Trader Joe's Halloumi Cheese Is Officially Back For The Summer Season
This is not a drill. Please proceed to your nearest Trader Joe's cheese section; halloumi is back for the season. Though it's not appearing on Trader Joe's' website as being in stock for the summer yet, one post on Instagram indicates halloumi was put out for sale just four days ago. Apparently, it can be picked up for $5.99 as an 8-ounce block.
Halloumi is a cheese made from goat and sheep's milk, traditionally from the island of Cyprus. And it doesn't melt, making it great for grilling and pan searing. Trader Joe's sources its halloumi specifically from Atalanta, a food-import company whose product is a celebrated seasonal item at the grocery-store chain.
Halloumi, a little like the baby of mozzarella and feta, makes a great vegetarian protein for salads and grilled halloumi veggie sandwiches, or it can be fried up on its own with olive oil and chili flakes as part of a mezze plate. On the Instagram post in question, one commenter claimed that, when they were in Cyprus, locals ate it with watermelon for a salty-sweet snack, and another said that they make pressed cucumber, tomato, and halloumi sandwiches.
Why doesn't halloumi melt?
At the base of it, cheese is the coagulated protein of animal milk. The melt-ability of cheese depends on a couple of things, like pH levels and the way the curds were prepared in the cheese-making. Melting is really just the process of stretching casein proteins, something most often attained through heating. The casein proteins stretch best if their strand networks are intact, but halloumi is made by scalding the curds, which denatures (breaks up) the protein structures of the casein.
In order for the casein proteins to slide and stretch, though, they need to have the proper pH level. Cheeses with a lower pH melt better, up to a point; once the pH drops to or past 4.6, melting is inhibited again, because this also breaks up the casein protein strands. At too high a pH, there's too much calcium phosphate, which inhibits stretch. The best melting pH is between 5.0 and 5.4, generally, and Halloumi typically has a pH of 5.8. This makes it hold shape when heated — the ultimate grilling and frying cheese. No wonder people are excited for Trader Joe's to have it back in stock!