1,000-kilo cheese, Argentina's largest, to have a charitable destination

In a remarkable feat of culinary engineering, producers in Argentina's Villa María dairy basin have crafted the country's largest cheese, a 1,000-kilogram semi-hard creation. This ambitious project, requiring approximately 10,000 liters of milk and six hours of intensive work, represents a significant collaborative effort involving dairy farmers, technicians, a dairy school, suppliers, and a local dairy industry.

The initiative, spearheaded by organizers of the Mega Expo del Centro Argentino (MECA), aimed to surpass a previously made cheese and showcase the region's dairy potential. They selected the L.C.A. SRL plant in Villa Nueva for its necessary facilities. Ángel Barrenechea, managing partner of L.C.A. SRL, emphasized the shared effort, stating, "We provided the plant and personnel, but producers, suppliers, and the Superior Integral Dairy School, which was in charge of technical direction, also participated. It was truly a shared effort."

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We provided the plant and personnel, but producers, suppliers, and the Superior Integral Dairy School, which was in charge of technical direction, also participated. It was truly a shared effort.

The cheese-making process involved adapting conventional techniques to an unprecedented scale. Milk was processed in two 5,000-liter vats, with one batch naturally colored, resulting in a marbled appearance. The primary challenge lay in handling the massive curd mass once it left the vats. Alejandro Coria, a teacher at the Superior Integral Dairy School and a technical lead, explained the adaptation required for draining, salting, and molding such a large volume into a single piece.

To manage the salting process for the enormous cheese, the team employed a cheddarization technique, a method not commonly used in Argentina. This involved manually working the curd to remove excess whey before direct salting, as immersion in brine was impossible for a piece of this size. Once salted, the cheese began its maturation process, destined for a charitable purpose after completion. This monumental cheese stands as a testament to the ingenuity and cooperative spirit within Argentina's dairy sector.

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What happens inside the vat is practically the same if one makes a one-kilo cheese or a 1000-kilo one. The difference begins when that mass leaves the vat. That's when we had to think about how to drain it, salt it, and mold it so that it ended up being a single piece.