How to make Czech fried cheese, just like the chefs
Good beer and honest cooking
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Fried cheese has been a staple on Czech pub menus since the 1960s. However, its seemingly easy and quick preparation requires a few basic rules. Naturally, we had to learn from the pros, so we visited Lokál in Prague, where thousands of irresistible portions are fried every year.
"In 2019, we sold 39,800 fried cheeses, and it's still one of the most popular dishes in Lokál," confirms Honza Martínek, chef of Lokál Dlouhááá. So, how do you achieve the perfect fry?
1. Cheese
Step number one is cheese selection, with quality, taste and texture all considered. A fried slice shouldn't ooze either too much or too little, which is why most chefs choose Gouda, Eidam, Emmental or cheddar. Hermelin tends to be too runny after frying, while niva, for example, is quite substantial. The rise in temperature during frying also intensifies salty tastes, just as it would with sweet ones.
Lokál's choice is the eidam '30', which, however, certainly does not deserve its usual reputation of being an inferior cheaper option – it is matured in the dairy for several weeks, giving it a full flavour and ideal consistency.
As the cheese ages, calcium lactate crystals (salts of lactic acid) form, which enhance the complex flavour of the umami. During the process, the cheese loses moisture, making it firmer. It then fries better than younger cheeses.
Cheeses with high moisture content, such as mozzarella or creamy brie, melt and flow together more easily than dry, hard cheeses because they contain more water. A classic example is pizza, on which the mozzarella melts into a solid mass while the Parmesan remains broken down.
Fresh, unripened cheese contains large and elastic casein molecules that tend to tangle into "ropes", which is why melted mozzarella is fibrous and stringy. In aged cheese, ripening enzymes attack the casein molecules and they break into smaller pieces. These do not tangle during melting and the cheese melts smoothly.
2. The breadcrumb coating
The basis of a successful fried cheese is a perfected coating technique. At Lokál, they take care to use the right flour, but also a specific procedure to ensure an even, firm and crispy coating. The edam is first coated in flour, then eggs and finally a mixture of flour and breadcrumbs that binds better with the eggs.
The cooks use semi-coarse flour – smooth is too fine, sticks to the eggs and does not provide a sufficient base for the breadcrumbs. It is worth sifting the breadcrumbs with the flour frequently to prevent them from forming lumps on the frying pan.
The eggs should be whisked very gently (using a fork or your fingers) so that they are not too runny and run down the fork slowly, as if in strings. The eggs shouldn't be salted – they would thin out and the breadcrumbs and flour will stick to them badly. For the same reason, the cheese must be left to drain after coating in the egg.
Some cooks don't even add salt to their meat when making schnitzel. The meat is seasoned in advance – brining is also recommended for an even flavour.
The cheese should be coated without pressure! Once it is out of the egg, it is carefully placed in the flour and breadcrumb mixture and rolled on both sides and around the edges, without smothering the individual layers of the triple coating. This prevents the edges from cracking and thus leaking when frying.
3. Frying
The coated cheese is left rest for 10 to 15 minutes next to the stove so that it is at room temperature when fried. The breadcrumbs will have time to soak up the moisture from the egg and the crumb coating will dry, firm up and adhere perfectly to the cheese. The result is a whole crust that is easier to fry, and the cheese will not leak out.
The unique taste of Lokál's fried cheese is due to frying in clarified butter,which boasts a higher smoke point of around 250 °C. Another option is rapeseed oil, but sunflower oil is already overheated at around 160 °C and should not be used to fry. Lard can also withstand high temperatures, but its smell and taste aren't a great match with cheese.
It is best to fry in a saucepan with a slightly thicker layer of oil, so that the cheese is slightly submerged and can float to the surface after frying. When the fat is properly heated, at about 175 °C, you'll only need to turn your cheese once during frying, and within three minutes it'll be done.
The slices can also be fried in a thinner layer of fat, about a centimetre thick. This gives the crust a more interesting texture and, by turning it over, creates blisters and different textures.
4. Sides
At Lokál, a classic recipe calls for a classic side dish – boiled potatoes brushed with butter, garnished with chives or parsley and served with a tartar sauce made from their own mayonnaise. The chefs mix in pickles and a little of their brine, onions, a pinch of sugar and salt, vinegar or lemon juice, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and mustard.
However, guests are also influence by habit or tradition, so the fried cheese is also served in a bun, or paired with mashed potatoes or even potato salad if desired.
A touch of history:
Historians say that fried cheese first appeared on plates in the Middle Ages in northern Italy. However, it did not enter Czech consumption until around 1953 – it was made from emmental or gorgonzola wrapped in bacon and served more as a luxury starter. The pub classic of "smažák" took off in the 1960s, when slightly cheaper Moravian cheese began to be fried in breadcrumbs, accompanied by tartar sauce.
Smažák became a menu classic thanks to a failed wave of semi-finished products designed to make home cooking easier. Most of the overpriced and low-quality products did not survive, but a way was found to mechanise and make the preparation of cheese for wrapping more convenient. This made fried edam a significantly cheaper choice than schnitzel, and also made it one of the first vegetarian dishes of socialist gastronomy, which the Czechs elevated to a national dish.
Source: Ambiente chefs, Zmlsané dějiny
