Many today are concerned about the quality of the products delivered to the store. This is especially true for dairy products. In the era of market economy and developed competition, the products of different manufacturers are distinguished by a low price. But that's about the quality of very few people think. For those who want to provide their family with natural products, we have prepared this article, which tells how to make milk curd.
Homemade cottage cheese from milk - recipe
Ingredients:
- milk - 3 liters.
Preparation
Before making cottage cheese from milk, milk should be sourced. To do this, it should be put for about 36-48 hours in a warm place. Milk turns into curdled milk, whey is separated. Do not be afraid that in such a long period of time the product will deteriorate. Natural milk does not get rotten, it's exactly what we need - curdled milk . Prostokvasha has a light sour-milk smell, it tastes like kefir. If there is a sharp unpleasant smell in a container with milk, it became a disgusting taste, then such milk can not be used.
Ready-made yogurt has a rather dense structure - not too hard and not too soft. It can be scooped up with a spoon, while it does not hold the shape (unlike sour cream or cottage cheese). The resulting curdled milk is put into a saucepan and put on fire. Heat up to 40-50 ° constantly stirring. This will help to separate the serum. However, one must remember that it is impossible to overheat curdled milk - this will spoil the taste of cottage cheese.
After warming the curdled milk, it must be allowed to cool and settle. Serum will need to be drained. On the serum you can bake pancakes, for example. To make home-made curd from milk was successful, express serum better through a layer of gauze folded into several layers. The colander and the strainer will not work, because a sufficient amount of cottage cheese can leak through their fairly large holes. Folded several times, gauze or cotton fabric easily pass the serum, meanwhile all the cottage cheese remains inside the bag. After the whey dries, the cottage cheese is ready. You can eat it as a ready-made dish, or you can make something delicious from it .
Cottage cheese from fresh or from sour milk?
Curd is made from sour milk. Fresh milk must be pre-fermented, that is, turned into curdled milk. Cottage cheese can be made from fresh milk without adding any additional substances. If desired, for a quicker fermentation of milk, you can add a little kefir (1/2 cup) to it. However, this is not necessary. It is also very important to choose the right milk.
If you use rustic, natural milk there are no nuances. You can only recommend it yourself to pasteurize - to kill unwanted bacteria. Cottage cheese from pasteurized own milk can be given even to small children.
If you use store milk, it is important to choose as natural as possible. This, of course, sounds ridiculous in our time. Meanwhile, most of that milk in plastic bottles that is sold in supermarkets does not get sour. First, it can stand for a couple of days at room temperature, and then immediately becomes rancid and rotten. This milk is not suitable for cooking homemade cottage cheese. To make homemade cottage cheese from milk, choose a cheaper, pasteurized (not sterilized!), Better in plastic bags. Such milk sucks well enough,
Depending on the initial fat content of milk, the fat content of the resulting cottage cheese may also be different. Using rustic natural milk, you get a fat cottage cheese, the recipe of which is described above. For those who follow the figure, you can recommend milk 1.5% and 2.5% fat. Fat does not affect the recipe, how to cook cottage cheese from milk. Bacteria that convert milk into curdled milk are present in the product, regardless of its fat content. However, it is worth knowing that fermenting more fatty milk, you can get such "side" products, like natural cream and sour cream.