Belper knolle. Make this cheese. Make it now and thank me later.
I make this incredible treat almost every week. While it’s traditionally aged for several weeks and served grated or shaved over pastas and risottos (and even steak! Yum!), I like mine about a week old, sliced, and served on crackers or burgers. It’s peppery, and garlicky, and altogether delicious.
“Belper” refers to the Belp region of Switzerland and “knolle” is the German word for tuber or bulb.
I discovered this odd-looking little cheese through the New England Cheesemaking website. If you haven’t checked them out yet, you should. You might remember from other posts that the first cheesemaking supplies I ever bought were Ricki’s Basic Cheesemaking Kit and her book Home Cheesemaking. I own other cheesemaking books but Ricki’s is the first one I pick up when I want to try a new recipe. I’m using basically the same recipe as on their website but have made subtle changes to it – using goat milk instead of cow milk, adding extra garlic, and sometimes rolling it in smoked paprika instead of pepper. It’s worth noting that there are several ways I’ve seen people making this awesome little cheese, so there is room for experimentation.
You will need:
- 1 gallon of milk – I use goat milk but cow milk is more traditional for this cheese
- 1 packet of chevre culture (I use this) or 1 packet of fromage blanc culture
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cheese salt or kosher salt
- 3 cloves of fresh garlic
- 2 – 3 tablespoons of toasted black peppercorns (more on that later)
- 1/4 teaspoon of calcium chloride diluted in 1/4 cup of water, if using pasteurized milk – I don’t use it but it helps set a firmer curd and slightly increases the curd yield. If your curds seem overly soft or your whey seems too milky, you should use this.
- thermometer
- large slotted spoon
- cheesecloth or clean, new, white handkerchief
- large pot with a lid
- colander
- drying mat or wooden cutting board
- mortar and pestle
If you are using the diluted calcium chloride, add it to your gallon of milk in a large stock pot. Heat the milk to 86°F, stirring the milk occasionally as it heats. Remove the milk from the heat and add the culture. Stir it in gently but thoroughly.
Now allow the milk to sit, covered, undisturbed for 12 – 14 hours. I like to start my milk heating and resting before I go to bed at night and proceed to the next step after chores the following morning. The milk will coast to room temperature over several hours. If your house is very cool, such as during the winter, you might want to do as I do and place the pot of milk on a large clean bath towel and wrap the towel around the pot to insulate it a bit while it rests. After the resting period has passed, you will see a clear separation of curds and whey. If you’ve made chevre with me before, this will all be very familiar to you. See the curd mass and the clear whey surrounding it?
Line the colander with several layers of cheesecloth or the clean handkerchief, and set it over a bowl to catch the whey. (Use the whey for baking, drinking, or feeding to chickens). Spoon the curd into the cheesecloth and allow it to drain briefly.
Then gather the corners of the cloth and tie them together, hanging it to drain for several hours or overnight. I drain mine for 10 – 12 hours. You want the curd to be firm enough to hold its shape and not be sticky when you form it into balls. If the curd seems to be holding onto the whey too long, open the cloth bundle, stir the curds a bit, and hang it back up to dry a while longer. You’ll soon get a feel for how long to hang your curds, because I know you’ll want to make this cheese often and will get lots of practice.
Now let’s talk about toasting peppercorns! If you like pepper but have never had toasted pepper, you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s so good and so easy. I often make a little extra when I’m making some for the cheese and use it for cooking during the week. Place your peppercorns in a pan over low heat. Shake the pan often as the peppercorns warm up, until you can smell the pepper (kind of the same way you toast nuts until you can smell them). Then put the peppercorns through a spice grinder until they are finely ground. That’s all there is to it! And, in case you’re wondering, yes, I do have a favorite pepper. I buy Olde Thompson.
Coarsely chop 3 cloves of garlic and add it to the salt in the mortar and grind it together with the pestle until it forms a paste. Put the curds and salt/garlic in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
I divide my curds into six equal portions and shape the portions into balls – just like making a snowball! – and roll them in the pepper. 
Set the cheeses onto your drying board and allow them to air dry at room temperature for 3 – 4 days until they become firm and lighten a bit in color. I generally get excited and eat one at this point, then put the rest in the fridge and eat one a day with my lunch (yes, I do love this cheese). Below is a photo of what the cheese looks like after air-drying for four days. I’ve already eaten half of one… I really like pepper but if the pepper is too strong for your tastes, you can brush off the excess and your cheese won’t be so black as mine. If you would prefer to age your knolle, they should be stored in a cheese cave at about 55°F and 75% humidity for 4 – 6 weeks until they are dry enough to shave or grate. Mine rarely makes it that long, although you can see in the title photograph that I did save one to grate so you can see what that looks like.
Such a simple cheese to make, and yet so impressive, and so very tasty. You really need to try this, trust me. So gather up your ingredients and get started!