wet boiling stage. Dry boiling is the preferred method for making cheddar cheese, and wet boiling is generally used for making Dil cheese.

DIL CHEESE

The production stages of dil cheese and cheddar cheese are almost identical. The only difference, the factor that makes it “dil cheese,” is that it undergoes a “wet cooking” process.

After our 900 liters of pasteurized milk is heated to the right temperature, it is transferred to the curdling tank, where it is curdled using cheese rennet. The curds are transferred to the wet boiling tank, where they turn into cheese dough. They are then removed from the mold in a cylindrical shape and our master craftsmen shape them into long, thin columns by hand. At this stage, it is very important to maintain the pH balance of the cheese. Therefore, cold water is used throughout the shaping process to maintain the pH balance. After the cheese has been shaped, it is left to rest in brine for about half an hour and then placed in Map molds, ready for shipment.

We continue to bring you our natural and fresh cheeses, produced by processing milk from our own farms in our own production facilities, with the quality and taste that comes from 66 years of experience. You can taste our Emirgan Sütiş brand cheese varieties at all our branches and purchase them from our Emirgan and Çengelköy stores.