If you like homemade cheese, then our article will be useful to you. We want to talk about how to cook cheese at home. It is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. Very often, mothers do not want to give their babies cheeses purchased in supermarkets, because they contain many preservatives. And is it possible to know for sure what products they are made of?
And therefore, naturally, questions arise about their usefulness. But having prepared hard cheese at home from milk, you will definitely not go to the store for it anymore.
Does it make sense to cook cheese at home?
If you are thinking about self-preparation of such a dairy product in order to save money, then you can’t definitely say that it will cost you less than buying a finished product in a store. It all depends on which cheeses you buy - cheap or expensive.
The main advantage of self-production is accurate confidence in its freshness and naturalness of the ingredients. So, it is suitable for children and will bring them only benefit.
What foods make hard cheese at home?
For cooking, you need completely ordinary products. The process itself takes about half an hour, plus the time during which the cheese will freeze in the refrigerator (you can even leave it all night).
For cooking, you need to get these ingredients:
- Soft homemade cottage cheese - 0.7 kg.
- Homemade milk - 1 liter.
- Soda - 1 teaspoon.
- Salt - 2 teaspoon.
- Eggs - 2 pcs.
- Butter - 2 tablespoons.
Hard cheese recipe at home
Cottage cheese should be poured into a pan and thoroughly knead with your hands so that there are no large lumps. Then fill it with milk and put on fire. The mass must be constantly stirred until the whey begins to exfoliate, the cottage cheese itself begins to gather in lumps and harden, as if to melt, and the liquid itself becomes colorless. Next, you need to turn off the fire and throw the cottage cheese on cheesecloth so that all the liquid leaves it.
At the bottom of the pan you need to put butter and send to the fire. It is better to use non-stick cookware, because cheese can stick to the bottom and burn. Next, add eggs, salt, soda, cottage cheese to the pan. We will mix with a wooden spoon until the mass becomes homogeneous, without any grains. It usually takes about half an hour. It all depends on the quality of the cottage cheese. The softer it is, the less time it will take.
When the cheese has acquired a uniform consistency, we take any mold, cover it with food wrap and put it there, carefully rammed. This is done so that the finished product is more homogeneous. Next, we send it to the refrigerator for solidification. That's all cooking hard cheese at home. As you can see, the recipe is completely simple, and the products are taken the most ordinary. Try to cook, and you will appreciate the taste of the home product.
How Calorie Is Hard Homemade Cheese?
It is generally believed that in ordinary hard cheese, up to two hundred and fifty calories per hundred grams. For home, for some reason, the number one hundred thirteen calories is indicated in the literature. In fact, this option will depend on which products you initially take.
If you set a goal to cook a low-calorie diet cheese, you need to take low-fat cottage cheese and milk. And who prefers to get a satisfying product, you can take homemade fatty dairy ingredients. The result will certainly delight you.
Homemade Marble Hard Cheese
We want to tell you another recipe for hard cheese at home. For cooking, grate carrots on a very fine grater. We mix milk with cottage cheese in a pan and add carrot there. All this boil over low heat for about seven minutes.
As a result, we get a mass that needs to be thrown back on gauze. The fluid must drain. Then add butter, salt, eggs, sour cream, soda and a little garlic (optional, if you like it). All ingredients must be mixed thoroughly and put the dishes on the fire again, cook for another ten minutes. You will see when the mass hardens.
We transfer the finished product to the dishes, tamp and let it freeze. That’s ready marble hard cheese made at home.
Historical excursion
Once upon a time, making homemade cheese and cottage cheese was a common occurrence. Now, not every housewife will undertake such a thing. It’s not difficult to make hard cheese from cottage cheese at home , however, it will take time, but the result will please you. You will get a delicious home-made and healthy product without harmful additives and palm oils.
People have been making cheese since time immemorial: one version says that the first mention of this dates back to the eighth millennium BC. In general, his invention relates to the domestication of sheep. It is believed that this happened by chance. If at least something is known about the time of the appearance of cheese, then the place of its invention is not known. Presumably this is the Middle East or Central Asia and Europe or the Sahara.
Some researchers claim that cheeses were invented by nomad Arabs.
The use of spices in the preparation of hard cheese
Currently, in any supermarket there is a considerable assortment of cheeses: hard, soft, smoked, creamy. However, not every one of them can be generally ranked in this category of products. Conveyor production has done its job. And we often eat not a natural product, but a mixture of additives, and sometimes even chemical substitutes for products (like milk-containing inventions), which do not even remotely resemble a natural product.
But even from this situation there is a way out: you can cook hard cheese at home. The recipe is not at all complicated, and the products are used quite ordinary. Cooking at home, you can diversify the resulting cheeses. For this, various spices and spices are used. During cooking, you can add garlic, pepper, paprika, dill, caraway seeds, mustard seeds. It all depends on your taste and which product you want to receive. If you like savory cheeses, add something for spiciness. In general, there is where fantasies can roam.
The subtleties of making homemade cheeses
Speaking about how to cook hard cheese at home, you need to know some nuances that will help you.
- For making it is better to take home or farm cottage cheese. In stores you can buy low-quality curd product. Such raw materials will never make cheese.
- Milk is also worth taking homemade. Pasteurized from the store will not work. Well, if you have the opportunity to buy only factory milk, then take the fattest with a short shelf life.
- Cheeses ripen well only when their mass is at least half a kilogram.
- Cheese has a high fat content, and because the fatter the ingredients for it, the more delicious and tender it turns out.
- As a rule, a home-made product is softer than a store version. This is due to the fact that hardness depends primarily on the pressure of the press: the higher it is, the harder the cheese. At home, this is not always possible, and is it necessary?
- The more you keep your product ready, the more intense its taste will be.
- If there is no form for cheese, you can use a regular colander or a grid from a deep fryer.
- The serum remaining after manufacture can be used to make pancakes or knead yeast dough on it. They also cook okroshka on it.
- Shelf life of homemade cheese - no more than a week in the refrigerator. It is better to wrap it in a cotton towel or paper.
Instead of an afterword
In our article, we talked about how to make hard cheese at home. After all, many simply can not imagine their life without it. In fact, we widely use this product in the manufacture of various dishes. Most varieties can be cooked at home without much effort. So try it! And you will be pleased with the result. Believe me, you will never go to the store for cheese again. After all, a home product turns out to be much tastier, and more useful, which is important. Yes, and you will always be sure of the freshness of the product, since the cheeses from the supermarket are far from ideal and quickly moldy, after which they can simply be thrown out. We wish you good luck in cooking. Enjoy your meal!