How pigtail cheese is made. Chechil homemade cheese

Its real name is chechil. Recently, this product has gained popularity among buyers in our country. This cheese is made from small fibers. At the same time, it tastes almost like suluguni. Most often, a similar product is made by hand. Pigtail cheese stands out among other varieties for its extraordinary shape, which is presented in the form of threads, neatly formed into a pigtail. On the shelves of grocery stores, you can find a product of any length and thickness.

How to make pigtail cheese

Usually, only fresh milk from a goat, sheep or cow is used to make Chechil cheese. In this case, the fermentation of the product is carried out in a natural way. Initially, milk is heated and then mixed with rennet and special sourdough. Curdling the cheese is very fast. In time, this process takes only 10 minutes. After that, the product is heated again. In this case, flakes should form. They form strips, the length of which is about 8 centimeters. After that, the product is taken out and cut into ribbons. Later on, the Cheese is put into a vat, where it gradually ripens. The finished chechil is sent to the chambers for further smoking. The fat content of the cheese is 5-10%. Now you know how to make pigtail cheese. Manufacturing technology is quite simple. This allows you to cook the product at home.

Where can you use this cheese

Homemade pigtail cheese is an independent tasty snack that goes well with beer. Separate strips of the product are often used to decorate ready-made meals, for example, to decorate sandwiches and salads. Also, the strips of cheese allow you to neatly tie the pancake bags and rolls.

Classic recipe

If you are in doubt about the quality of a purchased product, you can make it yourself. How is Pigtail cheese made at home? The recipe for this appetizer is not so simple. But the end result is a product that has an extraordinary taste. For cooking, you will need not only milk, but also pepsin. Plus, it takes a long time to cook. Required Ingredients:

Milk. To make a kilogram of cheese, you need 9 liters of fresh product.
Pepsin.
Whey or sour milk.

Manufacturing process

Pigtail cheese is prepared only from homemade products. To begin with, you should leave the milk to sour. This should happen naturally. If you want to speed up the process, you can add a little sour milk or whey.

Pour the sour product into a large container and place on low heat. You need to cook the product until the curd mass begins to form. After that, you need to add pepsin. In this case, certain proportions must be observed. Only one gram of pepsin is required per 300 grams of liquid.

The resulting mixture must be heated to 50 ° C. The flakes should begin to form into a denser mass. At this stage, knead the product with a spoon, preferably a wooden one. Gradually, the cheese mass must be formed into a tape, which should be transferred to the work surface with the flat side. Cut the product into thin strips. The thickness of the workpiece should not be more than five millimeters. After that, you can make a pigtail from the strips. Of course, the preparation does not end there. Cooked "pigtail" cheese at home must be sent for ripening. To do this, first put the product in cold water, and then - a solution with salt. If you need smoked cheese, then after ripening it should be placed in a smokehouse.

Second cooking method

Pigtail cheese is made without the rind. It ripens in a salt solution. This is a fairly ancient method that is widespread in the East.

For cooking you will need:

Milk.
Leaven.
Salt.

In this case, the milk must be heated to 35 ° C and the sourdough added. The same pepsin can be used as this component. All products should be thoroughly mixed, placed in a warm place for one hour to curdle the product. As a result, the mass should become lumps. The colander should be covered with gauze. Here you need to lay out the resulting mass. This will remove excess fluid.

Now the cheese needs to be checked. For this, the product should be placed in hot water. If the cheese does not tear and stretches easily, then you did everything right. If the product breaks, then it must be left to stand for a while.

The finished cheese must be cut into pieces and poured with cold water for 20 minutes. After that, the product should be transferred to a bowl, preferably aluminum. The cheese should be poured with water heated to 65 ° C. In this case, the mixture must be stirred so that the product becomes homogeneous and more elastic.

The hot cheese should be placed in a funnel previously suspended over a saucepan with salt solution. Under its own weight, the cheese will gradually flow downward, while forming threads. In such a bath, the product must be left for six hours. After that, you need to form a pigtail and place it in the refrigerator. The product is ready. Pigtail cheese is a wonderful dish that can even be served on a festive table.

Chechil cheese recipe

To prepare this product at home, you need:

Salt to taste.
A rennet such as rennin is one gram.
Milk - 4 liters.
Water - as needed.

How to make

Pigtail cheese is made entirely by hand. The unusual form of this product allows you to preserve all its nutritional and beneficial properties. For preparation, milk should be poured into a fireproof container and placed on fire. The liquid must be heated to 38 ° C. The rennet should be added to the milk and mixed well. The container should then be removed from the fire. The composition should stand for 40 minutes. After that, the thickened mass should be divided into pieces with a knife. It should stand for another half hour. This will allow the serum to separate completely.

The sieve must be covered with gauze, and then put the cheese in it. Leave the product in this form for another hour to drain the remaining whey. After that, the cheese must be placed in hot water and carefully pulled into threads. Work with gloves.

Cheese threads should be placed in a 20% salt solution, preferably for a day. Only after that you need to form pigtails from the product or roll it up into a lump. That's all. Pigtail cheese can be consumed neat or slightly smoked. Then the taste of the product is more delicate and original.

How to smoke properly

It is best to smoke the product in a home smokehouse. Then the whole process takes a minimum of time, and the quality of the cheese is not suspicious. Of course, to create a product that is unique in taste, you should know some rules and nuances. So how to smoke suluguni cheese? "Pigtail" after such processing turns out to be even more tasty.

Before placing the cheese in the smokehouse, wrap it in a cloth or parchment. Then the product must be placed in a bag made of a sufficiently dense material.

It is best to smoke the cheese in a suspended state for a few minutes. It is very important here not to overexpose it. Otherwise, the taste of the cheese will only deteriorate, making it simply impossible to eat it.

The traditional product of our tables is cheese. This product, very valuable in its nutritional and taste qualities, can also be prepared at home. It turns out to be more useful, and there is no need to talk about cost at all. Depending on the type of cheese, cooking requires a minimum set of ingredients that can be found in any kitchen. How to make cheese? It all depends on whether it is soft, hard, boiled, melted, smoked, etc. All this can be prepared at home without much difficulty.

Some subtleties

Before making cheese, you need to consider some of the subtleties of this process. Firstly, only high-quality products are taken for cooking. Better if it is farm cottage cheese or milk. Store-bought products are not suitable for making cheese at home. The fatter you take milk or cottage cheese, the more nutritious the cheese will be in the end result. The product is tender and oily. To ripen the cheese, its weight must be at least 0.5 kilograms. Why is homemade cheese softer?

Second, the bottom line depends on the press. When we make cheese at home, we cannot provide sufficient compression. A rich taste is obtained as a result of long aging of hard cheeses. You can use a colander instead of a special form. Whey remains from the production of cheese, which is used to make dough or okroshka. Home-made product does not store for a long time, a maximum of a week in the refrigerator. It is better to store it in a cotton towel or paper, but not in a plastic bag.

Simple curd cheese

This cheese recipe is the easiest and fastest. For cooking, you will need 1.5 liters of milk, a little salt (to taste) and 500 milliliters of kefir. We heat the milk, but do not boil it. Then add kefir and salt to it. Stir the resulting mass and heat it again. Then we filter everything through cheesecloth, which must be folded several times. What remains is the cottage cheese, which must be transferred to the mold, and the load must be placed on top. The density of the cheese depends on the aging time. In a few hours, when the mass is well compressed, the product will be ready for use. If desired, you can add any herbs or peppers to the cheese.

Mozzarella

Even this cheese can be made with your own hands. Take 2 liters of high fat milk, two tablespoons of lemon juice, 2 liters of water, two tablespoons of salt, and a quarter of a small spoonful of pepsin. Pour half a glass of water and dilute the pepsin in it. Milk must be heated to about 70 degrees. Then pour lemon juice and pepsin into it. At this point, the serum will immediately begin to separate. We are waiting for it to completely exfoliate, but we do not bring the mixture to a boil. We drain the whey, but do not throw it away. We heat the water to 90 degrees, but do not boil it either.

Add salt to it and lower the cheese mass for three minutes. Then we take it out, put it on the board and begin to knead it with our hands. The mixture will be very hot, so it is best to wear gloves. Then we carry out the procedure with lowering again. Thus, a soft and viscous cheese is obtained. We wrap it in a shaping sausage. We store cheese in brine, in a container. The recipe for making cheese is simple, it requires very little cost.

Dutch cheese

At home you can make cheese that tastes like Dutch cheese. This recipe is for those who want to know how to make cheese from cottage cheese. It will take three liters of milk, two kilograms of cottage cheese, 100 grams of butter, one chicken egg, half a teaspoon of soda and salt to taste. Bring the milk to a boil and place the cottage cheese in it. Stir the mass and reduce the heat a little.

Tomim, stirring constantly, until a plastic mass forms and the whey separates. Then we put the cheese in a colander, cover with a towel and leave the liquid to glass. Separately melt the butter and put the cheese mass, salt, soda and egg in it. Mix everything thoroughly without turning off the fire. The mass should reach the consistency of a cream and turn yellow. Turn off the heat and transfer the cheese to the mold. We put the load on top and put it in the refrigerator.

Processed cheese

How to make cheese so that it tastes like a processed product? At home, you can prepare it quickly and without problems. The cheese recipe includes the following ingredients: one kilogram of cottage cheese, 100 grams of butter, one egg, one teaspoon of salt and soda each, two cloves of garlic and any greens to taste. Curd should contain a minimum amount of water. To do this, you need to place it under the press and leave it overnight. The more butter in the cheese, the softer it will be.

Store cottage cheese is better to pass through a meat grinder, and homemade curd can be used immediately. First, beat a little Cheese and chop the herbs as small as possible. Put the cottage cheese in a saucepan or any saucepan with a thick bottom and add oil, salt and soda to it. Cook the mass until a homogeneous and plastic consistency. Do not forget to stir constantly so that the cheese does not burn. After 10 minutes, remove the mixture from heat and add the garlic, herbs and egg. Mix and transfer it to the mold. We put the cheese in the refrigerator to freeze. Here's how to make cheese at home.

Adyghe cheese

This product tastes great and is used in many dishes. Consider one of several cooking options Take four liters of milk (only natural and fresh), 500 milliliters of Activia yogurt (room temperature) and salt if desired. We put the pan on the fire and pour the milk into it. We heat it strongly, but do not boil it. Now we begin to slowly pour in the yogurt. In this case, the mass must be constantly stirred. Flakes will gradually form and the whey will separate. When the whey becomes transparent, you must immediately remove the container from the heat, otherwise the cheese will turn out too dense.

Cover the colander with gauze and put the cheese mass in it. The serum should drain as much as possible. We form cheese of the desired shape from the mass and store it in a small amount of liquid. How to make cheese from milk? This is one of the easiest recipes. This product is eaten in its natural form. You can also cut it into pieces, roll it in spices, and fry it on each side. You will get baked cheese. The recipe can be supplemented at your discretion.

Boiled cheese

This unusual dish came to us from Latvia. Boiled cheese is a delicious appetizer and a great addition to main courses. For cooking, you will need 250 grams of cottage cheese, 20 grams of butter, 60 grams of sour cream, one egg, cumin and salt to taste. Put the curd in a bowl and cover with a lid. So it should stand for about 3-4 days. During this time, mold will appear on the curd, which will give it an extraordinary taste. Now you need to pass it through a meat grinder and add sour cream, salt and cumin to it.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and put the curd mass in it. Mix everything well and gradually heat it up. Then add one egg and mix everything again. We continue to heat the cheese, stirring constantly. You should get a homogeneous mass. Grease the form with butter and put the cheese in it. We put it in the refrigerator overnight and then eat it.

Homemade cheese

This cheese requires only two ingredients to make. This is milk (3 liters) and pepsin (1 gram). Cheese is referred to as products of Caucasian cuisine. However, this type of cheese has become a part of our diet. It is prepared from sheep's or goat's milk, but you can also use cow's milk. The main thing is that it is of good quality, fresh and fat. It is better not to take a store product. We put the container with milk on the fire and heat it up. Then add pepsin. It can be purchased at the pharmacy. Pepsin is a white powder. Set the pot aside for 30 minutes or an hour. The milk should acquire the consistency of an acidic product. Then we return the pan to the fire and heat it well, but do not boil it. As a result of this, the mass will separate, which must be collected and salted. We form the cheese using a mold, cool it and eat it.

Ossetian cheese

How to cook the famous Cooking recipe is simple. To do this, you need to take four liters of good milk, 500 grams of kefir with a fat content of 2.5 percent and 10 tablets of "Acidin-Pepsin", which are sold in the pharmacy. Pour milk into a saucepan and heat it a little (30 degrees). Then pour in kefir, which should be at room temperature. Mix everything and leave for 10 minutes. Dissolve the tablets in 100 ml of water and pour them into a saucepan. Stir the mixture and leave for an hour to make the sourdough.

It will be ready when a greenish liquid (serum) is separated by pressing with a spoon on the mixture. Without stirring, cut the contents of the pan into squares with a wooden spatula. We leave the cheese for another 20 minutes. Then we take out the mass and transfer it to a mold with holes so that the liquid is glass. Cover the cheese mass with a plate and place the load. The cheese will be ready in a day. How to make cheese to make it salty? You can just add salt or seasonings during cooking.

Chechil cheese - pigtail

Many people think that cooking is almost impossible. However, it is not. Chechil is an Armenian cheese that is prepared only by hand at home. It is based on cow's milk, which can be mixed with goat or sheep's milk. Further, it should turn sour. To speed up this process, you can add a little sour milk or whey. Then the milk is heated and pepsin is added at a temperature of 40 degrees (1 gram per 300 milliliters). Then the mass is heated to 50 degrees, at this moment pieces of cottage cheese begin to form. The flakes are gradually crushed to form a cheese ribbon. It is taken out and laid in length. Then this mass is cut into thin threads and braids are woven from them. After that, they are placed in a very salty solution (20 percent). Finished pigtails can be smoked a little. The technology for making cheese at home differs from the factory one, but such a product will be much tastier. This is how the pigtail is made - the cheese is popular and beloved by many.

Afterword

It is not difficult to buy cheese in the store, but if you cook it yourself, you will get a more nutritious product. For this, use only the best products, fresh and fatty. Homemade cheese should be very soft and tasty. Additional ingredients will help transform the taste of the product and make it richer and more aromatic. It doesn't need many ingredients to cook. Everything you need can be easily purchased from farmers' markets and shops. The main thing is that the cooking technology is followed. This guarantees the quality and great taste of homemade cheese.

Step-by-step recipe for Pigtail cheese at home with photo.
National cuisine: Armenian cuisine
Type of dish: Snacks
Complexity of the recipe: A very simple recipe

Prep time: 19 minutes
Cooking time: 8 h
Servings: 7 servings
Calorie count: 106 kcal

The very popular Pigtail cheese can be made at home! Of course, you will have to work hard, spending your time, in the end you will get an excellent snack for beer or just for a festive table.
Let's make Pigtail cheese at home. To make the cheese, you only need three ingredients: milk, sourdough and salt. Milk is mixed with sourdough and infused to the required consistency. Next, the cheese is alternately poured with cold and hot water, while becoming soft and elastic. At the end, cheese threads are formed, which must be salted and braided into a pigtail. Good luck!
Servings: 7-8
7 servings ingredients
Milk - To taste
Salt - To taste
Sourdough Pepsin - To taste

Step by step
Warm the milk to 35 degrees, add the leaven, mix and put it in a warm place for 1 hour (for folding). The mass will turn into lumps that need to be thrown into a colander covered with gauze (so that the liquid is glass).
We check the cheese by dipping it into hot water. If it stretches easily and does not tear, then everything is going according to plan. If it breaks, we leave the cheese for a while. Cut the cheese into pieces and fill it with cold water for 20 minutes. Then put the cheese in an aluminum bowl and fill it with hot water (65 degrees). Stir until cheese is elastic and smooth.
Transfer the hot cheese to a funnel suspended over a saucepan with brine (water + salt). The weight of the cheese flows down, forming thin threads. We leave it in the salt bath for 5-6 hours. Then we braid it and store it in the refrigerator. Bon Appetit!

At present, all over the world there is a growing interest in food products produced on the basis of natural raw materials in small enterprises. Pigtail cheese - Chechil is a national Armenian cheese that fully meets these criteria. It is produced mainly at home and only by hand. In addition, this cheese should be of interest to people who are advocates of a healthy diet, this cheese can be safely eaten during a diet.
Pigtail cheese, made from natural products, during the production process of which no chemical components are added, and in addition, due to a unique technology, it preserves the maximum of useful substances inherent in the original raw materials, including nutritious juices and trace elements. It differs from other cheeses in its structure in the form of braided threads. According to the shape of this braid, it is called Chechil - it is braided into braids. Without going into details, many call it that - a pigtail.

Video of the correct production of pigtail cheese (chechil):

The initial product for this cheese can be cow's milk, or a mixture of cow, goat, sheep. First you need to let the milk turn sour, you can add a little sour milk to the dishes with milk to speed up the process. Then, the sour milk is heated, when curdling begins, this is about 40 degrees, pepsin is added (1 g per 200-300 ml of milk). After a while, the formed pieces of cottage cheese begin to stick together, the temperature is raised to 50 degrees. The resulting substance is gently crushed, forming a ribbon, gradually removed and laid out in length, cut into thin threads, braided, washed with cold water and placed in brine (15-20%).

Normalized milk with a temperature of 65 degrees enters the cheese maker (1), here the formation, cutting, drying of grain takes place, the resulting mixture is transported through the drainage drum (2), the whey is separated. Within 15 minutes, a layer is formed from the cheese dough lying on the press carriage (3), and after that, within an hour, the cheese mass gains acidity. The manually cut layer enters the plasticization module (4), where the cheese threads are formed. Well, our cheese is almost ready, it can be packed and sent to the storage room.

The above-described production scheme allows you to produce up to 4 tons of product per day.
Such a scheme of the production process allows you to constantly update the product range due to the readjustment of technological parameters and the flexibility of the production process.

The original appearance of the pigtail cheese is achieved by hand-binding it. Chechil cheese, by definition, cannot be just a piece of cheese, pigtails are woven at the very beginning of the manufacturing process and, in addition to its unusual appearance, help it better than other cheeses to preserve the beneficial properties of the raw material due to the so-called bundles. If chechil is cooked correctly, it does not differ in any special smell that strongly distinguishes it from other cheeses, on the contrary, it has a special taste, quite spicy, spicy-salty, with a pleasant salty aftertaste. The color of the cheese should not be very bright; when buying it, it is better to give preference to cheese from whitish to slightly yellow.

Composition of smoked pigtail cheese.

The composition of the cheese is not complicated. It is based only on natural products: fresh cow, goat and sheep milk, souring occurs naturally with the addition of pepsin or rennet, which is part of the smoked pigtail cheese.
When heated, the milk curls up very quickly, in about 10 minutes, after which it heats up again, flakes are formed, which stick together during further heating. Stripes are formed from this mass, which are subsequently cut and braided into pigtails.
To get smoked cheese, the pigtails are sent to the smoking chambers after ripening. That's all. A tasty, aromatic and most importantly healthy, natural product is ready.

Video - Family Business Cheese Production:

Smoked pigtail cheese (also called chechil cheese) is a traditional Armenian dish. Outwardly, it is cheese of a fibrous consistency (like) braided into a thick pigtail. The product is made mainly by hand. On our counters, too, we often find such an exquisite and unique product in taste and shape. The shape of the pigtail is a feature of this product.

It is because of the shape that it is considered special. The pigtail is woven in the first stages of production, and as a result, it simply cannot look different. Also, the form is an indicator of the quality of the product itself, the duration of its storage depends on the number of bunches in the cheese, as well as the safety of useful and nutritious ones.

It is worth noting that the pigtail cheese prepared according to the correct technology has the same aroma as an ordinary fermented milk product, but with respect to the taste, everything is not so standard. The product has a piquant taste: a pronounced characteristic salty aftertaste and a spicy-salty taste. The product has either white or slightly yellowish color - this is an indicator of naturalness. Cheese with brighter flavors is an indicator of the use of dyes and liquid smoke.

Chemical composition of smoked pigtail cheese

The composition of the product cannot be called complex, since it is based on sheep, goat or cow milk. put to sour in a natural order: it is slightly warmed up, after which a previously sour product (, etc.) is added to it. In order to improve the quality of coagulation, rennet or pepsin (one of the essential components of pigtail cheese) is used.

Within ten minutes, the curd granules will already be visible. They are again put on fire and heated until longitudinal fibers begin to appear. The strips are pulled out, collected in bunches and braided. The finished cheese braids are placed in a vat with brine and the product is kept until fully ripe. After ripening, it is placed in smoking chambers.

Product benefits

The product is especially relevant for people with a deficiency and in the body. These two elements are responsible for the health of bone tissue, nails, hair. It is worth noting that the product has high nutritional values, and is recommended for people with low body weight, because the cheese is high in calories (approximately 320 kilocalories per hundred grams of the product).

Harm Chechil

The product may not be beneficial, but harmful if chemical additives, preservatives and dyes were used for its preparation, as well as when liquid smoke was used instead of the natural smoking procedure. This additive and other chemicals adversely affect the human body as a whole.

Calorie content and BZHU

The product has a high level of calories and is also rich in proteins and fats.

Percentage ratio: 24/73/3.

Selection and storage rules

When choosing a chechil, the first thing to pay attention to is the color. It is not recommended to buy options with a bright color, since chemical additives and dyes were most likely used to prepare this product. The second thing to focus on is the composition of the product. Chechil cheese should contain as few components as possible (this is an indicator of naturalness).

Chechil, under the right storage conditions, is usable for seventy-five days. Smoked cheese is stored in a cool (from 0 to +4 heat) dark place with high humidity up to 87%. In the refrigerator, it is best to place it on the lower shelf, where it is cooler.

Cooking applications

The product can be consumed:

as a stand-alone snack;
as a decoration for sandwiches, snacks and salads;
as a filling for baked goods;
in salads;
in cream soups (in crushed form).

Cooking chechil at home

In order to be as confident as possible in the quality of the product, it can be prepared at home. Yes, the cooking procedure is not easy, but it's worth it.

Production technology: you need to take fresh milk and put it to sour in a warm place. In order for the process to occur somewhat faster, an already sour milk product can be added to the milk.

How is cheese made at home? Sour milk is put on fire, slightly warmed up, and pre-prepared rennet is added to it. Heat the milk until it reaches fifty degrees. Using a wooden spatula, crush the cheese mass to form seven centimeters long flakes. Next, you need to distribute the cheese on the table in an even layer (a monotonous solid strip should form) and cut the tape into strips of equal width (maximum five millimeters in width). Now the ribbons need to be woven into one pigtail. The finished braid must be sent first to the cold one, and then to the brine. If you want to get a smoked product, you need to put the chechil in the smokehouse. In order to get a kilogram of chechil at the exit, you need to take nine liters of milk.

If you don't know what to cook with smoked pigtail cheese, we offer a simple recipe for an incredibly tasty and healthy holiday salad ..

Step-by-step recipe: prepare all the necessary components, wash and clean them thoroughly. Chop onions, fillets, carrots and mushrooms into small pieces. Untie the cheese, peel the walnuts.

Fry the onions, chicken fillets, mushrooms and carrots separately. Use a small amount of vegetable oil for frying. Place the nuts in a blender and grind them as finely as possible. Put all the separately prepared ingredients in a deep plate, add mayonnaise and mix thoroughly, add spices to taste. For the presentation of the salad, you need to take a flat plate with a large diagonal. First put the lettuce leaves on a plate, then put the finished salad in the form of a ring, and sprinkle with cheese generously disassembled into strips (it should look like a nest). Put quail eggs (without peel) on top, spread the cut chicken eggs in halves around the greens. Decorate chicken eggs in the form of chickens and chickens (eyes, and carrots beaks). Bon Appetit.