Cooking delicious cheese at home.

Cheese is a healthy product that is on the menu of every person. However, the quality of the store types is poor. It is wiser to make cheeses yourself from proven and natural products at home.

Home-made delicacy has a rich taste, enriches the body with vitamins and minerals. The cheese retains the beneficial substances of milk.

• Potassium and phosphorus contribute to protein synthesis, strengthen bone tissue and normalize the functioning of the cardiovascular system. This is true for children and the elderly.
• Sulfur normalizes blood glucose levels and prevents the onset of diabetes.

It is possible to cook any kind of cheese at home: processed, hard, soft creamy, ricotta, suluguni, Adyghe, Philadelphia, mozzarella and even noble parmesan. Use classic basic recipes and supplement with nuts, herbs, mushrooms, olives, vegetables, ham, spices and other ingredients. The result is an exclusive product that cannot be found in any store. The main thing is to use fresh, proven ingredients and precisely follow the recipe, observing the proportions.

The energy value of the finished product directly depends on the fat content of milk raw materials, that is, the fatter the milk, the more caloric the cheese is. But keep in mind that from a fat brother, a greater yield of the final treat is obtained.

Homemade hard cheese made from cottage cheese and milk

This is a simple and well-known method of preparing hard cheese. Having allocated a little time, you will get a delicious and healthy delicacy.

• We spread 9% cottage cheese in a pan with milk, send it to the fire and slowly warm for a quarter of an hour. Knead the mass with a wooden spatula so that the curd does not burn at the bottom.
• Set the pan aside. Cover the colander with double gauze, filter the cheese mass, collect the ends of the tissue in a bundle and leave the glass to serum.
• In a separate saucepan, combine the softened butter with soda, salt and a raw egg. Stir the contents, warm over low heat. When everything becomes liquid, add cottage cheese and cook for another 5 minutes with mild heat. If the product gets dry, you can add serum.
• We transfer the homogeneous mass into a container with holes. To do this, use a special form for cheese or a regular colander, previously covered with a single layer of gauze. When the serum stops dripping from the mold, put the workpiece in the refrigerator.
• In a day, the dish is ready. The degree of spillage is adjustable to your liking.

Goat cheese with dill

Often cheese is made from goat milk or cottage cheese, because these products are much more nutritious and healthier than analogues from cow's milk. The product is stored in the refrigerator for up to a month, so the proportions can be safely increased.

• 4 - 5 tbsp. l butter;
• 1 kg of goat curd;
• 2 tsp soda;
• A few twigs of fresh dill;
• Salt to taste.

1. First, remove the excess liquid from the curd. To do this, take a piece of clean natural fabric, soak it in warm water, squeeze it well and dump the cottage cheese there. We bind the ends, put the nodule in a colander, and put any oppression on top to squeeze the serum.
2. We wash the greens, dry, remove the rough parts of the stem and chop finely with a knife. Pour dill with salt, grind well to let the juice flow and enhance the aroma.
3. In a thick-walled pan, dissolve a piece of butter, portions of goat curd. Each time, mix well. After we put greens, soda and re-mix.
4. We transfer the homogeneous mass into a cheese mold, carefully leveling the surface. Leave for a while until it hardens.

DIY Parmesan

Parmesan is a noble hard cheese native to France. It is easy to prepare, but it is very difficult to resist tasting, because it ripens from 2 to 5 years.

• 10 liters of milk;
• 2 - 3 tbsp. l fine salt;
• 1 tsp rennet starter;
• 1 g of saffron;
• 1 cup boiled water (chilled).

1. For the preparation of parmesan, milk is used, from which the cream is removed. We heat the raw material to room temperature.
2. Dissolve the leaven in a glass of boiled chilled water, pour into warmed milk. Leave to curd for half an hour.
3. Mix the soured raw materials to break the curd clot, and add a little saffron for the color. We put the dishes with milk on a small fire, warm to 45 - 50 ° C, constantly stirring.
4. Separate the curd flakes from the liquid, filtering through cheesecloth. We leave the cheese mass in a colander so that the glass has a maximum of whey.
5. An hour later, the future parmesan is placed directly with gauze in a mold with holes, and on top we put a little oppression. After 30 minutes, we make oppression harder and withstand it for 24 hours. Turn the cheese several times a day.
6. For salting, generously sprinkle the cheese circle on all sides with salt and return to shape. The process lasts 20 days. Do not forget to periodically turn the head.
7. After the excess salt is scraped off, we wash the excess with hot serum. Lubricate the surface of the parmesan with vegetable oil, send it to ripen for two to five years. All this time periodically lubricate with vegetable oil.

Unusual types of cheese

Unlike parmesan, most cheeses are prepared in a matter of hours. These include: Philadelphia, mozzarella, processed and other unusual species.

Homemade Suluguni

Suluguni is a Georgian type of cheese that has gained immense popularity all over the world. It makes great snacks and delicious khachapuri.

• 1 liter of milk;
• 1 kg of cottage cheese;
• 100 g of oil;
• 3 eggs;
• 1 tsp baking soda;
• 1 tbsp. l salt.

1. To make homemade suluguni, bring the milk to a boil. Then we add cottage cheese to it until the milk-curd clot is separated from the whey.
2. The product is drained through a colander with gauze and let all the liquid drain.
3. We transfer the cheese mass into the pan, beat fresh homemade eggs, put the softened butter and salt. Mix everything thoroughly, set on fire for a quarter of an hour.
4. We grease the form with butter, shift the hot mass there. After cooling, send to the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
5. Gently spread the suluguni on a plate, cut into pieces and treat ourselves.

Philadelphia

Many people like Philadelphia cheese for its creamy texture and unique delicate taste. But such a pleasure is not cheap, so it’s better to cook it at home so that it tastes better, and the cost is several times lower.

• 0.5 l of Greek yogurt;
• 1 tsp salts;
• 200 g of fat sour cream.

1. We combine all the ingredients in a suitable container. Please note that yogurt must be natural and sour cream is high in fat.
2. The resulting mass is transferred to a colander with four layers of gauze, mounted on a bowl or pan. The ends of the fabric are collected from above by a bundle. We cover the cheese with a plate, put a liter jar of water on top as a press.
3. The design is placed in the refrigerator for at least a day to separate all the liquid.
4. After the specified time, soft cheese is ready. Yield about 250 g.

Mozzarella

Italian Mozzarella is made exclusively from buffalo milk.Such an exotic product is unlikely to be found in our refrigerators, so homemade mozzarella is made from goat or cow's milk. A special cooking technology allows you to achieve the desired elasticity and structure.

• 2 liters of milk;
• 0.2 sachets of citric acid;
• 250 ml of boiled distilled water;
• 1 sachet of pepsin.

1. First you need to reduce the acidity of milk, which will help the finished cheese stretch well. To do this, we dilute a lemon in 125 ml of water and pour the solution into milk cooled to 17 degrees. Add in a thin stream, continuously mixing the contents. If you miss this moment, the product will collapse.
2. Pepsin is dissolved in 50 ml of cold (below 20 degrees) boiled water. Now we collect exactly 1 ml of solution into a sterile syringe.
3. Pour the finished composition into the remaining (125 ml) water.
4. We heat the acidified milk to 32 degrees and add a mixed solution of pepsin to it. After this, knead the mass for 3 minutes.
5. We leave the milk mixture in a sealed container for half an hour. During this time, the milk should ferment and separate from the whey, forming a dense clot. If this does not happen, let stand for a few more minutes.
6. There is an exact way to check the degree of fermentation. If the finger dipped in the composition remains clean without lumps of curd, fermentation was successful.
7. Armed with a sharp long knife, we cut the bunch into squares 5 by 5 cm. Having placed the tool at an angle to the surface, we cut the mass into squares along the entire depth of the curd lump.
8. Now we place the pan in a water bath or on a burner and heat the raw materials to 42-43 ° C, stirring constantly so that the cheese cubes do not stick together.
9. With a slotted spoon we select clumps on a colander with small holes. Pour the serum on top so as not to miss a single lump. We crush the product, but without fanaticism, so as not to sell through the holes.
10. We put the separated composition on a plate. At this point, mozzarella is like dough.
11. From the remaining whey we prepare a brine for cheese. A third of the composition is mixed with salt, the amount of which we take at our discretion. Mix well so that all the seasoning dissolves. Leave the solution to cool.
12. The rest of the whey is heated to 70-80 ° C, we lower a part of the mass there. We keep the cheese for 15 seconds in hot whey, constantly stirring. Now we check the readiness: we put on thick silicone gloves and get a piece. We try to stretch, if it breaks, we return it back.
13. From the finished mass we make balls. Squeeze between the index and thumb a small bun, roll between the palms and drop into a cold brine. So do with the whole cheese mass.
14. We put the pot with mozzarella in the refrigerator for a day. After 24 hours, the cheese is ready to eat. It is better to store in brine, otherwise it will quickly weather and yellow.

Cream cheese

Recently, processed cheese has gained the bad reputation of a poor-quality harmful food product. Allegedly, it is made from production waste with the addition of many "E" ingredients. Therefore, lovers of dairy products excluded it from the diet. However, everything can be fixed by making cream cheese at home from cottage cheese.

• 1 chicken egg;
• 450 - 500 g of cottage cheese of any fat content;
• 1 tsp baking soda;
• 100 g butter;
• 1 - 2 pinches of salt;
• 1 tbsp. l with a bunch of provencal herbs or others to taste.

1. Cream cheese is cooked in a steam bath, so put the pan on the fire, filling it with water at ⅔.
2. Put cottage cheese, slices of butter and a raw egg in a bowl. After mixing the mass with a spatula, add soda. Now we interrupt the composition with a submersible blender to a uniform consistency.
3. We install a bowl of future cheese in a boiling water bath, only so that the bottom of the container does not touch the bubbling water. Reduce fire and heat the curd, constantly kneading with a spatula.
4. After a few minutes, the strings will stretch, which means that the curd melts.We continue heating, we wait until the grains disperse, and the mass becomes smooth and viscous.
5. At this stage, remove the cheese from the water bath, introduce dry spices or other fillers: chopped dill, slices of bacon, olives, paprika, nuts, dried adjika, toasted mushrooms, etc.
6. We also distribute the liquid cheese into forms, tighten with cling film and leave it to harden for several hours.

Useful Tips

To make home-made cheese live up to your expectations, remember and follow these guidelines.

• For production it is better to use village fresh milk, but not packaged store milk. Avoid pasteurized product, choose fatty with a minimum shelf life.
• Cottage cheese should be natural (preferably homemade), but the store will do. Curd product is not suitable for cooking.
• Cheese is tastier if it is made from large quantities of milk. The output is better and the taste is more expressive.
• Hard grades can be kept in a clean, cool, well-ventilated area. The greater the exposure the cheese has, the tastier it becomes.

Hard, semi-hard and soft cheeses are used in cooking. This is an excellent ingredient for preparing quick and satisfying snacks, delicious everyday and festive salads, and a ruddy cheese crust will complement any casserole, lasagna, pizza or hot sandwiches.

Remember that everything is good in moderation, so more than 50-100 g of cheese per day (depending on variety and fat content) is not recommended. Bon Appetit!