People used cottage cheese in antiquity. There is a belief that this dish first appeared by chance: whey spilled from sour milk. In ancient times, cottage cheese was called "sour cheese", which is probably why we still call the cottage cheese cheesecakes. Previously, it was prepared exclusively from yogurt, now there are many ways to prepare this product.
Nowadays it is not difficult to buy cottage cheese both in the market and in stores. But hardly anyone will disagree with the fact that cooked cottage cheese at home has a lot of advantages. First of all, vitamins and minerals are stored in it. And besides, importantly, it differs from the store to taste. Let's look at several ways to cook cottage cheese at home.
Real cottage cheese
This product is made from country milk. In its quality and freshness it is necessary to be absolutely sure, since it can not be boiled - real cottage cheese does not tolerate high temperatures. For example, a product made from separated milk will have a fine-grained structure.
Milk in a three-liter jar is placed in a warm place. In order for it to ferment faster, a small piece of rye bread is placed in it. Milk turns into yogurt in a day, if the process occurs in the summer, and after 3 days - if in the winter. It is not necessary to mix it at this time. The preparedness of yogurt can be determined by the bubbles, which should rise up and form “moves”.
After this, you need to carefully remove the cream, pour the yogurt into a large saucepan. If the milk was of high quality and the yogurt turned out to be good, it does not pour freely. That is, in order to overfill it, the jar needs to be shaken periodically. If yogurt easily pours, the cottage cheese will turn out not so tasty and will not have the desired structure.
The pan is put on low heat for 10 minutes, until the mass is at the required temperature. There are two ways to check it. Touch the container in two places - closer to the top and near the bottom. At the top, the pan should be slightly warmer, and at the bottom - much warmer, but not hot. You can, stirring the yogurt with a spoon from the bottom up, lower your finger into the pan, the mass should be slightly warm. If the desired temperature is not yet available, cook it for another 5 minutes. The main thing is not to overheat the curdled milk, since the cottage cheese in this case will be unpleasant in taste, hard and fine-grained.
Now you can turn off the fire, leave the pan to cool overnight. By morning, the mass will separate, the cottage cheese will be on top and the whey will be on the bottom. The mass must be poured into a large bowl covered with gauze. The gauze is then tied and suspended over a whey collection container. When it drains, homemade cottage cheese from milk will be ready.
Yogurt can not be heated, and tossed on folded in several layers of cheesecloth immediately after ripening. But for this, it must be uniform and thick, otherwise the whole can leak through the cheesecloth. Cottage cheese cooked according to this recipe at home it turns out incredibly tender, it is not advised to use it for baking, as it will spread. From 3 liters of milk, this recipe produces about 700 grams of cottage cheese.
There are simpler recipes. Homemade cottage cheese can also be made from milk purchased in a store with the addition of sour cream. To do this, you will need:
- sour cream - a glass;
- milk - a glass;
- sugar;
- Rye bread.
First, a tablespoon of sour cream should be stirred in a glass of milk. Add the same slice of rye bread (stale). Leave the mixture to warm overnight. In the morning, the bread is carefully removed so that it does not crumble. Sour milk is filtered through three times folded cheesecloth. Curd is ready.
In order to get more cottage cheese, you need to pour a pack of milk into an enameled pan, add sour cream (2-3 tablespoons), mix and also leave overnight. In the morning, heat on the stove until the acidified milk is warm (do not boil). Turn off the fire, after 2-3 hours, when the milk is curdled, it must be filtered.
A spoonful of sour cream and a little sugar are added to the finished dish. You can store the curd for up to three days in the refrigerator.
As you can see, it is not at all difficult to cook cottage cheese at home. Such a dish will undoubtedly appeal to all households, and especially children.