By 10/06/2015

How often do we buy sour milk in the store? Either the expiration date has expired, or it was stored incorrectly, but you can no longer drink it, risking an upset stomach. Don't rush to pour your spent money down the drain. Nothing bad has happened to the milk yet, the fermentation process has just started. For human body Only the first and last stages of fermentation are digestible dairy product: when there is no fermentation yet and when it has just ended.

We purchased milk that is already on its way from the first to the last stage. Therefore, you can no longer drink it, but this milk, pasteurized somewhere in a factory and then forgotten on the counter or in the refrigerator, can make an excellent healthy natural product.

Ingredients

• Milk
• Liter glass jar
• Deep pan - with higher sides liter jar
• Colander
• Plate
• A bowl
• Gauze

Step-by-step cooking process at home

1. Pour the sour milk into a liter glass jar, cover with a napkin and leave in a warm, dark place until it sours completely. You should get full-fledged yogurt. If you don’t shake the jar, then after a day the milk flakes will rise up, as in the photo. To speed up souring, you can put a crust of black bread, a spoonful of sour cream or kefir in the jar.
2. Prepare a deep saucepan. Place a linen towel or napkin on its bottom. If you do not do this and place the jar immediately on the bottom of the pan, the glass may crack from high temperature.



3. Place the jar on a towel and then carefully pour into the pan cold water to the hangers of the can. If you place a jar in already filled water, it is difficult to correctly calculate the amount of liquid. DO NOT MIX the contents of the jar. It's okay if the edge of the water doesn't match the edge of the liquid in the jar. 2-3 cm will not greatly adjust the thermal balance.



4. Cover the jar with a plate. Select its diameter so that the pan is as closed as possible. Heat the water to a boil. Reduce heat and leave on the stove for 5-10 minutes. During this time, the protein in the jar will sufficiently coagulate. The density of the future cottage cheese depends on the duration of heat treatment.



If you bring the steam bath to a boil and immediately turn it off, the curd will be tender and soft. If you leave the jar in boiling water for 10 minutes, the result will be fine-grained dry cottage cheese.

5. Remove the jar from the pan and let cool. Do not break up any curdled clumps in the jar.



6. Place a colander over a bowl and line it with a double layer of clean cheesecloth.
7. Drain the contents of the jar in a colander. The cottage cheese should not spread out in a shapeless mass, but lie in a colander in solid lumps.



8. Form a knot, gather the ends of the gauze together, fasten them and hang them somewhere so that excess liquid drains from the curd. I tie the gauze with an elastic ring and use it to hang the bag on the tap over the kitchen sink in the evening. In the morning I take it off and serve it for breakfast.



9. The whey remaining in the bowl contains so many useful, nutritious and tasty things that its fate can be very varied.



10. Someone wipes the skin of the face and décolleté with it, thereby prolonging their youth in appearance, someone cooks delicious dishes(pancakes, okroshka, pies, etc.), and someone simply drinks this yummy snack with pancakes, rejuvenating from the inside.
11. This is how much cottage cheese comes out of a liter sour milk. Approximately 150 grams.



Loaded recipe

IN Soviet times When everything, including butter, was on coupons, our parents whipped it from liquid (almost kefir) sour cream. If 1 liter of sour cream is driven for 1.5 hours three liter jar, you get exactly 200 g of butter and white liquid - return. The oil was washed cold water, and the return was put in a water bath, like we did sour milk earlier, and low-fat cottage cheese was obtained from it. Pancake dough was made using the translucent whey remaining from the cottage cheese. Pancakes were brushed with freshly whipped butter and wrapped freshly squeezed cottage cheese in them. The waste-free technology used by our mothers to simply feed the family can today be used to eat natural products rather than their substitutes.

Cottage cheese is a valuable source of calcium and protein, the undisputed leader among dietary dishes, recommended for the prevention of a whole “bouquet” of diseases. Today, many housewives refuse manufactured industrially fermented milk products and carefully collect secrets that tell you how to make cottage cheese from sour milk yourself.

How to make cottage cheese from sour milk in the oven

Benefits of a homemade product:

1. Natural composition, without preservatives and vegetable fats, in which all essential vitamins, minerals, enzymes.
2. The ability to adjust the juiciness, density and fat content of the dish - homemade cottage cheese It usually turns out tender, flaky, with just the right amount of acid.

You can prepare it in different ways.

The main rule is the same - high-quality, proven milk. It would be good if it came from a domestic cow (it is recommended to boil it first!), but store-bought is also acceptable, but it must be pasteurized, with a short storage period.

For any of the methods we will need:

• sour milk;
• metal sieve or colander;
• a large piece of gauze.

Cooking time: ~ 6 – 12 hours.

Sequencing:

1. Place a 1 cm jar of sour milk (you can take another container, but the milk should be fermented in it right away) into a cold oven. We don't cover it!
2. We heat for 40 – 60 minutes at a temperature set between 120 – 150 °C.
3. Turn off the equipment and leave the resulting cottage cheese in it until it cools completely, possibly overnight.
4. Line the sieve/colander with two layers of gauze.
5. Gradually pour the cottage cheese onto it, carefully draining the whey.
6. We squeeze the ends of the fabric with a knot - this will squeeze out most of the unnecessary liquid.
7. We forget about the cottage cheese for a couple of hours until the whey drains. If you want to get a dry product, tie the gauze and hang it over a bowl. If you want wet cottage cheese, leave it in a colander.
8. Periodically check the consistency of the curd mass. Once the desired density is reached, transfer the finished product to a storage container.

When cooked in the oven, from 3 liters of milk you can get 700 - 900 grams of delicious cottage cheese.

Note! The amount of the final product and the degree of acid depend on the duration and correct souring of the starting material. It must ripen, but at the same time not have time to peroxidize. A 3-day fresh product meets these parameters.

Cooking in the microwave

The simplest and most sufficient quick way to get aromatic cottage cheese from yogurt - use the microwave.

Cooking time: ~5 – 15 minutes directly in the microwave oven + several hours for cooling.

Sequencing:

1. Pour the sour milk into a microwave-safe container. It is not necessary to cover it, although this option is also acceptable.
2. Turn on the microwave oven at full power (usually 700 - 750 W) for 5 minutes.
3. After sound signal checking the serum. If it is transparent, cooking is complete, but if its color is milky, you need to add a few more minutes. The amount of time is a conditional parameter, which can only be determined experimentally for your furnace. It depends on the characteristics of the microwave, as well as on the shape and material of the container used in it.
4. Leave the cottage cheese in the resulting liquid for several hours until it cools completely.
5. Place the mixture cooled to room temperature on a sieve to remove excess whey from the finished product.

From a liter of curdled milk using microwave oven you can get from 200 g of cottage cheese, which depends on the quality of the milk and the percentage of protein in it.

With the addition of kefir

When you don’t have time to wait for the milk to sour, you can use kefir and prepare the most delicate cottage cheese in a couple of hours.

For a liter of milk we need 0.5 - 1.0 liters of kefir with 1% fat content. The more kefir you take for fermentation, the more pronounced the sourness will be in the finished product.

Sequencing:

1. Bring the milk to a boil.
2. Remove from the stove, pour kefir into it, stir well.
3. Leave for at least 120 minutes (or overnight). During this time, the cottage cheese will have time to “bounce off” the whey.
4. Strain the finished product through cheesecloth. The less time the excess liquid drains, the moister the curd will be in the end.

Recipe in a slow cooker

Cottage cheese in a slow cooker, the most popular “helper” of the modern housewife, is prepared no less simply and quickly than in other ways.

The program can be used at your own discretion. For example, “yogurt”, “heating”, “baking”, “milk porridge”. The cooking time, accordingly, will vary from 15 minutes to an hour. The main condition when choosing a mode is a temperature that does not bring the liquid to a boil.

Sequencing:

1. Pour the sour milk into the multicooker bowl.
2. We select the program you like, if necessary, set the temperature to 80 degrees, turn on the device and forget about cooking for the period of time specified by the equipment.
3. After the required time has passed, turn off the multicooker and let the cottage cheese cool. This will take at least 3 – 4 hours.
4. Place the resulting product on cheesecloth, allowing the whey to drain. If necessary, hang the gauze in a knot or gently squeeze it with your hands, similar to the methods already described.

The fastest recipe

If you urgently need to prepare homemade cottage cheese, you can use a proven recipe that allows you to get 0.5 kg of the most delicate ricotta in just an hour.

We will need:

• 3 liters of fresh homemade or store-bought pasteurized milk;
• a generous pinch of salt;
• 3 – 4 tbsp. l. lemon juice or 2 tsp. citric acid.

Sequencing:

1. Rinse the pan with cold water, pour milk into it, salt, add lemon juice/crystalline acid.
2. Heat the resulting mixture over low heat or a water bath, stirring occasionally.
3. We continue the previous stage until “flakes” appear and the whey is completely separated.
4. Place the cottage cheese on cheesecloth and leave for 45 - 60 minutes to drain the liquid.

You can use a slightly different technology - bring the milk to a boil, remove from the stove, only then salt it and pour in lemon juice. Next, you need to stir the mixture and wait 7 minutes until the liquid begins to coagulate into flakes.

At this point, it would be nice to add a tablespoon of heavy cream, which will make the taste of the finished cottage cheese especially tender and creamy.

After the required time has passed, to separate the ricotta from the whey, as with all other methods, it is recommended to use a colander and cheesecloth.

Cooking technology without heating

The following are two methods for preparing cottage cheese from sour milk, excluding its heat treatment:

1. The curdled milk formed as a result of fermentation of milk is simply thrown onto a sieve with gauze. Wring out excess liquid, obtaining a fermented milk product that is moist and more delicate in consistency than cottage cheese cooked in the oven, in a water bath, etc.
2. The package of kefir is left in the freezer overnight, in the morning the resulting “ice” is removed from the cellophane and placed in a colander lined with gauze until it is completely defrosted and the curd is separated from the whey.

Delicious cottage cheese made from sour goat milk

Technologies for preparing cottage cheese from cow and goat milk identical. The only difference is that the latter is more valuable. It improves immunity, has healing properties. That is why cottage cheese made from it is easily digestible, low-allergenic, and maximally saturated with vitamins and microelements. It’s just that it sometimes takes a lot of time for goat’s milk to turn sour. That is why experienced housewives speed up this process by boiling and adding salt.

Such manipulations allow you to get goat sour milk literally in a day, provided it is ripened in a warm place. Next, you can choose how to make cottage cheese from sour goat milk: in a slow cooker, microwave, or using regular heating.

Having secured the proposed proven recipes, you can easily master the simple technology of making homemade cottage cheese and delight your family with delicious and healthy culinary masterpieces.

There are many recipes for making cottage cheese at home, and today I will share one of them with you. We will make a tender, juicy, moderately crumbly, pleasantly sour, tasty and healthy cottage cheese from sour milk, which can be replaced with kefir if desired. You can eat it just like that, flavored with sour cream, natural honey or jam. If you want, make cheesecakes, desserts, cookies or other baked goods from homemade cottage cheese.

By the way, the site already has 2 options for how to make cottage cheese in a cold way (that is, without heating) - see and. In this case, we will subject the fermented milk product to gentle heating, that is, we will prepare homemade cottage cheese using the hot method. As a result, from 1 liter of sour milk (2.5% fat), I get about 230 grams of cottage cheese. If you take raw materials with lower fat content, there will be less cottage cheese and vice versa.

Ingredients:

Cooking the dish step by step with photos:

To prepare homemade cottage cheese using the hot method, we only need sour milk, which you can safely replace with kefir if you wish. As I wrote above, the fattier the original product, the greater the weight and fat content, and the more tender the finished curd will be.

Pour the fermented milk product into a saucepan of suitable volume and place on the stove. Heat the sour milk (kefir) over medium heat, stirring until it warms up. It is important that the liquid is heated evenly throughout the entire volume, otherwise everything will curl faster from below.

When the milk (kefir) becomes almost hot and light steam appears on top, it is important not to miss the moment. Do not let the contents of the dish boil - then the homemade cottage cheese will turn out too dry and hard. We want the milk to curdle into small curds and whey.

This is what the future cottage cheese looks like when it is almost curdled. As you can see from the photo, yellowish whey began to separate. Turn off the heat, cover the pan with a lid and let it stand for 5 minutes. During this time, the contents will separate and you can continue working with it.

We take a deep container, insert a sieve into it, and lay gauze on top in 3-4 layers. Pour the contents of the pan into cheesecloth. The whey will drain into the bowl (3 minutes is enough), and the homemade curd will remain in the gauze.

1. Cottage cheese can be made in two ways: with and without heat. This is a matter of taste and convenience. However, cottage cheese without heating turns out a little more tender.

2. If you make cottage cheese from milk, use country milk. Especially if the recipe calls for it to sour. But you can also use store-bought milk of any fat content. The fatter it is, the fattier the cottage cheese will be, accordingly.

3. You can also take kefir of any fat content. can only be used if you heat it up.

4. The quantity and taste of cottage cheese depend on the quality of the original product. So, when buying milk or kefir, you shouldn’t skimp.

5. You can cook cottage cheese either in a saucepan or in a water bath. This is again a matter of convenience. You will find a description of the cooking process in a water bath in the recipe for kefir cottage cheese.

6. It is better to heat dairy products in an aluminum or stainless steel pan with a thick bottom. Enameled dishes are not suitable: everything in them can burn.

7. Place the cottage cheese in a colander lined with several layers of gauze. Place a saucepan or some other container under the colander to allow the whey to drain into it.

8. If you leave the cottage cheese in a colander for a couple of hours or even less, it will turn out moist.

9. To make the cottage cheese dry and crumbly, you need to tie the ends of the gauze and hang the knot over the sink or pan for several hours or even overnight. The time depends on your preferences: the longer the whey drains, the drier the curd will be.

10. To keep the cottage cheese in shape, you can put it under pressure.

11. Homemade cottage cheese can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than four days.

This is the traditional way of making cottage cheese.

Ingredients

• 2 liters of milk.

Preparation

Leave the milk in warm place for 1–3 days. Don't stir it. The time depends on the room temperature: the warmer it is, the faster the milk will sour. To speed up the process, you can add 2 tablespoons of sour cream or a piece of black milk to the milk.

Milk should not turn sour in the refrigerator. There it will acquire bad smell and may start to taste bitter. If you notice that the milk in the refrigerator is starting to sour, it is better to take it out so that it can sour in suitable conditions.

The sour milk will look like a soft, thick jelly, and whey will begin to appear around it. Place the milk in a saucepan and place over low heat.

Cook, stirring occasionally. Do not overheat the milk, it should be slightly warm. After 10–15 minutes from the start of cooking, curds will begin to form in the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and let stand for the same amount of time. Then transfer the cottage cheese to a colander and leave to drain.

2. Homemade cottage cheese made from milk without heating

The finished cottage cheese will be more tender than in the first case.

Ingredients

• 2 liters of milk.

From the specified amount you will get about 400 g of cottage cheese.

Preparation

Let the milk sour as in the first method. Do not heat the thickened mass, but immediately place it on cheesecloth.

Thanks to lemon juice, milk will turn sour much faster.

Ingredients

• 2 liters of milk;
• 1 lemon.

From the specified amount you will get about 350 g of cottage cheese.

Preparation

Pour the milk into the pan. If you use country milk, then you need to bring it to a boil and reduce the heat. If the milk is already pasteurized, then simply heat it, but do not boil.

Ingredients

• 1 liter of kefir.

Preparation

You will need two pans of different diameters. One of them should fit freely into the other. Fill a large saucepan halfway with water. Bring water to a boil over high heat.

Pour kefir into another pan. After boiling, place a small saucepan in a large one and heat the kefir over low heat.

Kefir should break down into curds and whey. When this happens, remove the pan from the heat and leave for 10 minutes. Place the curd in a colander and let the whey drain.

And from frozen kefir you will get the most delicate airy curd, reminiscent of cream cheese. It can be mixed with herbs, salted and used for cooking.

Ingredients

• 1 liter of kefir.

From the specified amount you will get about 200 g of cottage cheese.

Preparation

It is best to take kefir in a bag: the bottle may crack when frozen, and petrified kefir will be difficult to remove from it. If you only have bottled kefir on hand, simply pour it into a plastic bag and tie it very tightly.

Place the bag in the freezer overnight. Kefir should look like a piece of ice. If after 10–12 hours the kefir still does not become hard as a rock, it means it is of poor quality. This product will produce liquid cottage cheese, more reminiscent of sour cream.

Carefully cut the bag, place the contents in a colander and wrap in gauze.

Leave the kefir at room temperature until completely defrosted.

Cottage cheese is an indispensable product, especially in children's and dietary nutrition. On store shelves you can now find the most different types of this product: low-fat, granular in cream, sweet curd mass. However, very often store-bought cottage cheese contains additives that are, to put it mildly, unhealthy.

The lactic acid product sold on the market is called homemade cottage cheese. It is, of course, tastier than store-bought, but the production conditions remain behind the scenes.

Therefore, the best option remains making homemade cottage cheese from sour milk in your own kitchen, especially for feeding small children.

Classic homemade recipe

How to make cottage cheese from sour milk correctly? You will need 2-3 liters of high fat milk. If possible, it is better to buy homemade from trusted suppliers. Warm it up without bringing it to a boil, wrap it in something warm and leave it for 3-4 hours. Pasteurized milk will also work.

Cooking steps:

1. Pour the milk into a glass container and leave at room temperature to sour. In summer, when it’s hot, it becomes yogurt in about a day. In winter, it may take longer in a cool room. The fermented milk curd should float to the surface, leaving transparent white whey at the bottom.
2. Carefully, being careful not to shake, pour the curdled milk into the pan. Take a larger bowl and fill it with a quarter of the water. Place the saucepan with curdled milk in a bowl of water and place the entire structure on the fire. You will have a water bath.
3. When the water boils and the contents of the smaller saucepan begin to heat up, monitor the temperature - the curdled milk should warm up to about 50 degrees, and not boil. You will see the curd flakes separating from the whey.
4. Leave the mixture to cool at room temperature; you can place the pan in a bowl of cold water to speed up the process.
5. Line a colander with several layers of gauze and place the future curd on it. When the whey has drained, you can tie the ends of the gauze and hang the structure overnight to make the mass drier.

Cool the finished product, and the homemade cottage cheese is ready. You should not store it for several days; it is better to eat it fresh or use it to prepare cottage cheese dishes.

Cooking with a multicooker

It is much easier to prepare cottage cheese from sour milk in a slow cooker - you don’t have to build a water bath.

Pour the curdled milk directly into the multicooker bowl. Select the “Heating” mode and leave for an hour and a half. Then, as in the previous recipe, cool, place the mixture in a colander and let drain.

How to speed up the cooking process?

You can reduce the time for preparing cottage cheese from sour milk; the recipe remains the same, but you can speed up the souring. There are several ways to do this:

1. Boil the milk and add lemon juice to it until the curd flakes begin to separate. Boil a little more and, without cooling, immediately drain into a colander. The finished product will have a lemon flavor.
2. Heat the milk to a temperature of 35-40 degrees and add a few tablespoons of natural yogurt or kefir. In a warm place, milk will sour within 6-8 hours. Then cook according to the classic recipe or in a slow cooker.

Don’t throw away the whey - when cold it becomes an excellent refreshing drink, you can also make dough with it and add it to okroshka. In addition, it is an excellent natural skin care product.

By devoting a little time to preparing homemade cottage cheese in the evening, by the morning you will receive a healthy, nutritious and very tasty breakfast.