Recipe from https://365daysoflebanon.com/2016/01/09/the-poor-mans-cheese/ and https://macrobiotics.org.uk/the-gift-of-time/.
Neither of those recipes gives good quantities. The first one just says “a little sea salt”, the other ones makes an approx. 0.6% salt brine. I find this a little bit low, so I’ll go with a 2% brine instead.
- 400 mL water + 8 g salt (=2% brine)
- 200 g bulgure (Garant, Ekologisk bulgur)
- Day 1 (2023-01-09): Sterilize a jar with boiling water. Let cool down. Combine bulgur and brine in a 500 mL jar, stir. Bulgur settles to the ground and top layer is starchy water. Cover with a kitchen paper and let stand at RT for 24h. Check brine level and bubbling.
- …
- Contaminated somehow, didn’t look right. Discarded.
Recipe from https://www.instagram.com/p/C3m6fUWuP7_/:
- 800 mL glass jar + napkin or piece of cloth that fits over the jar + rubber band
- 150 g organic bulgur
- 450g water
- 11gr sea salt (=2%)
- Weigh 150 g of bulgur into the jar, top it with 450 g of lukewarm water and add 11 g of sea salt. Mix well with a clean spoon.
- Cover the jar with the clean napkin and secure it tightly with the rubber band.
- Place it in a warm, dark place. Ferment it for at least 2 weeks, up to 4 weeks. The longer you let the bulgur ferment, the more sour it becomes.
- Every day you should mix the bulgur well with a clean spoon, so that the bulgur at the bottom of the jar is at the top. Make sure that all the bulgur remains submerged in the liquid and that no bulgur sticks to the inside of the pot above the water.
- If the cheese smells sour (pH between 3.5-4.5), drain the bulgur in a cheesecloth in a large pot for 24 hours. You can use the liquid as a starter for a new round of plant-based cheese or drink it for your daily shot of microbes!
- When the bulgur is dry enough, you can knead/roll it into balls. Make sure this is also done in a clean environment.
- Fill a jar with good olive oil and possibly herbs, in which you can put the balls to keep them for a long time.
- Enjoy your own vegan bulgur cheese!