The taste of homemade cheese is significantly different from that purchased in the store. After all, only natural products are used for its preparation. Homemade cheese is made from milk, kefir, sour milk or yogurt.
Yogurt cheese - the basic principles of preparation
Yogurt is a traditional Russian drink. It is a drink of uniform consistency made from fermented milk. The calorie content of the drink depends on the milk from which it is prepared. It is advisable to take homemade milk. If you want to get fat cheese, make yogurt with whole milk. A less high-calorie product will turn out if you first remove the cream from milk.
To prepare yogurt at home, milk is heated to a warm state. Pour it into a clean jar and add to it 100 g of finished yogurt or a couple of spoons of sour cream. Mix well and leave warm for six hours, and preferably overnight. As a starter culture, special bacteria are used, which are sold in a pharmacy.
Cheese is prepared only from yogurt and eggs, or with the addition of milk, cottage cheese, kefir.
Yogurt is poured into a saucepan and put it on a slow fire. From time to time, mix gently to keep the contents warm evenly.
When the serum gets a greenish tint and separates from the curd, the fire is turned off and left for some time.
A colander or sieve is covered with gauze and the curd with whey is poured into it. Leave until it drains. Curd is transferred to a saucepan, poured with milk and sent to a slow fire and cook, stirring continuously. The softness of the cheese depends on the cooking time. The longer they cook, the harder the product.
The milk-curd mixture is again thrown into a colander, after lining it with gauze. Leave for half an hour. In a separate bowl, shake the eggs with melted butter, soda and salt. The resulting mixture is combined with boiled cottage cheese and mixed well. Sent in a water bath and cook, vigorously mixing, so that the mixture is evenly heated.
When the cheese acquires a uniform consistency, it is transferred to the form, lubricated with vegetable oil. Leave to complete solidification.
You can add fresh herbs, pieces of vegetables, olives, etc. to the cheese.
Modern housewives can cook cheese in a slow cooker.
Recipe 1. Cheese from yogurt with herbs
Ingredients
yogurt - 400 ml;
table salt - a pinch;
fresh milk - 1 liter 800 ml;
dill and parsley - a bunch of fresh herbs;
large chicken eggs - three pieces.
Cooking method
1. In the yogurt we drive in chicken eggs. Shake everything together with a whisk or mixer until smooth. Pour the milk into a large pan and start heating on the stove. As soon as the contents begin to boil, reduce the heat to a minimum, and pour the milk-egg mixture in a thin stream. Cook, stirring continuously, until the whey begins to separate.
2. Cover the colander with a thin cloth or gauze. We spread the curd mass on cheesecloth. Leave until all the whey drains. Rinse the herbs, dry them slightly and grind them with a sharp knife. Add to the curd mass, salt, mix well, wrap the contents of the colander in gauze and send for nine hours under pressure.
3. We transfer the finished cheese with herbs to a plastic bag and put it in the refrigerator. The cheese will be ready in about a couple of hours.
Recipe 2. Curd cheese in a slow cooker
Ingredients
yogurt - one and a half liters;
table salt - two teaspoons;
two large chicken eggs;
freshly squeezed lemon juice - one and a half tablespoons.
Cooking method
1. Pour the yogurt in a deep bowl, add salt and chicken eggs.
2. My lemon, cut in half and squeeze two tablespoons of juice from it. Add lemon juice to yogurt. Beat the mixture well with a fork or whisk.
3. The resulting mass is laid out in the capacity of the multicooker. We install it in the device, close the lid and turn on the program "Heating". We set the time for two and a half hours. At the end of cooking, leave the mixture in the slow cooker for another forty minutes, so that it cools down to a warm state.
4. Put the cheese mass in a colander or sieve, covered with mara or a thin cloth, and leave the whole whey glass.
5. Wrap the cheese billet in cheesecloth, put it in a small bowl. Put a flat plate on top, on which we set the load. Leave under the press for three to four hours. We take cheese out of cheesecloth, put in a bag and store in the refrigerator.
Recipe 3. Yogurt Cheese with Sweet Pepper
Ingredients
pasteurized milk - two liters;
a teaspoon of verified salt;
half a liter of yogurt;
fresh greens of dill;
four chicken eggs;
sweet pepper pod.
Cooking method
1. Pour milk into a large pot, and put it on a small fire. Bring to a boil.
2. Pour the yogurt into a separate bowl, hammer the eggs into it and shake it with a whisk until a homogeneous, creamy mass is obtained.
3. When the milk boils, reduce the heat to a minimum and, continuously stirring, we introduce a mixture of yogurt with eggs. Stirring regularly, keep the mixture on fire until the whey separates. This may take from seven to ten minutes.
4. We cover a colander with gauze. We spread the curd mass on cheesecloth, and leave until all the whey drains.
5. The pod of pepper is freed from the stem. We clean the seeds. The pulp of the vegetable is cut into small pieces. It is advisable to take yellow or red fleshy pepper. Rinse and chop dill.
6. Salt the cheese billet, add herbs and pepper. Stir. We wrap the workpiece in gauze, ram into the mold. Put a jar of water on top. Leave the cheese for eight hours.
7. We free the finished cheese from gauze, rub it with salt, wrap it in plastic wrap or put it in a plastic bag. We put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
Recipe 4. Cheese from yogurt without milk and eggs
Ingredients
yogurt;
Cooking method
1. Pour yogurt into a large saucepan and mix thoroughly.
2. Put on a slow fire and bring to a boil. Boil until the serum separates.
3. Drain the whey and tear the cottage cheese with your hands as small as possible. Strain the remaining serum. We shift the cottage cheese into bags of cloth and put them under oppression to get rid of the remaining moisture.
4. Put the cottage cheese in a bowl and rub it with salt. We form small round cheeses and place them under oppression.
5. We cut well-pressed cottage cheese into small pieces, season with salt and caraway seeds and leave at room temperature to dry.
6. Then we wrap each piece of canvas with a cloth, soaking it in beer or strong kvass, and put the cheese in the refrigerator. Wet the fabric from time to time. A month later, the cheese will be ready.
Recipe 5. Cheese from yogurt with holes
Ingredients
cottage cheese - half a kilogram;
salt;
yogurt - a liter;
baking soda - a teaspoon;
sour cream - a tablespoon.
Cooking method
1. Pour yogurt into a deep bowl, add the cottage cheese to it and mix. We put a wide pan on the stove. As soon as the water in it boils, we place on top a container with yogurt and cottage cheese. Cook, stirring, in a water bath for about half an hour. We cover the colander with gauze. We spread the resulting mixture into it and leave it to completely glass serum.
2. Add salt and baking soda to warm sour cream. Mix well. Add the mixture to the curd and rub it thoroughly with a spoon. Keep in a water bath until the cheese mass becomes homogeneous and begins to stretch like molten cheese.
3. We grease the form with vegetable oil and put the cheese mixture into it. Level and cool. We cover the form with cling film and send the cheese to the refrigerator. You can add spices or finely chopped fresh herbs to the cheese.
Recipe 6. Soft yogurt cheese
Ingredients
400 g yogurt;
400 g of kefir;
400 g sour cream;
5 ml of table vinegar;
5 g of table salt;
olive oil;
dry Provence herbs;
two cloves of garlic;
sun-dried tomatoes;
5 g Pesto.
Cooking method
1. Kefir, sour cream and yogurt spread in a deep plate and stir. Add salt and table vinegar. Shake again with a fork or whisk.
2. We put gauze several times and put it in a colander. Pour the prepared mixture into it. We collect gauze in a bag and hang it. Under the bottom we put the bowl into which the serum will drain. It can subsequently be used to make fritters or other baked goods.
3. Leave the cottage cheese in the bag for ten hours. Then we put it in the refrigerator, transferring the bag to a colander.
4. Two days later, from the cheese formed along the contour, roll the balls and dip them into a jar with a mixture of olive oil, Provencal herbs and slices of garlic.
5. Finely chop the dried tomatoes. Add pesto and tomatoes to the remaining cheese. Mix, transfer to a jar and put it in the refrigerator.
Yogurt Cheese - Tips and Tricks
Fermentation of milk can be accelerated by adding a slice of rye bread to the milk.
Cook the cheese in a non-stick cookware.
During the cooking process, continuously mix the cheese so that the mixture is homogeneous and does not burn.
Cheese can be made sweet by adding raisins, pieces of chocolate, cinnamon or vanilla.
