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Cheese from Greece

AnthotyrosΑνθότυρος

Anthotyros is a Greek whey cheese, made by heating the whey left from Feta or cooked hard cheeses, sometimes with milk added, until its proteins clot. It is a boundary entry. The fresh cheese is heat-set, not fermented, though lactic bacteria later grow in it during cold storage. A dry form is a matured cheese, similar to Myzithra.

Fully documentedCheesenone (not an EU PDO)Family: Whey cheese (heat-precipitated whey protein) family

Recipe

Anthotyros, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Giorgos ab1234, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
No fixed amounts recordedThe sources give no fixed recipe or amounts.
Sheep or goat wheyFrom Feta or cooked hard cheeses such as Kefalotyri and Graviera; Wikipedia says milk and whey from sheep or goats are used, sometimes in combination[sameli2021][wp]
Raw milk (sometimes)Added to the whey before heating[samelis2022]
No starter cultureNone is used after heating[samelis2022]
Starternone (heat-set)
Start
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What changes: Whey from the day's cheesemaking goes into a vat

Step 1 of 4
Collect the whey
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Whey left from Feta or cooked hard cheeses such as Kefalotyri and Graviera; some dairies add raw milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Anthotyros is a Greek whey cheese, made by heating the whey left from Feta or cooked hard cheeses, sometimes with milk added, until its proteins clot. It is a boundary entry. The fresh cheese is heat-set, not fermented, though lactic bacteria later grow in it during cold storage. A dry form is a matured cheese, similar to Myzithra.

Key numbers
Temperature4 °CReported[sameli2021]Pack and keep cold
AciditypH 6.8Measured[sameli2021]Pack and keep cold

What makes this one different

Like Myzithra it is a whey cheese set by heat, not by rennet or bacteria; no starter is added after heating. Dry anthotyros is a matured cheese similar to Myzithra, with 37.5 % moisture and 2.6 % salt in one sample.

Milk
Sheep or goat whey (sometimes combined), sometimes with milk
Composition, fresh
pH 6.1, moisture 71 %, fat 13 %, salt 0.6 % (mean of 4 retail samples)
Composition, dry
pH 6.4, moisture 37.5 %, fat 38.6 %, salt 2.6 % (one retail sample)

Related ferments

Variants

  • Fresh anthotyrosSoft, with 0.6 % salt on average in 4 retail samples; kept cold.
  • Dry anthotyrosA matured cheese; 37.5 % moisture and 2.6 % salt in one sample.
  • Partly skimmed anthotyrosLess fat (12 % in 3 retail samples).

Safety

Fresh whey cheese is highly perishable because of its high pH and moisture. In a 2022 challenge study, Listeria monocytogenes added to vacuum-packed fresh anthotyros after heating grew by about 2 log10 CFU/g in 15 days, even at 4 °C.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes, which grew in the fresh cheese at its high pH even at 4 °C when added after heating.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
Process times
The sources we found give no figure for how long any of its steps take.
  1. [sameli2021] Sameli N., Sioziou E., Bosnea L., Kakouri A., Samelis J. 2021, Assessment of the spoilage microbiota during refrigerated (4 °C) vacuum-packed storage of fresh Greek Anthotyros whey cheese without or with a crude enterocin A-B-P-containing extract, Foods 10(12):2946paper
  2. [samelis2022] Sameli N., Samelis J. 2022, Growth and biocontrol of Listeria monocytogenes in Greek Anthotyros whey cheese without or with a crude enterocin A-B-P extract, Foods 11(3):334paper
  3. [pappa2023] Pappa E.C. et al. 2023, Compositional differences of Greek cheeses of limited production, Foods 12(12):2426, table 3paper
  4. [wp] Wikipedia, Anthotyros (outline only)wiki