Today the choice of cheeses is huge, and many do not understand why cooking cheese at home.
But believe me, it's worth it.
Firstly, homemade cheese is a natural product. You know what it is made of.
Secondly, homemade cheese is much cheaper than shop cheese, but at the same time, the quality is no worse, and sometimes even better.
Homemade cheese from milk and kefir - basic principles of cooking
The main products for making homemade cheese are milk and kefir. You can use any milk: home or shop. Kefir can be replaced with sour milk.
To make cheese, milk is poured into a saucepan with a thick bottom and heated to almost boiling. Then kefir is poured in a thin stream, stirring continuously, and kept on low heat until curd appears on the surface.
A sieve or colander is covered with gauze folded in several layers and the mixture is poured into it. Gauze tightly tied and sent under the press for several hours.
Different types of cheeses are prepared from milk and cottage cheese, ranging from hard to soft creamy cottage cheese.
With the help of various additives you can experiment and create absolutely new tastes. As additives use fresh vegetables, olives, herbs and spices.
Recipe 1. Homemade cheese made from milk and kefir “Gentle”
Ingredients
50 g of salt;
two liters of homemade milk;
450 g sour cream;
five eggs;
200 ml of kefir.
Method of preparation
1. Pour the milk into a saucepan with a thick bottom and bring it to a boil over low heat. Add salt and mix.
2. In the bowl of the blender we drive in eggs, add sour cream and kefir. Beat on medium speed until smooth.
3. Enter the resulting mixture in a thin stream into boiling milk. Cook, stirring continuously, until the mass begins to spread and rise to the top. 4. Colander lay two layers of cheesecloth and pour the hot mixture into it. Covering the curd mass with gauze ends and place a flat plate on top. We put on it a jar of water and leave for the night. Then wrap the finished cheese film and send it in the fridge.
Recipe 2. Homemade milk cheese and “Korotinsky homemade” yogurt
Ingredients
five liters of homemade milk;
100 ml of boiled water;
70 ml of kefir;
1 g of rennet;
200 grams of salt.
Method of preparation
1. Heat the milk on low heat until warm. Pour kefir into it and add rennet, mix thoroughly and remove from heat. Cover and leave the milk for forty minutes.
2. After the allotted time, the milk will turn into a smooth, fairly dense mass. Cut it with a sharp knife with a thin blade on two-centimeter squares and leave for another half hour, so that the serum is completely separated.
3. Discard the resulting mass on a sieve, pre-laying it with gauze, and leave it for a day. Every two hours, remove the cheese from the sieve, turn the gauze and send the cheese back to the sieve.
4. In one and a half liters of water completely dissolve the salt. After a day, send the cheese in brine for ten hours, with every half hour turn over. Then take out the cheese, dry it with a towel, lay out the grate and leave for five hours. Put the cheese in a deep bowl, cover with cheesecloth and put in the fridge.
Recipe 3. Cream-cottage cheese home-made cheese made from milk and curd
Ingredients
liter of milk;
10 g of salt;
liter of kefir;
egg;
200 g sour cream.
Method of preparation
1. Pour the milk into a saucepan with a thick bottom and bring it to a boil over low heat. We pour kefir into the boiling milk with a thin stream, stirring constantly, and twist the fire to the minimum.
2. In a separate bowl lay out sour cream, combine it with an egg, salt and whisk until smooth. Pour the mixture into a saucepan with milk and kefir, stirring gently, and cook for another seven minutes. Turn off the fire and completely cool. 3. We line the colander with gauze, folding it several times. Pour the contents of the pan into a colander. The edges of the gauze is collected and slightly squeezed. From above we establish a flat plate, and on it a jar of water. Put the cheese in the fridge overnight. In the morning we take out the cheese and enjoy a delicious homemade product. Store it in a tray with a lid.
Recipe 4. Homemade cheese from milk and kefir “Ricotta”
Ingredients
10 g of sugar;
liter of milk;
5 g of salt;
150 ml of kefir;
80 ml of lemon juice.
Method of preparation
1. Pour the milk into the pan and heat it over low heat until hot, but do not boil it. Add sugar and salt to milk. Pour kefir and strained lemon juice in a thin stream. Cottage cheese will begin to separate from the serum. Turn off the fire, leave the milk in the pan for half an hour.
2. Collapse the colander with gauze folded several times and pour the milk mixture into it. We collect the edges of the gauze and hang it. We are waiting for all the serum to drain. It is better to leave the cheese in this condition at night.
3. Transfer the finished cheese in the tray and store in the refrigerator.
Recipe 5. Homemade cheese from milk and kefir “Paneer”
Ingredients
150 ml of kefir;
liter of milk.
Method of preparation
1. Pour the milk into the pan with a thick bottom and send it to the stove. Heat the milk over low heat until boiling.
2. Put a kefir into the hot milk in a thin stream, stirring continuously. After a couple of minutes, the curd that has separated from the whey will float to the surface.
3. We fold the gauze in half and fill it with a colander. Pour the contents of the pan into a colander and filter to separate the curd from the whey. Connect the edges of the gauze and tightly tied.
4. From above we establish a flat plate and put on it a jar filled with water. Leave the cheese for a day, then cut it into pieces and shift it into a tray with a lid. Keep the cheese in the fridge.
Recipe 6. Homemade cheese made from milk and kefir with greens
Ingredients
liter 3.2% milk;
15 g of salt;
liter of 3.2% kefir;
dried parsley and dill;
three eggs.
Method of preparation
1. In a saucepan with a thick bottom, combine the milk with kefir, mix and set on slow fire. Heat the mixture until it begins to roll. Boil, do not bring the mixture.
2. Beat the eggs with salt in a separate bowl. We enter the egg mixture in a thin stream into hot milk with kefir. At the same time continuously stir. Add dried parsley and dill. Boil the mixture at minimum heat for 20 minutes, not bringing it to a boil.
3. Fold the gauze in several layers and fill it with a colander. We put a colander in a deep cup and pour the contents of the pan into it. To make the glass serum faster, mix the mixture with a spoon.
4. When most of the whey is drained, cover the mass with a flat plate and set the load on top. Cheese in this state put in the fridge for the night. Then take it out, put it in the tray and store, covered with a lid.
Recipe 7. Homemade cheese from milk and kefir with pepper and dill
Ingredients
pasteurized milk - two liters;
fresh dill;
kefir - half a liter;
sweet red pepper;
four eggs;
salt - 5 g
Method of preparation
1. Pour the milk into a saucepan and set on slow fire. Milk bring to a boil.
2. Eggs combine with kefir in a separate bowl and whisk with a whisk until smooth, the consistency of sour cream.
3. As soon as the milk begins to boil, we twist the fire to the minimum and, stirring constantly, introduce kefir-egg mixture. Still stirring, we mix the mixture over the fire until the whey separates.
4. Colander line the gauze folded in half and pour the contents of the pan into it, leaving until the entire serum is drained.
5. Meanwhile, rinse the sweet pepper, wipe with a napkin, cut the stem and remove the seeds. Carefully peel the pepper and finely chop it up. Dill greens washed, lightly dry and chop. 6. Add salt, chopped dill and pepper to the cheese mass. Stir well. We spread the curd mass tightly into the tray, press down with a load and leave it in the fridge for the night. Then take out the cheese, rub it with salt and send to the refrigerator for another couple of hours. Then we shift the finished cheese in the bag and store in the refrigerator.
Recipe 8. Homemade cheese made from milk and kefir with garlic and greens
Ingredients
two liters of milk;
garlic;
50 g of salt;
350 ml of kefir;
six eggs;
sour cream - 400 ml.
Method of preparation
1. Boil milk with salt in a thick-bottomed saucepan.
2. In a blender bowl, combine the sour cream with kefir and eggs. Beat all until homogeneous at low speeds. Pour the mixture in a thin stream into the hot milk, stirring with a wooden spatula, and bring the mass to a boil.
3. When the mass is curdled and the whey separates, turn off the heat and leave the pan to cool for a quarter of an hour.
4. Put a colander in two layers of gauze and pour the milk mixture into it. Leave it to the whole glass serum.
5. Rinse a bunch of dill under running water, dry slightly and crumble. Divide the garlic into the teeth, peel them and pass through the press. Add dill and garlic to cheese mass.
6. Collect the ends of the gauze, tie them and put the cheese mass in a bowl. Cover with a flat plate and set the load. Leave overnight. Then remove the cheese from the gauze, cut into slices and serve to the table.
Recipe 9. Fragrant homemade cheese from milk and kefir
Ingredients
liter of kefir;
green cilantro, dill and onion - a bunch;
milk - liter;
clove of garlic;
six eggs;
cumin - pinch;
salt - 80 g;
hot red pepper - a third of tsp.
Method of preparation
1. Combine milk with kefir in a pan. Put it on the stove and warm it to a hot condition, but do not boil it.
2. Beat eggs with salt in a separate bowl. Pour into the milk in a thin stream, stirring constantly, beaten eggs. Bring the contents of the pan to a boil, and cook, stirring constantly, until the whey separates. 3. Remove the pan from the heat, cool for a couple of minutes, and add to the mixture, finely chopped greens, cumin and hot red pepper. Squeeze the garlic here.
4. Drain the colander with folded gauze and pour the contents of the pan into it. Gauze the gauze and hang up to the glass serum. Then unwind the gauze, put the cheese on a plate, cover with gauze and set the pressure on top.
5. Put the cheese in a refrigerator for several hours. Cut the cheese into slices and serve for breakfast or dinner.
Homemade cheese made from milk and kefir - tips and tricks
- The higher the fat content of milk, the fatter the homemade cheese will be.
- Cook the cheese in a thick-walled saucepan so that the milk mixture does not burn.
- At the moment when you put kefir or eggs into milk, mix it vigorously with a wooden spatula.
- You can make your cheese taste special by experimenting with greens, spices, olives or vegetables.