Recently, a video was shown in the news - cottage cheese burning in a spoon.
This is one of the most "magic" tricks.
After watching such news, I want to go to the hinterland to find safe products that will not flare up in a spoon with a blue flame, and after eating them you won’t have to worry about health.
Indeed, cottage cheese is a source of calcium, the first natural feeding for infants.
This product is considered dietary, and therefore it is recommended to use it in the postoperative period, with injuries, to replenish calcium reserves in the body. But when it burns, what health can we talk about?
Refusing a tasty and healthy product is not an option, so we are looking for and finding the opportunity to buy real milk to make homemade cottage cheese from sour milk, and from it - cottage cheese pancakes, casserole, delicious desserts, filling for pies, dumplings - all that your heart desires, at the same time, without fear for well-being.
Homemade sour milk curd - basic technological principles
Making cottage cheese yourself is not at all difficult. If there is a firm intention to eat natural and environmentally friendly products, it is necessary to solve the first two problems: where to buy raw materials, that is, milk, and prepare materials and equipment that may be needed for the production of home-made cottage cheese from sour milk.
About milk, as the main raw material for homemade sour milk curd
Of course, cottage cheese can also be obtained from milk, which is sold in bags, provided that it is natural and not reconstructed from dry powder, with a shelf life of no more than 36 hours. You can even get cottage cheese from pasteurized milk, if you add rennet and calcium chloride to it, at least to “revive” it a little and return calcium ions that lost casein (milk protein) lost during pasteurization.
The best raw material for cottage cheese is fresh, natural, only from under a cow or goat, aged no more than 12 hours. It is clear that for urban residents - this is a luxury. Try to find milkmen who will be happy to deliver milk at the appointed time directly to the house, or discuss on what days they can be met in the market. Immediately agree that you will buy only evening milking milk - it is more fat, by morning in the bottle with such milk the line of demarcation of cream and milk is very clearly visible, by which it will be possible to approximately judge the fat content of milk. If you want to get low-fat cottage cheese, then cream can be removed and cooked from them sour cream or butter, and can be used for other culinary purposes. Good homemade milk is when it is clear that cream occupies 1/3 of the volume of the bottle, that is, three liters of milk contains about 30% of the cream, so about 10% in one liter. But this is only the fattest, visible part, and in fact, the fat content of cow's milk can reach 50-55%. After removing the cream from the surface of the bottle, one should not think that skim milk is left in the container. It just got a little smaller. If you need to get a fat-free heap, then you can not do without a separator. But about him - a little later.
Goat milk is less fat, its biochemical composition is more consistent with those enzymes of the human body that are involved in the process of digestion and assimilation of milk. Therefore, if it is possible to find natural goat milk, then do not give up the opportunity to make cottage cheese out of it, especially since you can make Ricotta, Chevr and other delicacies from such cottage cheese.
Goat milk is a very healthy product that contains natural antibiotics. It is recommended for children with artificial feeding; milk formulas are prepared on its basis. The only difficulty is the specific smell of the product, which is often found with improper care for the animal. So, when buying goat's milk, smell it without hesitation.
What is necessary for a home cheese factory?
It is no secret to anyone that until the time of the Peter the Great, cottage cheese was called cheese, because it was obtained in a raw way. But even for this method of making homemade cottage cheese from sour milk, some materials and devices will be needed.
Are you planning to make cottage cheese from skim or goat milk? Then you need to stock up with milk yeast and calcium chloride. Universal leaven - pepsin. For a more creamy and delicate taste - lipase. Finding special rennet for the preparation of fermented milk products is not a problem, there are specialized stores for this. True, the cost of one gram of lactobacilli is sometimes surprising. The second purchase option is a pharmacy, but in this case each time you have to independently calculate the norm, because the purpose of pharmaceutical preparations is somewhat different.
To separate milk fat and get homemade cottage cheese from skim milk, you can not do without special equipment. Here you will need a separator - cream separator. The issue of its acquisition must be addressed comprehensively, along with the issue of profitability. Of course, if you wanted to make cottage cheese yourself only once, then you should not clutter up the kitchen with useless and expensive equipment. But in principle, a separator is a useful thing, if only because it greatly facilitates the work of separating cream and allows you to get a more accurate and high-quality result.
If you decide that there is no need to acquire such a technique, then the easiest way to remove the cream from the surface of milk is to use the principle of communicating vessels. Many people remember this experience in a physics lesson at school. We take the second can and set it below the level of the can with milk, in which cream float on the surface. We insert a tube into each container (in a jar of milk, it must touch the bottom), create a vacuum inside it, and the milk flows into an empty bowl, located below. As soon as there is only cream in the upper bowl, we take out the tube. Further, each of the products is processed separately.
If you leave the milk as it is, then making homemade cottage cheese from sour milk is not at all difficult: to ferment it, the product contains everything you need, and therefore, apart from suitable dishes and gauze napkins, nothing is needed to separate the whey. In this way, cottage cheese is prepared for centuries.
What volume of dishes to choose is decided based on the required amount of the finished product. A kilogram of cottage cheese requires 10 liters of whole cow's milk, 12 liters of skimmed cow's milk, and up to 14 liters of goat's milk. Dishes should not be susceptible to oxidation. If you decide that milk should be pasteurized, then, in addition to the volume, you need to pay attention to the presence of non-stick coating. In the process of making cottage cheese, a byproduct remains - whey. It also needs to prepare sterile jars for it, because, despite the fact that, according to the technological rules, whey is considered a waste product, it still remains a valuable food product. It can be added to the dough, instead of water, and the dough will only benefit from this. On the serum, you can cook okroshka if there is no kvass, and such okroshka can be given to children.
The main stages of cooking cottage cheese
Actually, having figured out all the preparatory points, it remains to get acquainted with the algorithm for the direct preparation of homemade cottage cheese from sour milk. This order is simple.
Milk fermentation
This process proceeds when the raw material is heated to 30-35 ° C. Abomasum is added to fresh milk. Protein coagulation occurs. Within 5-6 hours, a dense clot forms, which is cut with a knife or string into smaller parts in order to accelerate the separation of serum.
It should be noted that when enzymes are added to fresh milk, the mass of cottage cheese increases, since the separation of whey occurs more efficiently and quickly than when fermenting milk in a natural way.
Without the addition of rennet and calcium chloride to pasteurized milk, the volume of the finished curd is significantly reduced, and the curd turns out to be dry and fine-grained.
Whey compartment
The dense clot formed after ripening is collected with a slotted spoon from a pan and transferred to a colander for further draining of serum. Upon receipt of dry and fine grain, the colander must be replaced with a sieve or line its surface with an additional gauze napkin. Next, you need to install a sieve on a tray and let the serum drain. Ready cottage cheese after 3-4 hours, depending on its consistency and humidity, is transferred to sterile containers or bags and stored in the refrigerator or used for culinary purposes.
Recipe 1. Homemade cottage cheese from sour milk, whole
Raw Material:
Farm cow milk 5.5 l
Lemon juice 100 ml
Yield: 0.5 kg
Cooking Technology:
Pour fresh, not pasteurized milk into a pan and heat to 35-38 ° C. When heated, it is advisable to constantly stir the milk to ensure the same heating temperature. Pour in lemon juice without interrupting stirring. Milk should curl. Turn off the stove and leave the clot until completely sealed. After, cut it with a knife into the squares and put it in a colander. After 3 hours, the curd will be ready. It can be consumed in this form, but if you continue the cooking process and, wrapping the product in gauze, put it under oppression, then the next day you will get Panir - a popular Indian cheese.
Recipe 2. Homemade cottage cheese from sour milk, fresh skim
Raw Material:
Cow's milk, skimmed 12.0 L
Lipase 2.4 mg
Calcium Chloride 1.5 mg
Cooking Technology:
Separated milk (reverse), without cream, pour into a large saucepan, heat over low heat to 35 ° C.
Dilute the abomasum and calcium chloride in 50 ml of warm milk or water, pour them into warmed milk and continue to heat it until it begins to clot, stirring gently. Turn off the heat and wait for the formation of a dense clot. Cut it and remove from the surface of the whey into a cooked colander (line with gauze and set on a pallet). After compacting the curd, transfer the finished curd to a container.
Recipe 3. Homemade cottage cheese from sour milk, whole pasteurized
Raw Material:
Milk (10%), cow 10 l
Calcium Chloride 2.0 mg
Pepsin 1.5 mg
Cooking Technology:
If you pasteurize milk yourself, at home, then it is necessary to warm it up for 7-10 minutes, to a temperature of 85-90 ° C, but do not let the milk boil. After pasteurization, cool to 35 ° C and then proceed according to the technology described in recipe No. 2. If chilled pasteurized milk is used to prepare cottage cheese, then, on the contrary, it must first be warmed up before making the starter culture.
Recipe 4. Homemade cottage cheese from sour milk - how to make cottage cheese from yogurt?
Raw Material:
Homemade curdled milk 6 l
Fresh milk 4 l
Rennet 2.0 mg
Cooking Technology:
Pour fresh milk into a saucepan (12 l), put on low heat and warm, gradually pouring in the yogurt, after thoroughly mixing it to break the clots. Add the solution of cooked sourdough. After keeping the milk mixture at a temperature of 35 ° C, turn off the stove after 10 minutes. After cooling, cut and collect the clot, transfer it to the container prepared for straining.
Recipe 5. Homemade cottage cheese from sour milk, goat
Raw Material:
Whole milk 3 L
Lipase 1.0 mg (or serum - 150 ml)
Calcium chloride 1.2 mg
Technology:
Pour milk into a pan (3.5-4.0 L). Add to it the serum left over from the previous cottage cheese preparation or dilute the calcium chloride and lipase in warm water separately. Add to milk and put it for a day in a warm place for fermentation.
The next day, put a pot of water on the stove. To do this, prepare a pan of a larger volume than a container of milk. In a water bath, warm the sour milk until whey rises to the surface (it has a greenish tint). In goat milk, a milk clot settles to the bottom, unlike cow's milk, due to the structural features of the protein. Turn off the stove and let the future cottage cheese cool naturally.
To separate the whey, prepare a sieve or halved cheesecloth, as the goat’s cheese grain is finer and softer. Pour the contents of the pan into a cooked filter mounted on a pan. Regulate the humidity of the cottage cheese as you wish, leaving the right amount of whey in the cottage cheese.
Recipe 6. Homemade sour milk curd - an unusual recipe
Raw Material:
Whole milk, homemade 3.0 L
Yogurt 2 L
Cooking:
Pour milk into the heat-resistant dishes and pasteurize it without covering. When a film forms on the surface, put the pan in an oven preheated to 85-90 ° C and hold until golden brown. Turn off the oven, and remove the pan when it cools to 40 ° C. Carefully remove the crust and add the yogurt to the baked milk. Leave the mixture for a day. After that, put on the stove and warm at 30 ° C, for fifteen minutes. Cool again and pour into the prepared sieve.
The cottage cheese will have a pleasant taste of baked milk.
Homemade sour milk curd - useful tips and tricks
After making the cottage cheese, leave some of the whey for the next time: this way you can save on the purchase of starter cultures and enzymes.
Of course, you can wait for the milk to sour naturally, but as a result of such fermentation, the curd turns out to be worse in taste. In addition, the longer the sour milk, the more likely it is the ingress of unwanted microorganisms into it, which can spoil not only the taste of cottage cheese, but also harm health.
