Cooking cheese at home is not as difficult as many people think. The secret to a good cottage cheese is the right and high-quality products!
Fat farm milk and cottage cheese, fresh eggs and flavors are all the basis for making cheese. High-fat cow or goat milk is taken for cheese. In accordance with the selected milk, the cheese is obtained a certain taste.
In the cheese mass, you can introduce flavoring and aromatic additives - a variety of fresh or dried herbs, spices and seasonings to taste. You can cook a quick home-made cream cheese, or you can be patient and make a real suluguni!
Homemade cheese (step by step recipe) - general principles of preparation
There are two ways to make homemade cheese. The first is the melting of certain dairy products. This method is used much more often in home cooking. It is in this way that you can cook the well-known Philadelphia cheese or Mascarpone. The second way is to mix ordinary milk with lactic acid bacteria and with special coagulating enzymes. Hard cheeses are prepared using this method.
It is better to make cheese from real village milk, but if it is not possible to purchase one, then you can take ordinary fresh store milk with high fat content. Shelf life of milk should be a few days. A dairy product in a paper hard shell with a long shelf life will not work.
It is desirable to cook cheese in a pan with a very thick bottom, otherwise there is a possibility that the cheese mass will burn. It is advisable to cook the mixture over low heat, while stirring constantly.
The finished mass should be placed in any convenient form, covered, pressed with a load, if necessary, and removed in the cold to solidify (preferably at night).
Step by step recipe for homemade cheese with kefir garlic
Ingredients:
• 1 liter of fat milk (more than 3.2% fat content);
• 1 liter of fatty kefir;
• three chicken eggs;
• 25 g of turmeric or saffron;
• three cloves of garlic;
• 50 g of parsley or cilantro;
• half a small lemon;
• salt to taste.
Cooking method:
1. Rinse eggs under running water, wipe with napkins and break into a bowl. Stir whisk until smooth.
2. Pour turmeric into a small bowl and pour a tablespoon of warm water. Stir and leave to infuse.
3. From half of the lemon you need to squeeze the juice. This can be done by hand or using a special citrus fruit juicer.
4. Sort parsley, picking only fresh green leaves. If desired, you can take other herbs: dill, basil or rosemary.
5. Submerge the greens in a bowl of clean water and mix.
6. Then remove the parsley from the bowl and lay it on a clean kitchen towel to dry at room temperature.
7. Grind all the greens in a blender to a puree state. To make this easier, pour squeezed juice of half a lemon into a blender bowl.
8. Peel and rinse the garlic in water.
9. Pass the garlic through a press or chop with a knife on a cutting board. Garlic mass should resemble gruel.
10. Pour kefir and milk into a pot with a thick bottom.
11. Stir and put on moderate heat plate.
12. Stirring, wait until the milk begins to curl.
13. Reduce the fire to a minimum.
14. Without stopping stirring, pour the egg into the pan.
15. Add the parsley pulp, garlic.
16. Pour turmeric mixture.
17. Season with salt. Here you need to try the preparation of homemade cheese. A step-by-step recipe does not indicate in the composition of the products the mass of the required salt, since its amount depends on the taste. If you add a teaspoon of salt, the cheese will be slightly brackish. To get the cheese of the right taste, you need to focus on your own opinion.
18. Stew the mass for about 15 minutes over low heat without boiling.
19. During this time, fold the clean gauze in several layers and lay on an iron sieve or colander.
20. Pour the cooked mass from the pan onto cheesecloth.
21. Leave to allow all glass serum. To do this, put a colander in a pot.
22. Now you need to prepare a form for cheese. You can take a small detachable form.
23. Put tight gauze in a mold and put the cheese mass in a spoon.
24. Cover the top of the mass with the edges of the gauze. Cover with a saucer to fit the pan.
25. Lay the load up. It can be a glass jar (0.5 l) filled with cold water and tightly closed with a lid or a stone simply wrapped in clean cloth.
26. Put the pan of cheese in the refrigerator or other cool place for 12 hours.
27. After this time, you need to remove the load and pull home cheese from the gauze. On this step-by-step recipe is considered complete. It remains only to cut the cheese into plates and serve with the bread to the table. Such piquant cheese is perfect as a snack on the festive table.
Step-by-step recipe for homemade cream cheese
Ingredients:
• a pound of fat cottage cheese;
• half a liter of milk;
• two egg yolks (chicken);
• 90-100 g of butter 82.5% fat;
• 20 g of baking soda;
• 20 g of salt;
• 10 g of caraway seeds;
• 20 g of dill.
Cooking method:
1. Cumin seeds must be ground in a mortar or cut with a sharp knife on a cutting board. So they will give homemade cheese all their essential oils and aromas.
2. To sort out dill greens, rinse in cold water and dry. Then finely chop and set aside.
3. Pour milk into the pan.
4. Add cottage cheese. Stir with a spoon.
5. Put on the heating plate.
6. Stir, bring the milk-curd mixture to a boil.
7. Reduce the fire to a minimum state.
8. Cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring constantly. Otherwise, the mixture will begin to burn below.
9. Now prepare a thick layer of gauze and lay it on an iron sieve, which must be installed above the crutch.
10. Pour hot milk-curd mixture on cheesecloth and let the excess broth drain.
11. Pour the mass back into the pan already without serum.
12. Add the yolks, soda, salt, soft butter, caraway seeds and dill.
13. Stir the mixture until smooth.
14. Put the pan on a slow fire and mix constantly.
15. Once the mixture begins to melt, remove it from the stove.
16. In the prepared form for cheese (it is possible silicone), put the processed cheese mass.
17. Level the top with a spatula and cover with a flat plate or saucer, depending on the width of the silicone mold.
18. Put homemade cheese in the refrigerator. A step-by-step recipe involves cheese exposure in the cold from 10 to 12 hours. You can stand the night, and in the morning the cheese cooked at home will be ready.
Step-by-step recipe for homemade Suluguni hard cheese
Ingredients:
• 10 liters of farm milk (goat or cow);
• 3 ml of a mixture for fermenting milk (sold in pharmacies);
• salt.
Cooking method:
1. Making home-made cheese according to this step-by-step recipe begins with processing its main component - milk. Pour milk into a pan with a thick bottom.
2. Put on fire and warm to 35 ° C. To determine the temperature, you can use a special thermometer.
3. Combine with milk fermentation mixture and mix.
4. Turn off the heat of the stove and close the pan with a lid.
5. Insist half an hour.
6. Turn on the slow fire under the pan again.
7. Stirring the contents, simmer for about 5 minutes. Already now a cheese clot should form - the rudiment of suluguni.
8. Prepare a colander and line it with a clean, dense cotton fabric.
9. Pour coagulated milk into a colander. When the fluid drains, form a lump with your hands.
10. Pour a portion of the whey back into the pan.
11. Put the blinded lump in a pot with serum, it should cover the lump.
12. To sustain 3-4 hours. This is the time of cheese fermentation (ripening).
13. After this time, you can determine the readiness of the cheese lump. Its mass should stretch, not tear.
14. Remove the cheese from the whey (do not pour it) and cut into flat pieces.
15. In a separate pan, heat water to 70 ° C (not to a boil) and reduce heat to a minimum.
16. Put pieces of cheese in water.
17. Then you need to mix the cheese in water in one direction until it starts to melt.
18. Remove the layered cheese mass from the water and use your hands to mold the balls of the desired size from it.
19. Put balls in molds (for example, silicone or small detachable ones) and give them a flat-rounded appearance.
20. The remaining serum is mixed with salt until it is dissolved. The ratio of salt and serum is 1: 0.2.
21. Immerse the cheese forms in salted whey (brine) and let stand for about 12 hours.
22. Take out the cheese and let it dry slightly. Such cheese can be used to prepare hot dishes or snacks.
23. This step-by-step recipe for homemade cheese requires a lot of time for cooking, but its result will pleasantly surprise you with its external and taste qualities.
Homemade Cheese (Step-by-Step Recipe) - Tricks and Tips
• Salt in cheese should be added to taste.
• In order for the cheese to take shape, it must be put under the load or evenly distributed in a special form.
• If the milk is not fresh, this can ruin the taste of cheese.
• It is better to take milk, kefir and cottage cheese for cheese with maximum fat content.
• To make the cheese ripen better, its quantity should not be less than 500 g.
• The longer the cheese is aged, the richer it will turn out.
• The remaining whey from the cheese can be used to make baked goods.
• Keep cheese in the refrigerator for no more than a week.
