Cottage cheese is so simple and easy to prepare. It is also a great way to identify stagnant milk. If cottage cheese is not used, then cheese can be made from it. Or just go to the manufacture of homemade dairy products. But why they are not always obtained?
No quality - no result
The range of dairy products is impressive, but even more surprising composition. Instead of milk and cream, you can see in it vegetable fats, preservatives, milk fat replacers, milk reconstituted from dry concentrate. In general, you can still continue, but the problem is obvious. If you do not take milk, then you will not get cottage cheese.
When buying products, it is important not to save money, but to look closely at the composition. Vegetable milk does not fold, has completely different properties.
If the cottage cheese turns out of it, then the cheese will definitely not come out.
Why cottage cheese does not depart from whey
It happens that the milk is either bought in a safe place, but the cottage cheese is not separated from the whey, it remains white, the yield of the finished product is very small. In this case, it is also about quality. Some cows have low-density milk, so it doesn’t roll up into flakes.
What to do in this case? The most reliable way to determine a problem is to deliver homemade milk to a local laboratory. They will easily determine whether this is the case. If there are several goals, you can simply cook the cottage cheese separately from milk from each cow.
By the way, the cow's diet also affects the protein concentration in milk. Sometimes the product becomes poorer when changing the host or diet, but after adaptation everything should be normalized. Increase the density of protein juicy food and salt.
Why is cottage cheese bitter
If the store caught the cheese with bitterness, then you do not need to use it, it is wiser to get rid of the product. Cheese and pastries also do not work, they will turn unpleasant taste. It is advisable to check the expiration date. But what if the bitterness appears in the cottage cheese?
Why is cottage cheese bitter:
- Milk with antibiotics. Again, it's about quality. Antibiotics are added to products for preservation or used to treat an animal. There may be no taste in raw milk, bitterness appears during heating or long-term storage.
- Cow pregnant (pregnant). If a chick goes to the launch, gives up, the milk starts to taste bitter, an unpleasant aroma appears, it all goes into the curd and cheese.
- A low-quality starter culture was used. And it happens. For souring sometimes use additional ingredients, not always with good taste.
Why is cottage cheese dry or soft
The moisture content of cottage cheese is far from the amount of whey. You can leave the product hanging in the bag for the whole day, but it will still remain soft and gentle. If it is initially dry and hard, then no serum will help to soften it.
What you need to remember:
- The stronger it is to heat dairy products for cottage cheese, the drier it will turn out. If you bring to a boil, then the output will be a lot of hard grains. Such cottage cheese is stuffed in the throat, it is not swallowed, but it is suitable for baking and cheese.
- To get gentle and soft cottage cheese, sour milk is not heated or it is done very delicately, brought to a temperature of 35-40 degrees with constant stirring.
It is also worth knowing that skim milk (skim milk) produces a drier cottage cheese for obvious reasons. If whole milk is used, the curd is softer, softer, not so tart, unless it is overheated.
Why doesn't cottage cheese melt into cheese?
Very often, when cooking cheese, the cottage cheese simply does not melt, the grains do not want to disappear, the output is a grainy and slightly sticky mass. Why is this happening? The first reason can also be cottage cheese, which is not cottage cheese at all. If the product is of high quality and natural, then it is worth looking for a problem elsewhere.
Why cottage cheese does not melt into cheese:
- Little or no soda. It is this ingredient that reacts with lactic acid of cottage cheese and forms sodium lactate. Simply put, salt to melt.
- Low acid. If the curd is sweet, there is little acid in it, then the soda will not react. In this case, it is recommended to additionally introduce lemon juice, vinegar.
Good advice! If the cheese is sweet, then you can add peroxidized whey or citric acid diluted in water when melting. Pour in a spoon, carefully stirring each time.
Why is the cheese very soft or too hard
According to the same recipe, cheese can be made of a different consistency. Sometimes it is dense and resilient, even hard and reminds everyone of your favorite Parmesan. But it happens that goes soft melted cheese. What does it depend on? In fact, the reason is only in the fat content of cottage cheese, milk, kefir (if they are involved in the recipe). The higher it is, the softer the product.
According to this nuance, for obtaining dry and dense cheese, cottage cheese of small fat content is used. If you want at the exit to have a soft and smearing processed cheese, then additionally enter the butter, cream.
What should I do if the cheese is fat, but do I need to get hard cheese? You can simply pour a little whey or skimmed milk when melting.
Principles of making curd
Ideally, the cottage cheese should stand, rise up, the whey will go down, it will become completely transparent, without turbidity. When using technologies with heated output is usually greater than with raw manufacturing.
There are three ways to make cottage cheese:
- From heated sour milk. The product is put on the stove, slightly heated to a warm state, and stirred. As soon as the whey leaves, flakes will appear, you can pour it into a linen bag, hang it up.
- From milk with sour cream kefir (heated). If the milk is fresh, then you can add a little sour cream, kefir, sometimes pour lemon juice. The mixture is left for two hours, then warmed up, as in the past method.
- Without preheating. Sour milk or kefir is poured into a linen bag, suspended. You can freeze it, then also suspend it, leave it for serum flow.
If the cottage cheese does not always work out like this, you don’t like the texture, you can cook it with calcium chloride. It is enough to add one ampoule of the drug in 1.5 liters of milk, heat until clots appear, drain off the whey.
