Making cheese from cow's milk. Homemade hard cheese made from milk

This article is for those who are interested in cheeses. Here we will tell you how easy and simple it is to make hard cheese yourself at home. Useful information can be both for ordinary cheese lovers and for caring mothers who are afraid to buy this product for their children in supermarkets, because there is always a risk that the product will not be fresh. This will also allow you not to wonder how long it has been on the shelf, and what harmful additives it contains.

Does it make sense to cook cheese at home?

Hard cheese, made at home from milk, can become a significant part of your daily diet, because natural products are always tastier and healthier. Dairy products, especially cheese, are rich in a huge amount of nutrients that your body needs on a daily basis. To begin with, you should understand that making hard cheese at home will be much more economical than spending money on an already prepared product in specialized factories. Of course, it all depends on the varieties that you want to get or buy. Another plus is that you can always be sure of the quality of all the ingredients, you do not have to worry about the taste and composition of your dish. You can always rest assured that the product gets to the table fresh. You will be able to control the entire cooking process and teach the whole family if necessary. Many housewives like to control not only the cooking process, but also “customize” their desires for themselves. Therefore, you are able to make the taste more salty or very delicate. It just depends on your preferences. Reviews of such cheeses always contain a lot of additions to the traditional recipe.

Making hard cheese at home is easy!

Interested in how to make hard cheese at home tasty and healthy? Initially, you need to prepare products that meet the list of requirements specified in the "instructions". The recipe for hard cheese at home is very easy and straightforward. First of all, you need to thoroughly wash your hands, prepare the work surface for cooking. As for cottage cheese, we advise you to get it at home in order to be completely sure of the quality of the cheese. The cottage cheese should be placed in a deep pan that is convenient for you, after which you should try to break all the lumps with your hands so that in the end all the cottage cheese is of the same consistency. As for milk, it is also advisable to stop your choice on fresh homemade, this will give a more delicate taste to your creation. Cottage cheese, prepared in advance, must be poured with milk, put the pan on a small fire. The contents must be stirred all the time, make sure that the cottage cheese does not burn and the milk does not escape. The serum we end up with should peel off, this is a sign that you are doing everything right. The cottage cheese should begin to gather into small lumps and become harder and harder. It may seem to you that the curd mass seems to have begun to melt before your eyes. After that, the pan should be removed from the oven and the contents put on clean gauze, the liquid that remains should flow out. For making hard cheeses at home, it would be better if you buy non-stick, specialized dishes so that you do not have to be afraid that your dish will simply stick to the bottom of the dish.

The final step in making cheese

Place a little butter, not very fatty butter on the bottom of your dish and put the contents on a small fire, then break the eggs into the pan, add a little salt, a pinch of soda and at the end the curd you cooked. It is advisable to stir all the contents with a wooden spoon that is convenient for you. You need to stir until the whole filling is the same consistency. This process will take you approximately half an hour. Making hard cheese at home is quite easy if you can keep the proportions and like to experiment with recipes. If your product has become soft and shaped, you can take it out and wrap it in a film, after which you should pick up dishes in which you can properly tamp your creation. There is nothing difficult in this, and in the meantime, the preparation of hard cheese at home is finished. If you love dairy products, then there is nothing easier than preparing it at home and delighting your loved ones.

calories in homemade cheese

Two hundred and fifty calories is not so much for those who are worried about their figure. Only one hundred grams contain such a calorie content, however, these figures are approximate, as they depend on the choice of products from which the cheese is made. Do not worry about the figure, but if you are afraid to gain extra grams, then just take low-fat ingredients. Hard cheese, cooked at home, is very healthy, and you should not deny yourself such a pleasure! Treat yourself to the delicious treats you love so much. For a change, you can add carrots to homemade cheese, which will give it originality.

A little history of hard cheeses

In the recent past, hard cheese, cooked at home, was an ordinary dish on the table of every housewife. Nowadays, not all women like to spend time at the stove, and only some prefer to cook for their family. In modern times, many people think that it is easier to go to a canteen, a restaurant, or just buy something on the way to work, but is it all good for your health? Even before our era, hard cheese was a favorite product of nomads. Many people were engaged in housework at that time, each family had goats and sheep, which made it possible to create this dish at home all the time. Many scholars suggest that homemade cheese was first made in the Middle East. The Arabs preferred to indulge in delicacies, so hard cheese made from cottage cheese, cooked at home, was kept at everyone's home, its recipes were supplemented with nuts and spices.

How to diversify the taste of homemade cheese?

Now every housewife has a large selection of different spices, spices and additives for cooking their dishes. In many recipes, you can read that cheeses like a lot of herbs and seasonings, but we must not forget that this is all individually for everyone. Supermarkets are full of different condiments, but you need to know what you should buy and what each of the additives are for. Much attention must be paid to the composition of all spices so that your homemade cheese is not spoiled. In order not to get confused in the choice and not harm yourself, it is best to add what you have already encountered, for example, garlic with allspice, a little hot mustard and dry green dill will not hurt either. These, of course, are the wishes of everyone who likes to experiment in the kitchen, and this is not the first time they have prepared this dish.

If you are confused about the choice of milk

We've already covered how to make hard cheese at home before, but there are a couple more frequently asked questions about choosing milk. Which is better - cow or goat? There is no unequivocal advice, since there are lovers only of cow's milk and there are those who cannot even tolerate the smell of goat's milk. We can only say for sure that this product is useful, it contains calcium, vitamins B and D, as well as iron. As for goat milk, it can be noted that it is very useful for children.

Classification of cheeses and a short digression

Cheeses can be divided into several groups according to the method of preparation. Many will be interested to know that cheese can differ not only in taste, but also in the very mechanism of its creation. How to cook hard cheese at home, this is already familiar to us. Now the question arises of how it can still be obtained in other ways. There are rennet cheeses, the peculiarity of which is that they add a special enzyme, which is obtained from the dried stomachs of young calves. Among other things, there are sour-milk cheeses, products with the addition of mold. It makes this dairy product quite extravagant, gives an unusual taste. However, not many people like such innovations. There are also lovers of smoking, there are many varieties of cheese with the addition of various spices, which gives the product an extraordinary taste. Processed cheeses are always the most popular, they find their recognition among children and adolescents, you can always take it on the road or on nature.

Swiss cheese. Reviews

The highlight of Swiss cheeses is that we almost never see either the name of the variety or the specific brand on them. These culinary masterpieces get their name from the name of the area where a certain type of cheese was prepared. Many countries are reluctant to sell Swiss cheeses because almost all of them are made from unpasteurized dairy products. However, these cheeses have always been one of the most expensive and delicious, this feature has always been considered valuable to the consumer, according to reviews. Swiss cheese is able to keep fresh for a long time, especially in the winter season. Its price is high also because of the delivery, and besides, all the ingredients are of high quality.

There is probably no better cheese than homemade cheese. Not a single purchased one can compete with homemade cheese. In addition, this great product is easy to prepare. Well, how to do it, read in this review.
Recipe content:

If once cooking cheese at home was quite common, today it is a real feat that not all housewives can accomplish. Since the process itself, in principle, is not laborious, but it takes a lot of time. But the result is worth it. The product is obtained with an incomparable taste, without harmful production components and additives. Therefore, we offer to test your strength and make homemade cheese.

Secrets of making cheese at home

• It is desirable to prepare cheese from homemade or farm cottage cheese. Supermarkets often sell low-quality cottage cheese, which is more like a curd product. This doesn't make good cheese.
• Also, to achieve a good result, you need to use high-quality farm milk. It is better not to use sterilized and ultra-pasteurized milk from packs and plastic bags. If it is not possible to find homemade milk, then buy it in a supermarket, but the fattest and with a minimum shelf life.
• Ready-made cheese usually contains a lot of fat, so for its preparation, the original product must also be more tender and oily.
• The cheese will ripen only when its mass is at least 500 g.
• Homemade cheeses are generally softer than store-bought ones. Its hardness depends on the strong pressure of the press. Therefore, the heavier it is, the harder the cheese will come out.
• In the absence of a special form for cheese, you can use a deep fryer, a regular colander or a mesh.
• Ready cheese is stored in a cotton towel or in a paper bag in the refrigerator for no more than 7 days.
• The remaining whey can be used for baking pancakes, for yeast dough or for whey okroshka.

Technology for making cheese at home

• Melting dairy products.
• Mixing milk with lactic acid bacteria and clotting enzymes.

Interestingly, at home, it is easiest to make cheeses that are not cheap in stores. For example, Mascarpone cheese is used for cheesecake and teramisu, Philadelphia cheese, which is used for rolls and sushi.

• Calorie content per 100 g - 113 kcal.
• Servings - 600 g
• Cooking time - 30 minutes for cooking, 3-5 hours for cooling

Ingredients:

• Milk - 500 ml
• Curd - 500 g
• Butter - 50 g
• Soda - 0.5 tsp
• Egg - 1 pc.
• Salt - to taste

Cooking:

1. In a heavy-bottomed cooking pot (so that nothing burns), pour the milk, put the cottage cheese and put it on the stove over a small fire. Boil, stirring occasionally, and cook for 15 minutes, stirring thoroughly.
2. When you see that the whey begins to separate from the milk, fold the mass into a colander or sieve and leave to drain. Do not discard the whey (use it for any dish).
3. Dip the butter into the same pan. When it melts, beat in the egg, pour in the soda and mix.
4. Add the curd mass to the pan and continue to mix for 5 minutes over low heat.
5. When the mass is brewed, transfer it to a special form or any dish and tamp.
6. Cool the future cheese, cover with cling film (so as not to weather) and refrigerate for 3-5 hours.

Cheese - a classic way of cooking

Ingredients (yield 700 g pressed cheese):

• Milk - 6 l
• Lemon juice - 2-3 lemons (you can replace 3 tsp citric acid)
• Salt - to taste

1. Pour milk into a saucepan and boil under a closed lid.
2. When the milk begins to rise and boil, remove the pan from the stove and add the lemon juice (coagulant).
3. Stir the food for about 1 minute and leave for a couple of minutes to curdle. At this time, the sponge-like paneer will immediately separate from the whey. If the whey is not transparent, then put the pan back on the stove, add a little more clotting agent and heat it up.
4. Line a colander with gauze, strain the resulting mass, and collect the cottage cheese and tie the gauze tightly.
5. To make the cheese hard, place oppression on top of the mass. The longer the cheese is pressed, the firmer the paneer will come out.

Making hard homemade cheese - this phrase sounds a little fantastic to many. In fact, the recipes for such a product, mastered by many housewives, are quite simple. In addition, they do not require special devices that would be difficult to place at home.

At the same time, hard cheese made at home will compare favorably with a similar industrial one. Perhaps the taste will be slightly unusual and slightly different from those products that can be purchased at retail outlets, but the preservatives that are present in these will not be there.

Choice of milk

There are quite a few recipes for homemade hard cheese, and the composition of the components used in them varies somewhat. However, milk certainly appears everywhere. It is better to purchase it from housewives who breed cows and have medical certificates about the health of their animals. In a word, you can buy only that milk, the quality of which does not cause even the slightest doubt. It is impossible to boil this product before making cheese, and therefore it should not initially contain pathogenic microbes.

If you can’t buy homemade milk, store-bought milk will do. However, it has several important requirements. So, you should choose only that, the expiration date of which is minimal. In addition, it should be natural whole milk, and not diluted from powder. Otherwise, it simply won't budge.

Choice of cottage cheese

Similarly, it is worth approaching the acquisition of cottage cheese. Ideal for the production of cheese homemade product. You can pre-make it yourself from the right amount of high-quality milk.

homemade hard cheese recipe

Ingredients:

700 g cottage cheese

1 liter of milk

2 tbsp. butter spoons

1 teaspoon of soda

2 tsp salt

How to make hard homemade cheese:

Cottage cheese must be crushed so that there are no lumps left, and placed in a sufficiently voluminous pan. Next, milk is added there and everything is thoroughly mixed so that the mass is as homogeneous as possible. The container is placed on a minimum fire, and its contents must be stirred to prevent burning.

It will be possible to determine the readiness of the mass for the addition of other ingredients by the following signs. Whey will be plentifully allocated from it, and the cottage cheese itself will be collected in lumps. At the same time, it will acquire some hardness, as if it begins to melt, and the liquid around it will become transparent and yellowish. The latter must be drained by throwing the curd mixture into a colander.

In the presence of all of the above, at the very bottom of the pan with future cheese, you will need to put butter and wait until it melts. After that, eggs, soda and salt must be carefully mixed into the mass.

To successfully make cheese, the mixing of these ingredients must be done with extraordinary care. A sign of the correct consistency is its homogeneity and the absence of white lumps in it. By the way, you need to knead the cheese with a wooden spoon.

Usually, it takes 20-25 minutes to complete the process of boiling the mass (after adding the last components) - depending on the softness of the cottage cheese used. When everything is over, it is necessary to shift the mass into a suitable container, previously lined with a clean piece of cotton fabric. In extreme cases, you can use polyethylene or cling film.

Future cheese must be put under pressure. A jar filled with water, a few bricks, or other heavy objects will do. There is no limit here: the greater the mass will put pressure on the product, the better quality it will come out.

For the first time, it will be necessary to get the cheese head about 5 hours later. All the released whey will need to be drained, and then the product freed from it should be placed under the press again and the load that is above it should be increased.

After a day from now, the cheese must be removed, wrapped with a dry piece of cloth and sent to a cool place for ripening. A cellar is ideal for this, but a refrigerator is also suitable.

In a couple of weeks the product will be completely ready.

The whole truth about cheese in our edition of the program "Food by the rules and without"!

Home-made cheese is unrivaled not only in terms of cost and taste, but also in terms of the entire spectrum of unlimited creative space that opens up for a home cheese maker.

To make 1.3 kg of soft homemade cheese you will need:
- 9 liters of whole milk
(you can also use purchased, not sterilized, but here you need sourdough).


- Sourdough.
I took "Bifilyuks" 400 ml., You can kefir or some other sour-milk product with a shelf life of no more than a week. It is even better, of course, to use specialized cheese starters. Although if the milk is homemade, whole, then it is possible without sourdough at all. (before that I did it with pure milk, now I decided to try it differently)
- Pot.


- A sieve or colander.
- Thermometer.


- A piece of cotton or gauze.
- Form for cheese - container.
The container can be a tin or plastic mayonnaise can, a saucepan, or any other container. According to the inner diameter of the container, we select the piston, it can be either a wooden circle or a saucer. He (this piston) should freely enter the container with a gap along the edges of 2-5 mm.
- Enzyme for curdling milk.
Pepsins are used as an enzyme. Today, the most acceptable in terms of price and quality indicators is the Japanese-made “meito” enzyme. You can also buy Acidin-pepsin tablets at the pharmacy, but the result is not always stable (at least for me).


Pepsin, Meito microbial rennin, is used in the production of soft and hard cheeses both at home and in factories. With the help of Meito pepsin, you can make: ordinary homemade cheese, pickled cheeses (brynza, suluguni, feta, etc.), as well as almost all known hard cheeses.
"Meito" is a natural product containing milk-clotting enzymes.
These enzymes are specific proteases that are identical in amino acid composition to calf rennet. But at the same time, Meito does not contain animal and chemical components, which favorably affects the shelf life and taste of the cheese.
Meito is produced through the fermentation and further drying of the vegetable food fungus.
MeitoTM was approved at a meeting of the Expert Council of the State Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. N.F.Gamalei at the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences; Approved by the Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences
The enzyme is included in the national standard of the Russian Federation - GOST 52686-2006 “Cheese. General technical conditions".
Producer: MEITO SANGYO CO.,Ltd (Japan)
- Press.
However, a press substitute can be built from two pans.
- and time 2-3 hours :)
Making soft homemade cheese.
1. In some recipes, it is recommended to pasteurize milk, but I have tested milk, so I decided not to do this, but pasteurize at a temperature of 62 degrees for half an hour - this is critical if homemade milk is of unknown origin. It is better to heat milk in a water bath.


2. Cool to a temperature of 33 degrees.




3. Pour "Bifilyuks" into milk and wait 20-30 minutes for our lactic acid bacteria to work.
4. Pour 1/10 of a bag of meito pepsin into half a glass of cold (previously boiled and cooled) water and stir until completely dissolved.
There is only 1 gram in a sachet and all this is for 100 liters of milk. How to divide 1 gram into 10 parts? We watch movies about drugs and learn how to make tracks. :)) You can still dissolve the whole bag in 100 ml. water and already measure the right amount with a syringe. Store in this case in a tightly closed sterilized container in the refrigerator for no more than 2-3 weeks.
5. Pour these half a glass into milk and mix thoroughly once for 2-3 minutes (this is important!) And leave.
6. The process of coagulation (coagulation) begins. Coagulation turns milk into whey and curd. This happens after 30-60 minutes.
7. Check the readiness of the cottage cheese. It should look like a cream with a clear separation between curd and clear whey. If the whey still resembles milk, then leave the cottage cheese for a few more minutes. We do a clean finger test. This is a very simple test: you just need to dip your finger (clean! :)) into the curd mass and look at it. If a white milky mass remains on the finger, then the cottage cheese is not yet ready. If the finger remains clean, then the readiness of the cottage cheese is guaranteed.




8. We lower the long knife to the very bottom of the container, cut the mass with a “mesh” of 2-3 cm.




9. Then we try to cut horizontally with a slotted spoon, so that the result is something similar to cubes 2-3 cm in size. Of course, it is impossible to cut into even geometric cubes in this way, but in this case it is not necessary.




10. Gradually increasing the temperature of the water to 38 degrees, and maintaining it at this level, gently mix the cheese mass from time to time (now it is already a cheese mass), trying to prevent the pieces from sticking together. If large pieces come across, at the same time we cut them too. You can stir b/w every 20 minutes.




11. After 2-3 hours, drain the whey into a separate container, it will come in handy on the farm.


12. Throw the cheese mass into a sieve or colander. When the remaining whey drains and the mass cools to room temperature, we will get soft homemade cheese.


It can be stored in the refrigerator, but not more than a week, since it is not recommended to store soft cheese for longer.
How to make hard cheese.
In order to make hard cheese from homemade soft cheese, you just need to press it.
13. Break the cheese mass into pieces with your hands and add salt to taste (I added 1.5 tablespoons).
We mix and put in a container form, previously lined with a dry, clean piece of cotton fabric, put a saucer-shaped piston on top.
In the process of making cheeses, he experimented with various forms. Here in the photo on the right is a vessel for spoons and forks, and on the left is a lid from a box for 100 CDs (as a result, I threw it away - cracked, thin - I used an enameled colander)




14. We put all this economy under pressure. We increase the load smoothly - up to 10 kg.


In a simplified version (a press of two pans), we put a container with cheese on the bottom of a large pan, put some kind of elevation in the form of a small bowl on the piston, and lower a small pan onto this elevation, filling this small pan with water for weight. So that the small container stands in the center of the large one and does not lean, we radially thrust three folded towels between the containers
15. After 5 hours, we take out the slightly pressed cheese:


16. Drain the serum, wipe it dry, change our piece of cotton fabric for a fresh one, only this time the load is more from above - 40-50 kg. The hardness and shelf life of the cheese depends on the mass of the load - the heavier the load, the less moisture the product will have and the longer the shelf life.
17. After 12 hours of standing under pressure, we take out




Here is the cheese from the last batch
This is already a cheese that is almost ready and can be tasted, but has not yet matured like a real cheese. To ripen, put the cheese on a wooden base or on a plate lined with a clean cotton cloth - and in the refrigerator for lack of a cellar. We are waiting for the formation of a crust and maturation of the cheese within one to two weeks. In order for this to happen evenly, the cheese will need to be turned over periodically.
Our cheese is ready! It is slightly swollen and rounded, this is due to holes inside the cheese (eyes), which are formed as a result of carbon dioxide pressure. Carbonic acid is released during the work of the irreplaceable little helpers of the cheese maker - lactic acid bacteria.
This cheese is a week old


This is 12 days

On the shelves of shops you can find various varieties and types of cheeses.

Most of them are brought from abroad - from Switzerland, Holland, France or Italy.

Although, due to the impact of sanctions, Russian cheeses are now not in the minority.

But the prices for good cheese are very "bite".

And who will guarantee that there are no preservatives, thickeners and flavors in store-bought cheeses?

People knew about cheeses several centuries ago, when it was not possible to mass-produce this product. Each family knew the recipe for making cheese, because making cheese with your own hands is not at all difficult. You can make cheese from store-bought pasteurized, cow, goat, and even soy milk. The essence of cooking is either boiling milk with coagulation enzymes, or melting dairy products. There are a lot of recipes for making homemade cheese. How to make cheese at home from milk - later in the article.

Cooking homemade cheese from milk: cooking features

No cheese recipe is complete without milk, so the choice of this ingredient should be approached thoroughly. If the recipe does not specify how fat the milk should be, then it is better to use homemade, farm milk. In the case when it is not possible to purchase farm milk, it can be replaced with store-bought milk with a maximum percentage of fat content and a minimum shelf life.

In addition to milk, many homemade cheeses also contain cottage cheese. And you need to be careful with this product - real cottage cheese is rarely found in grocery stores, mainly curd mass or a curd product is on sale. Curd mass does not make real cheese. Therefore, it is better to buy cottage cheese from farmers or make it yourself at home. Only in this case, you can be sure of the quality of the cheese produced.

Don't expect homemade cheese to be as firm as store-bought cheeses. Homemade cheeses are much more tender and softer. But if you wish, you can make the cheese harder, because the hardness of this product depends on the pressure of the press. Accordingly, if hard cheese is needed, then the press should be as heavy as possible.

When choosing low-fat foods, you need to be prepared for the fact that there will be a lot of whey and relatively little cheese. The higher the fat content of the cheese, the more oily and tender it is, which undoubtedly has a positive effect on the taste of the product.

As for hard cheeses, it is better that after cooking such cheese lies down for some time - “ripened”. The taste will become brighter and richer. However, it must be borne in mind that cheeses weighing from half a kilogram ripen well. Therefore, to make homemade hard cheese tastier, you should not spare the ingredients on it and it is better to wait a few days after its preparation.

As for the devices for making homemade cheeses, everything is not so scary. The cheese mold, in its absence, can be easily replaced with an ordinary colander, sieve or fine mesh that comes with the deep fryer. And as a press, you can use a jar filled with water.

Whey is released during the cheese making process. Many people just pour it out, but whey can be used in some dishes. Thin openwork pancakes are easily obtained from whey dough. Some people use this product when making okroshka.

How to make cheese at home from milk: preparing hard cheese

Hard cheeses are made by boiling dairy products with clotting enzymes. During the manufacturing process, whey is released, and the more it is separated, respectively, the harder the cheese will turn out. Hard cheese must be kept under pressure, then it will turn out more dense. Let us consider in detail the most popular recipes for making hard cheeses from milk at home:

1. Adyghe cheese

This recipe is the easiest to prepare, requires little financial investment. The output is the most delicate cheese without preservatives, flavor enhancers and flavorings.

Ingredients: Pasteurized milk (you can farm, the fatter the milk, the better) - 3 l, kefir (better farm or homemade) - 1 l, salt - 1.5-2 tsp. (maybe more, maybe less - you should focus only on your own taste)

Cooking process:

1) The specified amount of kefir must be poured into a deep saucepan and put on a slow fire. It is better if kefir is not fat-free, but as fat as possible. Boil kefir over low heat until the curd separates from the whey and floats.

2) The next step is to separate the curd from the whey. Serum cannot be poured out! It will come in handy later in the cooking process. It must be left at room temperature for souring for two days.

3) Pour the indicated amount of milk into a deep saucepan and bring it to a boil. Then you need to reduce the heat and pour in the very whey that sour for 2 days. Mix well and cook over low heat until the cheese rises.

4) Next, you need to strain the cheese, separate it from the liquid. Add salt to cheese, stir. After that, the resulting mass must be put in cheesecloth and hung over a container or over a sink. This must be done so that the remaining liquid is glass.

5) After 30 minutes, remove the cheese from the cheesecloth, put it in a clean bowl and place it under a press. The water that stands out from the cheese must be drained. Under pressure, the cheese should stay at least 3-4 hours in the refrigerator.

2. Hard homemade cheese without eggs

This cheese recipe, like the previous one, is ideal for vegetarians whose lifestyle requires the elimination of eggs and animal enzymes from the diet. This recipe, like the first one, is very simple.

Ingredients: Milk (similarly, as in the previous recipe, it is better to take fatter milk) - 1 l, butter - 100 g, cottage cheese (preferably farm or home-made) - 1 kg, salt - 1-2 tsp, baking soda - 0.5 tsp, turmeric - ¼ tsp, ground black pepper - ¼ tsp, asafoetida - 1 pinch (seasonings are indicated in the recommended amount, you can add, reduce the amount, focusing on your own taste sensations).

Cooking process:

1) Milk must be poured into a deep saucepan, put on high heat, bring to a boil. Add cottage cheese in the indicated amount to boiling milk, bring to a boil again. Immediately after boiling, the stove must be turned off.

2) The contents of the pan must be filtered through cheesecloth. The liquid that separates during filtering must be drained. Further, it is necessary to continue working with the mass that remained in the gauze. You can hang gauze for 10 minutes so that the liquid drains, or you can simply squeeze the workpiece in gauze well with your hands.

3) Butter must be melted in a frying pan. Then add the resulting curd mass to the pan, mix well, break up the lumps. It takes a couple of minutes to fry the mass. While stirring, add salt, soda and seasonings. The result should be a mass of viscous consistency.

4) Hot cheese must be transferred to a mold and cooled for several hours. It is better to use a silicone mold, since the cheese moves away from its walls better. After the cheese has cooled, you can eat it.

3. Mozzarella at home

If you need to learn how to make Mozzarella cheese at home from milk, you are in the right place. There are 2 options for making this cheese at home. One of them - using rennet (an enzyme of animal origin), and the second - from dairy products with vinegar. The most successful of these two options is undoubtedly the first. But vegetarians should not eat such cheese, as it contains abomasum. This recipe contains pepsin (an animal enzyme), you can buy it at a pharmacy.

Ingredients: Milk (necessarily fat, not less than 6%) - 2 l, water - 1.5 l, lemon juice and salt - 2 tbsp each. each, pepsin - ¼ tsp. or on the tip of a knife, but if it turned out a little more, you should not be afraid - this enzyme is safe for the human body.

Cooking process:

1) Add pepsin to half a glass of water (preferably warm or room temperature).

2) Pour milk into a deep saucepan, put on medium heat. You need to heat the milk to 70 degrees. Then diluted pepsin and lemon juice are added.

3) Further, the process is very fast - the whey will begin to separate immediately. You don't have to wait for the boil. Immediately after the complete separation of the serum, you need to carefully drain it (the serum will still come in handy). And the remaining hot mass must be squeezed out by hand.

4) Pour water into another pan, heat to 90 degrees. Immediately after heating, the pan must be removed from the stove, add salt to the water and mix. Then you need to put the cheese in water for 2 minutes to make it softer. Remove the cheese from the water, stretch, knead, while dipping the cheese into the water for a couple of minutes more. The cheese mass should be smooth and uniform.

5) The resulting mass must be laid out on a board, kneaded with your fingers, and then folded into an envelope and sent back to hot water.

6) Spread cling film on the table, put the cheese mass on it and roll up the “sausage”. Tightly wrap the resulting "sausage" with a film and pull it with a string in several places to make small balls.

7) After cooling, remove the cheese from the film and transfer it to a container with whey, which remained at the very beginning of cooking. It is necessary to store homemade Mozzarella in whey in the refrigerator.

How to make cheese at home from milk: preparing soft cheese

As a rule, soft cheese is easier to prepare than hard cheese. Consider a couple of delicious cheese recipes that can be easily prepared at home:

1. Philadelphia cheese

This cheese is not cheap in stores and is used quite widely. Many people are accustomed to seeing this delicate cheese as part of rolls, but it can also be used in the preparation of pastry creams.

Ingredients: Milk (necessarily fatty, otherwise the cheese will not turn out) - 1 l, kefir (low-fat, you can completely skim) - 0.5 l, chicken egg - 1 pc, salt and sugar - 1 tsp each. each, citric acid - 1 pinch or on the tip of a knife.

Cooking process:

1) Pour milk into a saucepan, put on fire. Stirring constantly, add sugar and salt, bring the milk to a boil.

2) Immediately after boiling, add cottage cheese to the milk, mix. You need to cook until the mass curdles. After that, strain the mass, put it in gauze and hang it in a container or over the sink for 10 minutes, so that the excess liquid is glass.

3) At this time, while the curd mass is draining, it is necessary to beat the egg and a small amount of citric acid. Then carefully add the mass of gauze and continue to beat. The cheese should be smooth and fluffy.

If desired, before putting the cheese in the refrigerator, you can add chopped greens to it. Such tender cheese must be stored in the refrigerator, but not more than one week.

2. Mascarpone at home

There are many variations of the preparation of this cheese, and all of them do not involve cooking. This is a "cold" cheese, the lightest of all homemade cheeses. Ideal for making cream cheese. There is no milk in the ingredients in this recipe, but it would be better if the cottage cheese, which is needed to make this cheese, is made from farm milk at home.

Ingredients: Cottage cheese (fat) - 200 g, cream (fat, 33%) - 200 ml.

Cooking process:

1) Granular cottage cheese for cheese does not resemble the consistency, and the curd mass loses in fat content and sometimes includes non-natural components in its composition. Therefore, the cottage cheese used must be rubbed through a sieve 2-3 times.

2) Then you need to add cold cream to the cottage cheese. With a mixer or blender, beat the cottage cheese with cream at low speed. The cheese will be ready as soon as the whipped mass becomes homogeneous. Keeps in the refrigerator for up to one and a half to two weeks.