Vegan cheese gains complexity with dairy techniques

For a long time, the perfect imitation of cheese was the “holy grail” of vegan gastronomy. The market pioneers followed the path of roots, with products based on potatoes, cassava and peas, but despite the creaminess (and the coloring and flavoring), the result only satisfied the most desperate — they didn’t have the complexity to live up to the name. borrowed.

More than a decade later, the path is being followed by tradition. Fermentation techniques, tuning and bacteria typical of the animal cheese factory are giving life to dozens of vegetable cheeses based on cashew nuts, with complexity of flavor, texture and even their own terroir.

Master cheese maker Virgínia Cândida is from Jeceaba, 120 km from the capital Belo Horizonte, and learned to make cheese as a child, in a family that preserved the tradition of working with milk for their own consumption.

When she became vegan in 2014, she decided to test the same techniques with plant-based milks. She refined the method over the years, studied French cheeses and today her brand, Viveg, founded in 2016, produces up to 6,000 units of vegan cheeses per month, in two factories in Belo Horizonte and one in Recife.

There are more than 20 types of different strains of fungi and bacteria used in traditional cheese making. These include complex cheeses, such as black pearl, a hard cheese that rests for twelve months, blue train, a blue moldy cheese, and cocoa in bloom, of the brie type, with a thin cocoa film on the flowering husk.

In Viveg’s process, the nut is hydrated and fermented, then it becomes a cream, where the bacteria are inoculated. Fermentation takes place in the first 24 hours, when the animals consume the sugar and protein in the dough. From there, the curing and tuning process begins, when the cheese hardens and acquires complexity, at a controlled temperature for at least 60 days.

“The process is what gives the cheese its identity, 70% are the bacteria you use, and 30% are how it is cured and refined”, says Virgínia, who has traveled all over the country teaching in classes and workshops for more of a thousand students.

Master cheese maker Michele Souza traveled alongside Virgínia and today has her own vegan micro-cheese shop, Queijuaria, in Campinas (SP). On the menu are 18 types of cheese, with a focus on blue cheeses, such as gorgonzola, which spends 40 to 60 days moldy, literally.

“Initially, I bought bacterial cultures, but now I make them. Blue mold is in the air, so, as the vegetation, humidity and soil vary, it gives the cheese its own characteristic, a terroir. Mine has this terroir of Campinas”, he says.

In São Paulo, stylist and vegan cheese maker Márcio Banfi, from Casa Banfi, makes cheese with a technique that is a little different from traditional methods. Instead of culturing bacteria in the lab, he uses a type of natural probiotic called rejuvelac.

This yeast is obtained by spontaneous fermentation of germinated grains immersed in water. The technique, of Romanian origin and popularized in the 1960s, is the pioneer of fermented vegan cheeses.

The identity of each Banfi cheese is guaranteed by the rejuvelac recipe, which uses grains such as beans, lentils and peas. “It’s the way of taking care of each one that gives this difference in flavor, it’s the temperature, the exchange of water, the germination time”, he explains.

He has a small production, which he sells on social media and at a street fair in the central region of São Paulo. The most sought after are semi-cured cheeses. “Vegan cheeses involve a curiosity in the experience. It’s you eating something and realizing that it’s possible to get that flavor with this process.”

Other seeds and nuts are also used as a base by cheesemakers, such as almonds and macadamia nuts, but cashew nuts are preferred because they are soft and smooth, have no shell (which facilitates processing) and are always available on the market.

Or almost always. In the last two years, the drought has punished Brazilian cashew trees, which are old and produce little per area, and the price has soared. According to Instituto Caju Brasil, Brazil nut consumption grows by about 10% a year and producers are having to import them to fulfill their contracts.

For food engineer Paulo Grassi, production director at Galpão Cuccina, which produces vegan cheese on an industrial scale, in addition to the difficulty in ensuring the supply of certified quality nuts, there is a lack of literature in the industry.

“It’s a new market, with few specific equipment. For animal ingredients there is literature on the chemical composition and results. In the plant world, there is still a lot of trial and error”, he says.

But if the lack of nuts can be circumvented, the lack of regulation cannot. The use of the term cheese to refer to plant-based fermented products has irritated the dairy industry, which has been demanding specific legislation for years.

The Department of Inspection of Products of Plant Origin of the folder is preparing a proposal for public consultation on the use of the terms “plant-based”, “cheese”, “milk”, “meat” and vegetable “fish”. The expectation is to present it later this year.

Banfi House

instagram.com/casa_banfi

Vegan cheese shop

instagram.com/queijuaria.vegana

Vivaveg

www.viveg.com.br

Cucina Shed

www.galpaocucina.com.br