(ke-fah-loe-TEE-ree) is one of the oldest cheeses in Greece and the most traditional hard cheese. Its name comes from the word for head, “kefali,” and the word for cheese, “tyri.” Kefalotyri is produces all over Greece in more or less the same way, usually from sheep’s milk or from a combination of sheep’s and goat’s milk. Today most kefalotyri is made from pasteurized milk to which calcium chloride and then rennet are added. When the milk coagulates, the curds are cut into fairly small piece about the size of rice grains. The curds and whey are heated and stirred continuously and then left to cool to about 5 degrees Celsius. The curds are then strained and hand-pressed into wheel-shaped molds, and over the course of four or five hours the cheese is turned and pressed, at first by hand and then by machine, until most of the moisture is forced out. The cheese is removed from the mold, left overnight in to ripen at about 15 degrees Celsius, then salted in brine for two days. It is removed from the brine and rubbed with dry salt, almost daily for about two or three weeks before being left to mature for several months. During the last phase of the ripening process it is washed with brine to keep mold from forming on its rind. Kefalotyri is usually quite salty and hard. It is consumed mainly as a grating cheese but also as a table cheese and is excellent pan – fried as for the Greek specialty saganaki.
