Goat cheese dishes with it. Making delicious goat's milk cheese at home

Surely everyone knows that real natural cheeses are a valuable source of nutrients for our body. Today there are many types of cheese products at home, and a recipe for making goat cheese with your own hands will be an interesting novelty for cheese gourmets. With such recipe know-how, you can not only diversify your diet, but you will also be confident in the quality of this extraordinary product.

Goat cheeses: all the pros and cons

We all want to eat healthy and consume more healthy foods. This desire is especially strengthened in winter and spring, when our body gets tired of the gray, cold everyday life. And this is where homemade recipes come to our aid.

And for a woman it is absolutely important to know that the dish eaten will not only be healthy, but also dietary. A salad of goat cheese, made from milk at home, with the addition of fresh cucumbers, herbs, lemon juice and olive oil, is considered an excellent Greek version of the Aphrodite diet.

Cons

But when it comes to goat cheese, many immediately deny this product due to its specific taste and smell.

Probably few people know that these odors appear if the goat’s milk was collected incorrectly, without observing basic hygiene rules. A good quality cheese should not have this peculiar aroma at all.

The disadvantages of this product probably include the impressive cost of goat cheese. However, this is where the disadvantages end, but it has much more advantages.

Pros

First of all, goat's milk, and therefore cheese made from it, is suitable for people who are allergic to the protein in cow's milk - lactose. This means that for such people, goat cheese is a lifesaver to diversify their diet.

The content of useful vitamins, minerals and macroelements in this product is enormous.
This product also contains minimal amounts of saturated fat and virtually no cholesterol.
Homemade goat cheese has a relatively low calorie content - only 290 kcal - which also distinguishes it in a positive way from ordinary varieties of cheese.

In addition, goat cheese is easily digestible thanks to certain bacteria. In addition, it strengthens our immunity, and this, as you understand, has a very beneficial effect on the body as a whole.

Wide culinary potential of goat cheese

Making goat cheese is especially common in the French provinces, where almost any housewife can make it at home. This is truly a European delicacy.

Cheese can be added to soups or spread on a sandwich, bake pies or pizza with it, thanks to it all dishes acquire a refined touch.

And how many salads you can prepare! Here's an example: homemade cheese, a little herbs, a dressing of butter or honey and balsamic vinegar - and an extraordinary overseas salad is ready.

If you suddenly have a goat friend who is happy to share her milk, we suggest you make homemade goat cheese with your own hands, and our recipes will tell you how to make it at home.

Making goat's milk cheese at home

Producing such a product at home seems to be a troublesome and time-consuming task. Ideally, when making goat cheeses, rennet is added - this is an expensive natural organic substance produced by the stomach of a dairy goat.

The process of making cheese using rennet is certainly longer, but the cheese is smooth and tender. However, instead of rennet, it is quite possible to use other methods of fermentation.

Don’t rush to give up cooking this healthy delicacy. We suggest mastering a basic recipe for making goat cheese, which will require a minimum of additional ingredients, household utensils and a little of your time.

Ingredients

Goat milk - 2 l;
Fresh lemon – 1 pc.;
Salt - a pinch;
Your favorite spices – a pinch.

How to make goat cheese at home

Wash the lemon, cut it in half and squeeze all the juice into a small empty container.

Let's deal with milk - first it needs to be pasteurized.

To do this, pour the milk into a saucepan and put it on the stove.
Add salt.
Stirring constantly, bring the milk until bubbles form, but not to a boil.
If you have a special thermometer in your kitchen, great - we need to heat the milk to 87-90°C. Then immediately remove the pan from the stove.

Pour lemon juice into still hot milk and mix gently. After a few minutes, the milk will begin to decompose into two fractions - white curd and slightly yellowish whey. After 5-10 minutes, the curdling process should end.
Line a colander (or sieve) with several layers of gauze. Place it over a clean container.
Pour the contents of the pan into a colander and let the whey drain for 20-30 minutes.
Whey, by the way, is perfect, for example, for pancake dough, so you shouldn’t get rid of it.
We take out the gauze with the curd part, like a bag, and squeeze it out. Right now, while our cheese is in gauze, we can give it the necessary shape - we can put the cheese directly with gauze in a small cylindrical container under pressure for several hours. Or you can simply form a cylinder with your hands and not waste time on molding it.

Remove the cheesecloth, place the contents on a plate - delicious goat cheese is ready! From two liters of milk you get about 200-250 g of cheese.

Goat's curd cheese with holes

Ingredients

Goat milk - 1 liter
Goat milk curd— 300-400 g
— 1 pc.
- pinch
Soda - 1/3 tsp. no slide

Making goat cheese at home

If you manage to get both goat milk and cottage cheese, why not try making wonderful cheese from them, which is not difficult to prepare at home.

Our step-by-step recipe will tell you how to make it. You can rub the cottage cheese through a sieve, but if it is not very grainy, just mash it with a fork.

We prepare empty dishes for separating the curd part and whey.

Place a colander or sieve on the dish with a cloth inserted in it.
It is better to use fabric with a smoother texture rather than gauze, since the mass turns out sticky and is difficult to remove from gauze.

It’s even better if you have a special Mylar bag designed just for such purposes.

Place the milk in a saucepan on the stove and heat over medium heat until bubbles begin to form. At this moment, add cottage cheese to the pan, constantly stirring the entire substance.
After a few minutes, the mixture in the pan should separate into two fractions: a curd-like white sediment, and a slightly yellow whey. When the whey becomes almost transparent, remove the pan from the stove.
Immediately pour the contents of the pan into the prepared colander. As soon as all the whey has drained, carefully place the still hot curd residue into a free container, beat in the egg, add salt, add soda and stir thoroughly.
We put the resulting cheese back into the filter cloth, roll it up and place it in a colander over the pan, and put pressure on top of the cheese.

To shape our cheese, you can use the following tip instead of colanders and pans.

We take two identical plastic containers. As an example - 1 liter buckets of store-bought sauerkraut or sour cream or mayonnaise. We make several holes in one of the buckets through which the whey remaining in the cheese will drain. We put cheese in it, cover it with a cloth on top and put pressure on it. We insert the leaky bucket into the whole one.

In a day our molded cheese is ready. It is not only very tasty and tender. Its peculiarity is the holes formed by adding soda during cooking.

Depending on the time, desire and goat milk you have, you can now use one or another recipe so that the goat cheese is prepared in your own, and not some French kitchen, and delights you and your family with its unique taste.

Today you can buy goat milk cheese in almost any store. But any housewife knows that the most delicious and healthy product will be the one prepared independently: from natural products and with special additional ingredients - love and care for your family.

The secret of popularity

It is impossible to overestimate the benefits of homemade goat's milk cheese. It is digestible much better than cheese made from cow's milk, and contains a huge number of beneficial bacteria that ensure the normal functioning of the digestive system. In addition, the substances contained in this product help to establish metabolic processes in the body and restore the functions of the gastrointestinal tract. Plus, goat cheese is a hypoallergenic product, and therefore is considered indispensable in the menu of people with allergies to cow's milk.

Goat milk cheese has a very delicate texture and special aroma. It contains a small amount of sugar and at the same time it is a rich source of nutrients. It is characterized by high nutritional value, but does not complicate the digestion process.

If we talk about the name of goat milk cheese, then depending on its composition and the country of origin, it will have different names. For example, in France alone there are several varieties and names, including Banon, Valence, Care de chevre, Palardon, Picardon, Rocamadour, Chavroux, etc. Spain also makes its own goat cheese: Pastor and Manchego. In our country this product is usually called feta cheese.

Note! In the original, feta cheese is cheese made from sheep or a mixture of sheep and goat milk, soaked in brine!

Cooking recipes

In order to make cheese from goat milk at home, it is enough to have one starting product - milk and several additional ingredients, such as vinegar, salt, eggs, spices, etc. The full composition of the components will depend on what kind of cheese you end up with. would you like to receive.

Plain goat cheese

In order to prepare such cheese, you will need two liters of goat milk, 60 ml of vinegar and salt - 30-50 g, the amount will depend on what kind of cheese you prefer - less or more salty.

Let's get started:

pour the milk into the pan and bring to a boil over medium heat and stirring constantly;
carefully add vinegar in a thin stream, do not forget to stir the contents all the time;
As soon as the milk curdles well and forms a dense clot, remove it from the stove;
line a colander with gauze and place the resulting curd clot on it, tie it into a bag and hang it over the sink;
after a couple of hours, when the excess liquid has gone, transfer the cottage cheese to a bowl and add salt to taste;
mix everything, knead thoroughly and shape into a flat cake;
Note! The compressed cake should be thick!
We take a cast iron frying pan, put our future cheese on it and put it on the fire - the pressed cake should melt;
Place the finished cheese in a cool place and leave until completely hardened.

Spicy cheese

The following recipe will tell you how to make spicy goat's milk cheese. To prepare it you will need 12 liters of milk, 4 tablespoons of vinegar, 50-60 g of salt and cumin to taste.

Let's get started:

pour the specified amount of milk into a pan of suitable volume and bring it to a boil, after which we immediately reduce the gas supply and add vinegar;
with constant stirring, monitor the curdling process, and as soon as the mass has curled into a dense clot, transfer the pan from the stove to the table;
we take out the formed clot and transfer it to cheesecloth, roll it into a bag and hang it over the sink or over a large bowl;
leave for several hours to remove excess whey;
as soon as the liquid leaves the curd mass, take it out of the cheesecloth, add salt, add a few cumin seeds and knead it thoroughly with your hands;
We form a cake from the cottage cheese and place it on a cast-iron frying pan; under the influence of temperature, the mass will first melt and then thicken - now the cheese can be transferred to a dish and given the desired shape.

The most delicate cheese

To prepare tender cheese, you will need a couple of liters of goat milk, two tablespoons of sour cream and cottage cheese, 15 ml of vinegar and about a teaspoon of salt.
Let's get started:

pour the milk into a saucepan and heat it to a temperature of 45 °C;
dilute cottage cheese in a small amount of milk and add to the pan, add salt and bring everything to a boil;
as soon as the mixture begins to boil, add sour cream and continue to cook while constantly stirring;
after about a quarter of an hour, the contents of the pan should begin to curl, turning into a clot, but if this does not happen, pour in the specified amount of vinegar;
Next, we transfer the curdled milk into gauze, cover it with a cotton napkin on top, place the weight and leave for a couple of hours, then place the cheese in brine (3 tablespoons of salt per liter of water) and leave for another 3 hours in the refrigerator.

Calorie cheese

Making high-calorie cheese from goat's milk is as simple as its previous version. Only in this recipe we will not use vinegar. So, you will need 2 liters of milk, a tablespoon of salt, 6 fresh chicken eggs and 400 ml of sour cream.

Let's get started:

pour the milk into a saucepan, add salt;
Note! If you do not want the cheese to have a pronounced salty taste, then the amount of salt can be halved!
beat the eggs, mix thoroughly with sour cream and add to the milk;
over medium heat and with constant stirring (you should especially carefully walk along the bottom of the pan so that the mixture does not burn) bring everything to a boil;
slightly reduce the gas supply and wait until the milk begins to curdle - usually this takes no more than five minutes;
as soon as the curd becomes dense enough, transfer it to gauze in a colander and give time for all the whey to drain;
we collect the edges of the gauze, tie them, put a cutting board on top, then a weight and another board, leave everything for 5 hours;
after the specified time, remove the load, take the cheese out of the colander, unwrap the cheesecloth and transfer the cheese to the brine (3 tablespoons of salt per liter of water), transfer it to the refrigerator and leave it there for another 3 hours.

What should you keep in mind?

As you can see, recipes for goat’s milk cheese differ slightly from each other in their starting products, but the set of ingredients in each of them will not be final. According to your own taste, you can add spices, adjust the amount of salt, or even replace it with sugar - children especially love to eat this sweet goat cheese.

However, there are certain points that should not be ignored:

In our country, you will never be able to prepare goat cheese that tastes similar to a French or Spanish product, even if you have an original recipe for a certain brand of cheese. This is due to many reasons: the habitat of goats, which provide the main ingredient for this product - milk, respectively, certain differences in the food they consume, their breed, age, living conditions, etc. But do not be upset, since with a high degree of probability it is domestic cheese made from fresh milk from local goats can turn out just as good, and perhaps even better, than European goat cheese made to all standards.
Do not forget that the cheese will turn out tasty only if the milk is fresh and of high quality. For this reason, its selection should be approached with special care. Its smell is of great importance - it is often specific and even unpleasant, which is associated with non-compliance with the rules for keeping goats. Moreover, this smell does not disappear even after pasteurization, and if you use such a starting product, you risk getting tasteless cheese.
As for pasteurized milk, which is sold in retail chains, it has a certain advantage - a guaranteed absence of foreign odors. But at the same time, the aroma of such milk may turn out to be too neutral, which will ultimately affect the smell of the finished cheese - it will be devoid of a specific taste, which is desirable for some varieties. Plus, pasteurization can affect some technological processes, which will require adding additional ingredients to the recipe.

The rest of the cooking process will depend solely on the recipe itself. If the result should be fermented milk cheese - feta cheese, then all operations usually end with curdling. And after the whey is separated, the product “rests” - ripens without any intervention on your part. Bryndza should only be stored in the refrigerator, preferably in airtight packaging. Otherwise, it will immediately absorb the aromas of all its “neighbors”. Its shelf life is 2 weeks.

Even an inexperienced housewife can please her household with goat cheese prepared at home. To do this, you need goat milk, enzymes, salt, as well as knowledge and features of simple technology for home cheese making.

Goat cheese

At home, it is better to make soft goat cheese; it is called milk cheese or feta cheese. Hard cheeses require certain skills and special equipment. Soft goat cheese is stored in the refrigerator for about 10 days in the whey obtained during the production process or in a cotton towel. Goat cheese is combined with vegetables and herbs. It is served with white and red wine with grapes, honey, various fruits and berries.

Ingredients for making goat cheese

The main ingredient for goat cheese is fresh milk; acidified milk will not produce high-quality cheese. It is better to buy milk at the market or at a farm where goats are raised. On average, from 8 liters of goat milk we get 1 kg of soft cheese.

The second ingredient for producing goat milk is an enzyme that separates the whey from the cheese grain.

rennet, obtained from the gastric juice of ruminant animals, it can be bought at the market from peasants or on farms
an alternative may be pepsin, which is sold in pharmacies

For vegetarians, the following is used to curdle milk:

calcium chloride (buy at the pharmacy)
citric, acetic acid, lemon, kiwi
bacterial starter "Meito" obtained from edible mushroom

Homemade goat cheese - recipe

Heat 10 liters of milk to 35°C, it’s good if you have a special thermometer to control the temperature

add rennet 3 ml per 10 liters of milk
it must be diluted in 50 ml of warm water and poured into milk

leave the milk for 30 minutes to ferment,
the process is completed if the resulting jelly-like white clot easily comes off the walls of the dish
Use a knife to chop the curd into thin strips: in one direction, then across, and finally cut horizontally (the finer we chop, the denser the cheese will be)

put the milk on the fire, heat it slightly, stir
the whey flakes off, cheese grains form; they must be removed from the pan with a slotted spoon
prepare a sieve in advance, cover it with gauze folded in two layers, you can use special molds
carefully transfer the mixture onto gauze or into molds, wait until the water drains

Cover the top of the protein mass with gauze; if you need the whey to drain quickly, use a small weight
after 2 hours, shake the cheese out of the mold, salt it well with iodized salt, transfer it to a towel, and put it in the refrigerator

If you want to diversify the taste of goat cheese, add piquancy and originality to a healthy protein product, add (at the fermentation stage) herbs, seeds of aromatic herbs, bitter or sweet bell pepper. Using our recipe, you will prepare delicious goat cheese. The entire cheese making process will take you no more than 3 hours.