How to cook cheese at home - TOP-8 recipes with photos from the magazine website

Cheese is a unique dairy product. It is rich in vitamins - A, B1, B2, B12, C, D, E, PP, and the ratio of phosphorus and calcium in it is perfectly balanced. It is also very valuable that the nutrients contained in cheese are absorbed by the human body by 98-99%.

People have been making cheese since time immemorial. It was invented, most likely by accident, in the 8th millennium BC, during the period when sheep began to be domesticated: milk, when stored in the stomachs of these animals, turned into curd and whey thanks to rennet.

Today, store shelves abound with different types of cheeses. Soft and hard, creamy and melted, smoked and moldy... However, many cheeses contain flavors, thickeners, preservatives, and therefore resemble a natural product very remotely.

Fortunately, there is a way out of this situation: you can learn how to cook cheese at home, tasty and healthy, without production additives harmful to health. We invite you to try your hand at making homemade cheese. We will reveal to you a few secrets on how to make it delicious and share the most delicious homemade cheese recipes.

How to make homemade cheese

Recipe 1.

You will need: 1 kg of cottage cheese, 1 egg or 2 yolks, 1 liter of milk, 120 g of butter, 2-3 teaspoons of soda, 1 coffee spoon of salt and spices (dill or cumin seeds) if desired.

Bring milk to a boil in a large saucepan. Put the cottage cheese into the milk and cook, stirring constantly, for about 4 minutes over low heat - until the whey separates. Then take clean gauze, soak it in water, fold it in two layers and cover the colander; pour the hot curd mass into it. When the serum has drained well, tie the gauze tightly and hang it over the sink. Whisk the softened butter, salt, baking soda, and egg (or egg yolks) in a separate bowl while excess liquid drains. When the whey is completely drained, transfer the cottage cheese to a clean bowl, combine with the yolks and butter, and mix well. If desired, add dill, cumin seeds or other aromatic herbs to the cheese to taste. Boil a small amount of water in a large saucepan. Place another smaller dish on top, and put the prepared curd mass into it. Boil in a water bath for about 9 minutes, stirring constantly. When the curd mass begins to melt and becomes viscous, transfer it to a mold greased with butter, press down on top with a light press and let stand in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. Remove the finished cheese from the mold and serve on the table, cut into pieces.

Recipe 2.

You will need: 1 kg of homemade non-grained cottage cheese with a fat content of at least 9%, 100 g of butter with a fat content of at least 82%, 3 eggs, 1 liter of milk with a fat content of 3.2%, 1 teaspoon of soda and salt.

Boil the milk, add cottage cheese and boil for about 30 minutes after boiling, stirring constantly. Place a colander in another saucepan, lay gauze folded in 2-3 layers on it and lay out the prepared cottage cheese. After the whey drains (by the way, very tasty pancakes are obtained from it), put the cheese mass in another, clean dish, add well-beaten eggs, softened butter, salt and soda in it. Combine all the ingredients well, boil over a fire slightly above average for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly, and put the curd mass in a deep bowl greased with butter, gently level with a spoon, and when the cheese has cooled, put it in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. Remove the finished Adyghe cheese from the bowl by turning it over. Serve cut into nice slices.

Recipe 3.

You will need: 1 liter of milk, 1 tablespoon of coarse salt, 3 eggs, 200 ml of sour cream, spices to taste.

Add salt to milk, mix, boil. Combine sour cream well with eggs and pour in a thin stream into hot milk. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, 3-4 minutes. Immediately after large flakes form, you can add your favorite spices, herbs that you like, or garlic to the curd mass. This is a simple and at the same time win-win, wonderful recipe for homemade suluguni. To taste, the finished cheese resembles tender cheese. You can also make it with cilantro, dill, paprika, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts - whatever additions you like. After cooking, strain the cheese through a fine sieve (or gauze folded in 2-3 layers), put it in a bowl and put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.

Recipe 4.

You will need (for 1 kg of the finished product): 1 dessert spoon of natural wine vinegar, 10 liters of milk + 200 ml of milk for sourdough, 1 g of pepsin for sourdough (you can buy it on the market or in a pharmacy).

For the sourdough, in a separate bowl, combine 200 ml of milk at room temperature with wine vinegar. Dilute the pepsin in the resulting mixture. Strain 10 liters of milk through a fine sieve (or cheesecloth), heat to a temperature of 30 degrees in a cauldron (or aluminum pan), pour in the leaven and let stand for half an hour in a warm place. Then put the dishes with milk on a slow fire. Collect the mass that folds with clean hands against the walls of the pan. The cheese curdles in about 5 minutes. If you take the lumps out of the pan, put them on a prepared colander with gauze and squeeze out the whey, you get a young homemade cheese; it's already ready to use. And for the classic suluguni, it must be left to ferment for fermentation in unsalted whey in a warm place for a couple of hours. To check if the cheese is done, cut off a thin piece and dip in hot water for 1-2 minutes. If the cheese is slightly stretched, you can proceed to its further processing. The main thing is that it does not break. Divide the prepared cheese into strips about 2 cm thick and dip into hot water (about 85º). Melt it over low heat, stirring with a wooden spatula in one direction. When the mass has completely melted, remove it from the pan, glue it into a lump, giving the cheese the shape of a head. The classic suluguni is ready!

Recipe 5.

You will need: 200 ml of heavy cream, 800 ml of 20% fat sour cream, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice.

Cream (you can take fat milk instead) mix well with sour cream and heat to 75º over low heat with continuous stirring (but do not overheat, in no case let the mass boil!). Pour the lemon juice into the hot cream and stir until the liquid curdles. After that, immediately turn off the heat and let the cheese mass cool. Moisten gauze folded in several layers in water, put in a colander, transfer the cheese mass and leave for at least an hour - the excess liquid should drain completely. After that, the cheese can be pressed, and the better it is pressed, the denser, more beautiful and tastier it will turn out. Store homemade mascarpone in the refrigerator.

Recipe 6.

You will need: 5-6 liters of goat's milk, 2 eggs, 1 tablespoon of soda, 100 g of butter, salt and spices to taste.

To prepare cottage cheese from goat's milk, pour it into a large container, preferably glass, and put 1 tablespoon of kefir, sour cream or a crust of black bread there. Milk will turn sour in a couple of days. When this happens, heat it in a water bath right in the jar. There is one secret: the slower the sour milk is heated, the softer and more tender the cottage cheese will turn out. When the whey separates, fold the cottage cheese into a colander lined with gauze folded in 4 layers. After the liquid has drained, tie the corners of the gauze and hang the "pouch" over a container. Leave overnight. The next morning, melt the butter in a saucepan, beat in the eggs, salt, add soda and spices. Combine all the ingredients well, add cottage cheese, put the pan in a water bath and heat over very low heat with continuous stirring. The cheese is ready when the curd starts to melt and becomes viscous. For complete readiness, while the cheese is liquid, pour it into a mold greased with sunflower oil and put it in the refrigerator.

Recipe 7.

You will need: 1 teaspoon of soda, 400 g of homemade cottage cheese, 1 egg, 50 g of butter, salt and spices to taste.

Cottage cheese to make it more tender, pass through a meat grinder or grind through a sieve. Then add butter, egg, salt and soda. Put the cauldron with this mixture on a quiet fire and knead with a spoon until smooth. Optionally, add spices - garlic, basil, dill, parsley, and if you want the processed cheese to acquire a beautiful yellowish tint, add turmeric. Stir the curd mixture continuously - until it melts (bubbles should appear). The main thing is not to overexpose it on fire, otherwise you will get not melted cheese in consistency, but something similar to cheese. Pour the resulting mass into a bowl, and when it cools down, the melted cheese is ready. Garnish with fresh herbs when serving.

Recipe 8.

You will need: 2 liters of kefir, 50 g of butter, 1 egg, 0.5 teaspoon of soda, 1 teaspoon of salt, 0.5 coffee spoon of paprika.

Build a water bath: put a cauldron with a small amount of water on the fire, and put a smaller pot or bowl of kefir on top, so that it does not touch the water. Keep the kefir in the steam bath until it turns into curd: when the whey separates, the kefir will begin to thicken. The main thing is not to overdo it, make sure that it does not boil. As soon as the kefir becomes dense, discard it on a colander lined with three-layer gauze, squeeze out the excess liquid and leave it in the “bag” for at least a quarter of an hour so that it is completely glass. After that, transfer the cottage cheese to the bowl in which the kefir was “steamed”, add salt, soda, paprika, butter and an egg. Mix everything well with a fork and put it back in a water bath. The melting process will start in about 3 minutes; once this happens, start stirring the mixture with a wooden spatula. Stir continuously until a yellowish mass without lumps is obtained; this will take about 10-15 minutes. Lubricate a cheese mold (it is better to take a bamboo bowl or a plastic container), grease it with butter in advance, put the finished cheese mass in it in a dense layer and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. If desired, you can add your favorite spices, nuts, fragrant herbs to the cheese.

As you can see, making cheese at home is very simple. The main thing is that all products are fresh and of high quality. Good luck with this exciting endeavor! And delicious homemade cheese!