Thursday, March 24, 2016

Cydik - a photo tutorial

It takes 14 eggs and one quart of whole milk to make one cydik.
Start by cracking the eggs open and the pierce each egg yolk once. 
Add the eggs to the milk and start to heat the mixture, all while slowly stirring. 
Keep stirring. 
Just keep stirring. 
It will start to curdle and look like curds and whey. The milk will be very watery.
Set up a station to squeeze the "curds." I use two half sheet cookie trays, some thin plastic cutting sheets, and a big iron pot (for a weight). 
Pour the curds into a colander lined with either two layers of cheesecloth or one layer of butter muslin (as shown). 
Set the wrapped curds between two plastic cutting boards and under a big cast iron Dutch oven for the weight and press overnight. Refrigerate and serve cold, sliced thin. Great with keilbasa and horseradish. 

Finished product (just remembered to get a photo right before it was all gone).