What is cheese
Cheese is a healthy and nutritious product that is obtained through the processing of milk. The processing process is quite simple: milk is influenced by lactic acid bacteria, as a result of which complex biochemical and enzymatic processes occur in the product. Due to the simplicity of the process, the preparation of cheese at home becomes possible.
Making cheese at home
The advantages of homemade cheese are: it is cheaper, tastier, nutritious, does not contain chemical additives and preservatives. Best cheese ripenes in a piece of 0.5 kg or more, so it is recommended to calculate the amount of preparation of homemade cheese. Home-cooked cheese has nutrients, 0.5 kg of cheese contains as many nutrients as 4.5 liters of milk. Proper preparation of cheese at home makes cheese richer in vitamins.
If you need to make a large amount of cheese, you can collect milk for some time. Milk must be stored in the refrigerator. 10-15 liters of milk are enough to make a small amount of cheese. This will require:
- Milk.
- Sourdough (rennet is well suited).
- Equipment: uniform, press, dishes, two pieces of gauze.
Homemade Cheese Recipes
For the preparation of cheese in no case should you use milk powder. It is necessary to use high-quality milk (milk of healthy animals that do not take any antibiotics). First of all, it is necessary to collect the right amount of milk, while milk should only be mixed if the milk is at the same temperature. Otherwise, the preparation of cheese at home will be unsuccessful, i.e. the cheese will turn out to be a weak consistency.
Together with milk, the leading role in the preparation of cheese is played by leaven. It gives the milk the necessary acid and makes the cheese tastier. Ferments are different and can be made at home. The simplest is the milk starter: you need to leave 0.5 liters of milk for 24 hours at room temperature in order to make it sour.
Sourdough should be added to the collected milk (quantity depending on the type of sourdough). Milk should sour for 15-24 hours before the formation of a curd clot. In order to make the cheese tastier, it is recommended to add a little salt. The resulting thick mass is placed in a bowl in which gauze is pre-lined. Then the ends of the gauze are connected so that the entire surface of the dense mass is covered with gauze. Cooking cheese at home is nearing completion. It remains only to eject all the serum from the curd clot. To do this, you need to construct a simple system: put a press on top of the mass (you can use bricks, from 2 to 8, depending on how hard the cheese should turn out), and provide a place for draining the whey (ordinary dishes, for example, a pan, will do) ) Cheese should be under pressure during the day. After that, the resulting mass is processed in various ways. One of the most popular is aging in saline. For this, a saline solution is made at the rate of 300 grams per 4 liters of warm water. In the resulting solution, the cheese must be aged for 10 days. Homemade cheese is ready!
The correct execution of each technological operation improves the quality of the cheese. The process of making homemade cheese requires continuous improvement, i.e. you cannot learn how to make high-quality cheese the first time. If you are diligent, then over time you can become a real cheese master.