How to make homemade cheese – recipes and cooking technology

The content of the article

• How to make cheese at home
• Hard cheese
• Soft cheese
• Fused
• Homemade Cheese Recipes
• From milk
• From cottage cheese and milk
• From cottage cheese
• Adyghe
• Creamy
• Mozzarella
• Mascarpone
• Philadelphia cheese

Making home-made, soft or hard cheese at home is an art that can and should be learned. Using natural and affordable ingredients such as cottage cheese and milk, it’s easy to create a small culinary masterpiece in your own kitchen. A gentle creamy product without preservatives, dyes or harmful additives is a great alternative to fabulously expensive imported delicacies. The main thing is to choose your ideal recipe.

How to make cheese at home

Experienced chefs know how to make homemade cheese so that its taste is in no way inferior to European counterparts. It is prepared from fatty cottage cheese, cream and eggs, in some varieties add enzymes, a spoonful of kefir. The main ingredients are heated over low heat until the whey is separated, which is then drained. The finished mass is thrown into a colander, squeezed or pressed under oppression, stored in closed containers or brine. The shelf life and maturity of cheese differ from those indicated on the store labels, although such a treat in the refrigerator will not last longer than a week.

Hard cheese

To make a head of hard cheese, part of the milk is mixed with sourdough, and the rest is brought to 32-33 degrees, left warm. Sourdough and an enzyme dissolved in water are added to it. The resulting clots are cut into squares, left under the lid. The pan is put on low heat, the cubes are heated to 38 degrees for about 10 minutes. Part of the whey is drained, replaced with warm boiled water. The cheese mass is heated to 40 degrees for about 15 minutes, separated from the whey, salted and mixed. After this, it remains to compress, dry and let it mature.

Soft cheese

Soft varieties can be prepared without the use of special enzymes from natural yogurt, homemade sour cream, and heavy cream. The ingredients are combined, salt, spices, herbs are added to taste. Some types of cheese can not even be cooked, but simply left in a colander with cheesecloth, folded four times. Using a load that is placed on top for 12 or more hours, remove excess fluid and give a denser but tender consistency.

Fused

Homemade processed cheeses are spread on toasts, used in cold appetizers and other dishes. They are made pure curd, mushroom, mixed with parsley. With a simple recipe, including cottage cheese, eggs, soda and a little sour cream, any student can handle it. The ingredients are beaten with a blender, boiled in a steam bath for 10-15 minutes, spices and fried champignons are added. Pour into jars or molds, sent to the shelf of the refrigerator. Preparation of cream cheese, delicate, golden and glossy, often takes no more than an hour.

Homemade Cheese Recipes

Proven recipes with step by step photos explain in detail how to cook cheese. Including such popular and popular varieties as suluguni, Adyghe, rennet, feta cheese, mozzarella and mascarpone. The secret of an ideal home-made product is very simple – before making cheese, you need to buy quality ingredients, since its taste, aroma and texture depend on them. It is recommended to add salt accurate to the gram, otherwise it will interrupt the taste of the dish or leave an unpleasant aftertaste.

From milk

• Cooking time: 40 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 5 Persons.
• Calorie content: 57 kcal per 100 g.
• Destination: snack, for breakfast.
• Cuisine: Indian.
• Difficulty: easy.

The classic recipe for home-made cheese is simple and requires a minimum amount of ingredients. From milk, fresh lemon juice and plain water, you can make an exotic, but very tasty Asian dish – panir. This is one of the most popular cheese varieties in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan. It has an unusual, slightly crumbly consistency, does not melt, slightly sour.

Ingredients:

• fat milk – 6 tbsp .;
• water – 0.5 tbsp .;
• lemon juice – 3/4 tbsp.

Cooking method:

1. Bring homemade fatty milk to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Boil for 10 minutes.
2. Mix lemon juice with water, gradually add to milk.
3. If the main ingredient does not begin to curl, pour some more lemon juice. After 2-3 minutes, remove the pan from the stove.
4. Four cheesecloth, put on a colander or sieve. Allow fluid to drain.
5. Rinse the mass gently with cold water to remove a strong lemon flavor. Knead slightly, giving a denser, uniform consistency.
6. Cut into portions.

From cottage cheese and milk

• Cooking time: 3 hours 30 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 10 Persons.
• Calorie content: 141 kcal per 100 g.
• Destination: snack, for breakfast.
• Cuisine: European.
• Difficulty: easy.

Homemade cheese is a natural product with a fantastically soft creamy taste and a dense texture, thanks to which it is convenient to cut with a knife. So that it acquires an appetizing yellow color, the egg can be replaced with two yolks. It’s better to use cow’s milk – a ready-made goat milk dish will have too pungent odor, which many consider unpleasant.

Ingredients:

• fresh curd – 1 kg;
• milk – 1 l;
• eggs – 1 pc.;
• butter – 100 g;
• baking soda – 2 tsp;
• salt – 0.7 tsp;
• greens to taste.

Cooking method:

1. Before you make homemade cheese from cottage cheese and milk, remove the butter from the refrigerator and soften.
2. Fill a large pot with a liter of milk. Bring to a boil, stirring.
3. Add cottage cheese, cook for 5 minutes over low heat until whey separates.
4. Discard on a colander covered with moist, doubled gauze. Allow the whey to drain, connect the ends of the gauze. Hang over the sink without untying the resulting pouch.
5. Beat butter with egg, salt, baking soda. No need to extinguish it.
6. Mix the egg-oil mass with the curd mixture. Add finely chopped dill, parsley or other fresh herbs, mix until smooth. Transfer to pan.
7. Cook for 10 minutes in a steam bath until the mass acquires a viscous consistency.
8. Put in a container oiled. Press down, remove for 3 hours in the refrigerator.
9. Remove from shape, chop.

From cottage cheese

• Cooking time: 4 days.
• Servings Per Container: 8 Persons.
• Calorie content: 194 kcal per 100 g.
• Destination: snack, for breakfast.
• Cuisine: European.
• Difficulty: easy.

It takes 4 days to cook a solid cottage cheese delicacy correctly. The main trick is how to cook the cheese and give it the right consistency. To do this, he must mature and become moldy, which will give him a special, delicate taste and aroma. Such a product can be added to your favorite homemade salads, for example, the famous Greek. It will easily compete with feta sheep cheese and other elite varieties.

Ingredients:

• cottage cheese – 500 g;
• butter – 40 g;
• sour cream – 120 g;
• eggs – 2 pcs.;
• cumin – to taste;
• salt to taste.

Cooking method:

1. Cover the cottage cheese with a lid. Leave it to mold.
2. After 4 days, pass the cottage cheese through a meat grinder along with sour cream, caraway seeds, salt.
3. Melt the butter in a deep bowl.
4. Transfer the curd mass to oil, heat over low heat. Stir until smooth..
5. Beat 2 eggs, add to the curd. Heat again.
6. Put on greased dishes, leave in the refrigerator overnight.
7. Cut into portions.

Adyghe

• Cooking time: 3 days.
• Servings Per Container: 6 Persons.
• Calorie content: 60 kcal per 100 g.
• Destination: snack, for breakfast.
• Cuisine: Circassian.
• Difficulty: easy.

National Adyghe cheese at home is prepared from cow, goat, sheep milk. It is widely used in cooking, added to vegetable salads, soups, khachapuri, pies, dumplings. Before you make cheese at home, you should determine how it differs from classic varieties. This product has a pleasant curd texture and a unique spicy taste with hints of pasteurization. Moderately salty, may crumble slightly. Second name – Circassian.

Ingredients:

• pasteurized milk – 3 l;
• kefir – 1 l;
• salt – 2 tsp.

Cooking method:

1. Heat the kefir over low heat until the whey begins to separate.
2. Drain the whey into a bowl. Leave to sour at room temperature for 48 hours.
3. After 2 days, bring the milk to a boil. Reduce fire, pour in serum.
4. After 7 minutes, remove the mass that has surfaced and separated from the serum. Squeeze through cheesecloth. Salt.
5. Hang over a sink in a gauze bag.
6. When excess fluid drains, press with a press. To drain the allocated water. Send to the fridge.
7. After 24 hours, remove the press, cut the Adyghe cheese into portions.

Creamy

• Cooking time: 15 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 2 Persons.
• Calorie content: 292 kcal per 100 g.
• Destination: snack, for breakfast.
• Cuisine: European.
• Difficulty: easy.

Before you cook cheese with an unforgettable creamy taste, you need to buy only one ingredient – good sour cream. The fatter it is, the tastier the product will be. It is added to the composition of cream desserts, soufflé, Norwegian rolls with salmon or pink salmon, biscuit cakes and even multicook cheesecakes. The main advantage of such a cheese recipe at home is that it does not need to be cooked, and the whole process takes minutes.

Ingredients:

• sour cream 21-25% – 800 ml;
• salt to taste.

Cooking method:

1. Fold the cheesecloth four, place in a deep plate.
2. Pour thick homemade sour cream on gauze. If desired, add salt. If salt is not added, the product can be used both for snacks and desserts..
3. Tie the corners of the gauze, hang the resulting bag over the container. The easiest way is to take a pan, put a long wooden spoon on top, tie gauze to it.
4. Leave on for 20 hours or 24 hours until the serum drains..
5. Transfer to container, store in refrigerator.

Mozzarella

• Cooking time: 30 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 3 Persons.
• Calorie content: 67 kcal per 100 g.
• Purpose: appetizer, for breakfast, for pizza.
• Cuisine: Italian.
• Difficulty: easy.

The picturesque beauty of Italy is not only the Colosseum, spaghetti and the temperamental Celentano. This is also the famous mozzarella cheese, which is used to prepare various casseroles, salads, pizza, caprese tomato appetizer, homemade lasagna and other dishes. The real Italian mozzarella is easy to recognize from the photo – it is a small elastic balls immersed in brine.

Ingredients:

• milk – 1 l;
• natural yogurt – 125 g;
• vinegar 25% – 1 tbsp. l .;
• salt – 1.5 tsp.

Cooking method:

1. Warm fresh milk with salt, not bringing to a boil. The original product is made only from buffalo or cow’s milk.
2. Add yogurt, mix thoroughly.
3. When the milk is curdled, pour in the vinegar.
4. Four fold clean cheesecloth, put on a colander. Fix over a bowl or pan where the whey will drain.
5. Throw the milk mixture in a colander. Raise with gauze, squeeze well.
6. Form tight balls.
7. Pour whey into a container or lunch box, load the balls. Cool.
8. Leave for a day in the refrigerator. The next day, drain the leaven. Store homemade mozzarella in a closed container.

Mascarpone

• Cooking time: 1 hour 45 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 5 Persons.
• Calorie content: 180 kcal per 100 g.
• Purpose: appetizer, for breakfast, basis for pastry cream.
• Cuisine: Italian.
• Difficulty: easy.

Mascarpone is difficult to confuse with any other product – it has an amazing creamy consistency, is easy to apply on homemade or lush American waffles, sweet cakes. A spoonful of cream cheese can simply be spread on a morning toast. In the manufacture of soft delicacy, the homeland of which is Italian Lombardy, milk from cows or buffalo is used. It is added to snacks, main and even sweet dishes, for example, the most delicious Tiramisu dessert with coffee, cocoa and savoyardi, whose photo is displayed on the menu of the best world restaurants.

Ingredients:

• cream – 200 ml;
• sour cream 20% – 800 ml;
• lemon juice – 2 tsp.

Cooking method:

1. Before making homemade cheese, prepare a kitchen thermometer with a probe in advance and squeeze 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
2. Mix cream with sour cream. Cream can be replaced with fat milk.
3. Put the mixture on low heat, stir. Using a thermometer, measure the temperature – it should not exceed 75 degrees.
4. Add lemon juice. Make sure that the curdled mixture does not boil. Remove from fire.
5. Put a clean, wet cheesecloth four in a colander.
6. Discard the mass in a colander, leave for an hour. Wait for excess fluid to drain.
7. Gently squeeze out – the stronger the rammer, the less tender and tasty the mascarpone cheese will be.
8. Transfer to a container. Keep refrigerated.

Philadelphia cheese

• Cooking time: 40 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 8 Persons.
• Calorie content: 58 kcal per 100 g.
• Destination: snack, for breakfast.
• Cuisine: American.
• Difficulty: easy.

Soft cheese Philadelphia is loved everywhere, but especially in America, in honor of one of the cities of which this amazing product was named. With it they prepare rolls, crispy tartlets, homemade pies, berry cheesecakes, marzipan cakes, vegetable gratin, canapes and everyone’s favorite eel rolls. A profitable analogue of a “creamy foreigner” can be made from ingredients that are easy to find in every refrigerator.

Ingredients:

• milk – 1 l;
• kefir – 500 ml;
• eggs – 1 pc.;
• citric acid – 5 g;
• salt – 1 tsp.

Cooking method:

1. Mix milk with a spoon of salt, bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Pour in kefir. Stir until the milk-kefir mixture begins to curl..
3. Pour the hot mass onto the four-fold cheesecloth, leave to drain for 15 minutes.
4. Beat the egg with citric acid.
5. Mix with the resulting cottage cheese, drive to a state of lush homogeneous mass. Cool to desired temperature..
6. Store in a closed container..