Hand cheese

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Hand cheese (served as hand cheese with music )

Handkäse (regionally also Handkäs or Handkääs ) is a standard variety from the group of sour milk cheeses . The name and size of the cheese come from the original way of making the cheese , which is shaped by hand. The type of cheese produced in the past in many regions (eg. As in Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Silesia and Hessen), but today especially with the Rhine-Main area and to neighboring areas in Hessen , Rheinhessen and the Pfalz connected .

Manufacturing

Very young hand cheese with a distinct core made from sour milk quark

It is a cheese made from low-fat quark that is crushed with a whisk and added to the baking soda and salt. Its fat content is less than one percent and its protein content is 25 percent.

In the past, the cheeses were shaped by hand into round patties, which is where the name comes from, today this is usually done with a shaping machine. The white cheeses mature for two days in a sweat chamber , also known as a ripening room, at a temperature of 25 to 28 ° C and 80 percent humidity. If the skin shows a yellowish color, the patties are sprayed with brine and packed. Depending on the variety, the hand cheese can then be sprayed again with brine mixed with red cultures ( Brevibacterium linens ) and placed in the ripening room for another two days. The “Hausmacher Art” variety requires additional ripening with the formation of a white layer of mold, caused by milk mold ( Geotrichum candidum ) that partially or completely covers the surface of the cheese wheel.

In contrast to Mainz cheese and Harz cheese , hand cheese can not only be made as yellow cheese, but also as noble mold cheese. In addition, the cheese matures a little longer at lower temperatures. B. Camembert mold cultures ( Penicillium camemberti ) are produced.

There are hand cheeses with and without caraway seeds in stores. The caraway is added during production.

Production and distribution

In 2014 there were still four hand cheese dairies in Hessen: three of them in Hochelheim, a district of Hüttenberg in Central Hesse (cheese dairies Birkenstock, Wilhelm Mack and Mack GmbH) and one in Groß-Gerau (cheese dairy Horst). The clear market leader, however, is the dairy giant Müller , which has its hand cheese made in Leppersdorf, Saxony .

The hand cheese is particularly popular in the Rhine-Main area, but also in other parts of Hesse - the Buchklingen hand cheese festival has been held in a small district of the municipality of Birkenau for over 20 years - as well as in Rheinhessen (especially Mainz ). The fact that hand cheese also has a long tradition in the Palatinate is proven by the Loschter Handkeesfescht , which has been celebrated on May 1st in Lustadt in the Palatinate for around 100 years .

Dosage form

Two hand cheeses with caraway seeds
"Dorscher Handkäs mit Musik": hand cheese in onion marinade

Traditionally, hand cheese is served and consumed marinated with or without music, or as hand cheese bread.

With music is a traditional marinade made from onions , vinegar and oil , pepper and salt , which is also used with other types of cheese such as Limburger or Munster , but also with sausages such as Presssack or Nuremberg city sausage . Often a little water, a shot of cider or wine is added. If the caraway has not already been added during ripening, it can be added to the marinade.

Allegedly, the term “with music” alludes to the noises that can be made during the digestive processes of onions. Another theory of what the music with Handkäs should be with music goes back to the fact that vinegar and oil used to be brought separately and these bottles hit each other while serving and thus made the “music”.

Contrary to the usual pronunciation of the word "music" in German, it is traditionally pronounced in Hessen and Rheinhessen with an emphasis on the first syllable and a briefly spoken second syllable when it describes the form of hand cheese.

Without music , a marinade is without onions.

In Frankfurt, hand cheese is traditionally eaten with music, without using a fork. You cut off a piece of hand cheese and place it on a piece of buttered bread , push some of the music onto it with a knife and bite off.

In contrast, for a hand cheese bread, hand cheese is mashed with a fork, mixed with butter or quark and pressed onto a slice of bread. The bread is eaten out of hand.

Usually cider is drunk with it, but in some areas such as Rheinhessen (wine-growing region) and the Palatinate, a dry white wine is also drunk .

The best before date (BBD) can be used as an indication of how far the maturity has progressed . (Approximate values ​​at refrigerator temperature):

  • 5–6 weeks before the expiry date: mild taste, white core.
  • 3–4 weeks before the expiry date: aromatic taste, small white core.
  • 1–2 weeks before the expiry date: strong taste, fully ripened without a white core.

Hessian hand cheese PGI

In 2006, the State Association for Milk and Milk Products Hessen eV applied for the name "Hessischer Handkäse" or "Hessischer Handkäs" to be entered in the list of products with a protected geographical indication (PGI) of the European Union . After the application was published in the Official Journal of the European Union and was granted, since September 23, 2010, sour milk cheese can only be called "Hessischer Handkäse" if it has been produced and packaged in Hessen. The sour milk quark used in production does not have to come from Hessen.

Other types of sour milk cheese

In contrast to other sour milk cheeses, hand cheese is relatively soft. Cheeses comparable to hand cheese are Harz cheese (colloquially Harzer Roller ), Mainz cheese , farmer's hand cheese and basket cheese . In Austria such a cheese is called Quargel . Hand cheese is also one of the ways in which Nieheim cheese is made.

literature

Web links

Commons : Handkäse  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Handkäse  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Customers now also request hand cheese online. In: FAZ. September 23, 2014, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Bernd Köstering, Ralf Thee: From banks and banks in Frankfurt am Main: An unusual tour of discovery ; Gmeiner Verlag 2013; ISBN 978-3-8392-4048-9
  3. ^ HP Müller: Frankfurter Küch and Sprüch , Frankfurt am Main 1975, p. 101
  4. ↑ Norbert Brieke: delicacies from Frankfurt kitchen and cellar , Verlag Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-7829-0409-5 , S. 150
  5. ↑ Publication of the application in the register information of the German Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved August 22, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Publication of an application for registration in accordance with Article 6 (2) of Council Regulation (EC) No. 510/2006 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs
  7. ↑ Regulation (EU) No. 784/2010 of the Commission of 3 September 2010 for the entry of a name in the register of protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications (Hessischer Handkäse or Hessischer Handkäs (PGI))
  8. ↑ Entry on Hessischer Handkäse in the Database of Origin and Registration (DOOR) of the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission .