Halloumi cheese waffle and poached pear / Broader waffle maker applications part 1!

It’s been another few months without articles, but more will be coming soon! I’ve been busy recently with my PhD thesis proposal (it went fine, btw).  In the next couple articles, I’ll be investigating interesting applications of a heavily underrated piece of kitchen equipment – the wafflemaker!

Left: Halloumi cheese waffle. Center: Poached pears marinating/macerating in a wine syrup. Right: Poached pear with gelato and (unpictured) halloumi cheese waffle

The unique advantage of a waffle geometry is its increased surface area to volume ratio, compared to a flat square or circle of similar dimensions.  The Good Eats episode about waffles does a good job of discussing some of the advantages that come from this property, for instance, waffle irons were used to mold the first soles of running shoes (the beginning of Nike).  For regular edible waffles, the unique benefits are the ability to retain wells of syrup and to have lots of fried crunchy/crisp exterior, with some soft interior.  These seem like properties that could easily extend to many other fried goods, wouldn’t you think?

Fried halloumi cheese slices - very crispy, but little chewy/soft interior.  If cut into cubes, they require 5 manipulations to fry each side

One of the first foods I thought could benefit from wafflization was halloumi cheese.  Halloumi cheese is a special type of brined cheese, salty like feta but softer and creamier, that is known for its ability to be fried or grilled and retain its shape while gaining a crispy exterior.

Left: Comparison of percent by weight of fat, protein, and water (the remaining weight out of 100g that was not fat or protein) between 5 cheeses categorized as high melting point and 5 cheese categorized as low melting point.  No significant differences in composition were observed.  Right: Comparison of salt content between high melting point and low melting point cheeses in 100g of cheese.  The difference was found to be significant at p<0.01 using 1-way ANOVA.

I’ve seen many peoples’ websites attempt to explain why this is the case, but have come across a surprising range of explanations.  While many of these reasons (moisture content, protein content, type of fat, salt content) all seem to be plausible reasons, when analyzing the composition of several high-melt point (halloumi, feta, parmesan, cotija, and aged asiago) and low-melt point cheeses (mozzarella, swiss, cheddar, camembert, and brie), I found that only salt content seemed to significantly contribute to the melt-point (data courtesy of http://www.sargentofoodservice.com/trends-innovation/cheese-melt-meter/ and www.fatsecret.com, acid-curdled, reduced fat, and added fungal culture cheese excluded from analysis, n=5 for each, P<0.01 for salt content).  Salt molecules present within a cheese are believed to interact with the cheese protein network – with more salt keeping these networks stable when they would normally fall apart due to applied heat.  Therefore, I believe that the interesting properties of halloumi are due to its relatively high salt content from brining.

Left: 1/4-1/2" slice of halloumi on medium heat in waffle maker.  A crispier exterior is attainable by brushing with oil and/or using higher heat.  Center: After 2 minutes or less, the halloumi cheese gains a crisp exterior.  Right: The interior of the halloumi cheese waffle is airy, soft and light due to small air pockets in the cheese.

By brushing, dipping, or coating with oil, a much crispier exterior than what I have pictured here is possible.  Frying in a waffle maker requires as little as 2 minutes (depending on your settings), without the need to turn halloumi cubes 5 times (for all sides of a cube), and yields a crispy on the outside, light and airy on the inside cheese waffle.  I didn’t think of this till later, but it would also go well with a nice poached pear.