2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Coming from the village, my grandmother treated us to home-made cheese. It turned out to be much tastier than the factory product. Let's try today to master its technology
Recently, the quality of store-bought cheeses leaves much to be desired. Even in the presence of preservatives and other chemical elements, after 4-5 days of storage in the refrigerator, they often become moldy.
Sometimes, it looks more like a plastic product than an edible one. Quite recently I had such a case. I brought a Russian hard cheese from the store. Crumbled it for pizza. I put it in the oven to bake. Instead of melting as expected, it turned into hard sticks, such as plastic, in the finished product. What was it?! I still couldn't understand.
Basic Provisions
Home-made cheese differs in density and taste from store-bought cheese. In order for the product to be of high quality, certain conditions must be adhered to:
1. Buy raw materials (cottage cheese, milk) from trusted sellers in the market or from farms. Pasteurized milk from cartons is not very suitable for these purposes.
2. High fat content of milk. The higher the value, the softer the consistency of the final product.
3. Homemade cheeses have a softer texture. The more oppression, the harder the mass.
4. A rich taste is acquired by aging.
5. The shelf life of the started product is no more than a week in a cold place. Packaging - cloth or paper bag.
6. Waste-free technology. The remaining whey from the production is used for yeast dough, pancakes, pancakes.
Ingredients
The basis of any cheese is milk, cottage cheese, salt. To give an exquisite shade, additional fillers are used: fried mushrooms, pieces of ham, dill, caraway seeds, anise. The technologies are somewhat different from each other. The taste changes every time. At first, you can do without rennet whey (in small towns it is problematic to get it). Based on the action of natural bacteria present in milk.
First, let's practice on simpler recipes. They are taken by me from my grandmother's old book on home economics, published in 1957. In those days, there was no internet. All information was collected on the basis of my own experience, stories of housewives.
Hard cheese
The best way to make homemade cheese is to use fresh cottage cheese. It is thrown into a colander lined with a clean cloth to drain the whey. Then they transfer the mass to the dishes, pouring 1 tablespoon with crushed salt per kilogram of product. To obtain a homogeneous mass, rub thoroughly with your hands or scroll several times through a meat grinder.
To form cheese, a linen bag is tightly packed (1 portion no more than 1 kg), tied. Oppression is placed across the board. Pressed for 6-10 hours in a cool room. The greater the weight of the oppression and the longer the holding time, the harder the finished product. Overdrying should not be allowed.
Eat fresh or kept in the cellar for 1-2 weeks on a shelf open. Turn over constantly to form a uniform crust.
In case of mold, rinse in salt water, air dry. Then they are put away for storage again.
Processed cheese
The curd mixed with salt is left in a cool, dry room for 4-5 days. The slightly yellow mixture is placed in a saucepan, the walls of which are oiled. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly. It turns out a liquidish homogeneous consistency.
The hot mass is poured into molds, cooled. It turns out to be soft cheese. It gets smeared on sandwiches.
Having mastered the simplest recipes, you can move on to more complex ones. By gradually increasing the amount of ingredients.
Home-made cheese is always environmentally friendly, made from natural raw materials. Here you can be sure of the composition of the final product. You can experiment with additives if you like. Choose the taste that best suits your household.
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