The benefits and nutritional properties of cottage cheese are difficult to overestimate. This product saturates the human body with calcium, proteins, amino acids and other nutrients. We are used to buying it in stores and markets, although we know that you can easily make cottage cheese from milk at home. Your own product is always better than a store-bought or market product, because it does not contain flavorings, preservatives or other chemical additives. Learn how to make cottage cheese for your family and you'll be able to make sweet homemade casseroles, amazing pies and fluffy cheesecakes!
Features of making cottage cheese at home
If you decide to get serious self-cooking cottage cheese, immediately prepare for the fact that the first two or three attempts will not be entirely successful. Despite this, you should not stop. First of all, familiarize yourself with the main features of cooking at home. dairy product:
- Heat treatment should not be excessive. If during the cooking process you overdo it with the temperature, the end result will be a not very attractive product in the form of lumps, which you are unlikely to want to eat.
- Heat treatment should not be weak. Undercooked raw material is a sour milk-curd curd, from which the whey is very poorly separated.
- The best raw material for making homemade cottage cheese is natural farm milk.
How to make homemade cottage cheese from milk
The technology for making cottage cheese at home is simple and straightforward. Judge for yourself: preliminary preparation is easy, the set of products and equipment is minimal, preparation time is no more than an hour. However, there are many in various ways do homemade cottage cheese. If you are going to get serious about this, try all the known recipes to choose the one you like the most.
Classic recipe for sour milk
The traditional method of making cottage cheese from sour milk at home is known to many. This recipe requires the following:
- spoiled milk(fat percentage not less than 2.5) – 3 l;
- kefir (low-fat is not suitable) – 620-640 ml;
- medium sized saucepan;
- thin cloth.
How to make natural cottage cheese from sour milk - step-by-step preparation:
- Pour sour milk into a saucepan and place on medium heat.
- Bring to a temperature of 35-40°C. At this point, you will notice that the whey begins to separate.
- While the milk is heating up, you need to prepare a colander. To do this, you need to cover it with fabric folded in 6-8 layers. The edges should hang freely.
- Place the milk, heated to the desired temperature, in a colander secured in a large whey container. Let it drain a little.
- Without squeezing, tie the corners of the fabric into a knot, secure it above the container into which the whey has flowed, in a suspended state.
- Wait a few hours for the remaining liquid to drain away.
Made from fresh cow's milk and sour cream
Quick recipe making cottage cheese based on fresh milk and sour cream will be appreciated by mothers of small children. The product prepared according to this scheme will be tender and, most importantly, healthy! In a word, just as needed for infants. To make this cottage cheese, you will need:
- milk (farm milk, from a cow) – 200 ml;
- sour cream (fat content 25-30%) – 50 g;
- small metal container;
- sieve.
The process of making baby cottage cheese using fresh milk and sour cream, at home:
- Bring milk to a boil.
- Pour in sour cream.
- To stir thoroughly.
- Wait until it boils again.
- Transfer the contents of the pan to a sieve.
- Wait until the whey drains.
- After 5 minutes the product will be ready for use.
How to make from pasteurized milk and kefir
If you can’t buy real cow’s milk to make homemade cottage cheese, don’t worry. The traditional method can easily be replaced with an alternative one. What does it mean? And the fact that in some cases natural whole milk can be replaced with a sufficient amount of store-bought pasteurized (not skim) milk. If you're interested, write down the recipe. So, you will need:
- pasteurized store-bought milk – 600-650 ml;
- kefir – 400-450 ml;
- salt – 4-5 g;
- small saucepan;
- Pour milk into a saucepan.
- Add a pinch of salt for taste.
- Place the container on low heat. Stirring constantly until foam and bubbles appear.
- Add kefir.
- When the whey appears, remove the pan from the heat and mix its contents thoroughly.
- Place on low heat.
- Heat until large lumps form.
- Place the contents of the container into a fine sieve and drain the whey.
From milk powder and lemon
Can lemon be an integral part of such a dairy product as cottage cheese? How could he! A small amount of freshly squeezed lemon juice makes the curd mass very tasty and tender. If you are interested in this idea, write down what it will take to implement it:
- reconstituted milk (diluted dry powder) – 3 liters;
- lemon juice – 50-60 g;
- medium sized saucepan;
- colander;
- gauze.
Step-by-step preparation:
- Place a saucepan with milk over medium heat.
- After waiting until the foam begins to rise, turn off the heat, add freshly squeezed lemon juice, stir vigorously, and leave for exactly a quarter of an hour.
- Pour the contents of the pan into a colander lined with several layers of gauze.
- We tie the corners of the gauze to make a bag. We hang it over the sink to drain the whey.
- In half an hour the product will be ready for use.
This cottage cheese differs noticeably in taste. At the same time, it is just as useful as the classic version. Baked milk makes the curd mass more tender and light, which allows it to be used for a wide variety of desserts. To prepare this product, you will need:
- Baked milk (homemade is recommended) – 1,500 ml;
- natural yoghurt or fermented baked milk – 200 ml;
- salt – 4-5 g;
- pot;
- multicooker;
- colander;
- gauze.
Cooking process:
- In a medium-sized saucepan, combine milk with yogurt or fermented baked milk.
- Mix thoroughly.
- We put it in the multicooker, start the “Yogurt” mode for half an hour.
- After we hear the signal that cooking is complete, leave for 12-14 hours for the mixture to ferment.
- Transfer the milk mixture to a saucepan and place in a water bath.
- Heat until the whey begins to separate. Let it cool.
- Place the cottage cheese in a colander with gauze. Strain until you get cottage cheese of suitable density.
How to cook goat milk with calcium chloride for children
This recipe for cottage cheese made from milk at home is suitable for those who have experience in such matters. Goat milk is a somewhat capricious product, so it will not be easy for a beginner to cope with it. If you intend to cook a large number of at a time, you need to know how much curd is obtained from 1 liter of milk in order to prepare a suitable size pan and a large sieve in advance. As a rule, the output is 26-29% of the original volume - that is, 260-290 grams per 1000 ml. So, let's go directly to the recipe. To prepare you will need:
- fresh goat milk – 1 l;
- calcium chloride solution – 1 ampoule (10 ml);
- pot;
- colander;
- gauze.
Preparing children's cottage cheese:
- Pour the milk into a saucepan and place it on a medium-high heat burner.
- Bring to a boil
- Remove from heat.
- Leave the boiled milk for 45-50 minutes to cool.
- Put it back on the fire, heat it to 75-85°C, add an ampoule of calcium chloride.
- We continue to keep it on fire. After 2-3 minutes, the cottage cheese will begin to curl right before our eyes. At this moment the fire must be turned off.
- Let it brew for about a quarter of an hour, and then put it on cheesecloth.
- We drain the whey and get the long-awaited goat curd!
Check out the recipes on how to cook.
Video recipe: how to make delicious cottage cheese at home
The process of making cottage cheese at home takes minimum quantity time, cost and effort.
However, the product that you prepare yourself will be significantly different from similar competitors that modern manufacturers offer customers.
Homemade cottage cheese contains much more useful substances, which, unfortunately, are present in minimal quantities in factory versions.
1. Under no circumstances should curdled milk be brought to a boil - the cottage cheese will turn out dry and tasteless.
2. The longer the whey drains, the denser and drier the curd becomes.
3. You only need to discard the curd in a colander when the whey has separated well, otherwise the curd will turn out sour.
4. Experienced housewives never pour whey down the sink. Based on it you can prepare delicious pancakes, pancakes, jelly, kvass or jelly.
As you can see, there are quite a few ways and recipes for making homemade cottage cheese. All of them are simple and will not take up much of your precious time. So prepare cottage cheese at home and feed your kids a tasty and healthy product.
Homemade cottage cheese recipes
Village cottage cheese
To make classic village cottage cheese you will need 2 liters of fresh homemade milk, a clean gauze napkin, two pans, one inside the other.
The milk needs to be poured into a smaller saucepan, covered with a lid and placed in a warm place, for example, near a radiator, for such a time that the milk should sour. Usually this is about a day. For taste and to speed up souring, you can add 2-3 tbsp to the pan. spoons of low-fat sour cream. Then place the pan with sour milk in a large pan, but approximately the same in height, and fill the gap between the walls of the pans with water.
Place both pans on low heat and do not leave the stove for a minute. As the water boils, sour milk will move away from the edges of the pan and a yellowish liquid will appear. At this moment, you urgently need to remove the pans from the heat, remove the smaller pan and cool the semi-finished product. Then place a gauze napkin on the bottom of the sieve and carefully place the curdled milk on it with a tablespoon. Tie the edges of the gauze together and hang the bundle so that the whey gradually drips from it. What remains on the gauze bandage is the cottage cheese. To get a denser cottage cheese, you need to place a weight on the cheesecloth with cottage cheese.
Preparation of calcined cottage cheese
The product made in this way will have a low acidity level, so it is ideal for dietary and baby food. The main feature of preparing cottage cheese is the addition of calcium lactic acid (diluted with water) at the boiling stage of milk with constant stirring (3 teaspoons per 2 liters of milk). The powder can be purchased at pharmacies. The yield of the finished product will be 300-400 grams. Further, the technology is similar to the methods described above.
Ready-to-eat cottage cheese is stored in the refrigerator in a glass or enamel container, after putting a couple of pieces of sugar in it. Homemade cottage cheese can be stored in the freezer for one month, but it taste qualities change a little. It is strictly not recommended to store the product in plastic bags. If the cottage cheese suddenly becomes sour, then it must be mixed with fresh milk in equal proportions and left for 60-90 minutes. After this, the cottage cheese is placed in gauze (cotton bag) and placed under a press.
Cold method of making homemade cottage cheese
Ingredients:
- 0.5 l kefir
- 1 tsp Sahara
- 1 tsp Sahara
- 1 tsp Sahara
- 50 g prunes
Cooking method:
In addition to preparing cottage cheese using the hot method, there is also a way to prepare cottage cheese cold; such cottage cheese is more like a cream. Excellent for feeding babies from a young age. In addition, many different dried fruits go with it.
It will take 25 minutes to prepare the dish:
To prepare cottage cheese in this way, you need frozen kefir; you can put it in the freezer before freezing, or you can also leave it there overnight so as not to wait for freezing during the day.
After complete freezing, remove the bag and defrost the contents without using any auxiliary means, boiling water or warm air. Pass kefir through a fine sieve.
Hang the resulting mass for 20 minutes; it can also be used for baking.
Cold-processed cottage cheese is ready. Now you need to add sugar, dried fruits to it, you can add fresh fruits to taste, you can prepare a healthy and vitamin-rich dessert.
Making cottage cheese using lemon
Take skim milk and pour it into a large container. Take a lemon and squeeze it into milk (for 1 liter of milk - a little more than half a lemon) and mix. This is necessary so that the milk curdles faster. You can, of course, wait for the milk to sour natural conditions- place the dishes with milk and crust rye bread to a warm place, for example, to a radiator. However, if you have full-fat milk, you can first prepare homemade yogurt in this way, remove the fat from its surface, and then, when it has stood (this usually takes 1-2 days), prepare cottage cheese. As a starter, you can use store-bought kefir or yogurt (literally a spoon) or the previous starter or whey. If you leave milk to sour without starter, the process of putrefactive fermentation may begin.
You will see how the milk begins to curdle and the whey becomes transparent. There is no need to wait until the milk curds become too dense - your curd will then be too grainy. Strain the whey through cheesecloth - you can then use this whey to make homemade diet bread or pancakes; put the cottage cheese in a separate container and you can eat it.
Quick homemade cottage cheese recipe
Necessary:
- 2 liters of milk
- 2 jars (250 g) natural yoghurt
How to cook:
1. Pour into suitable container microwave oven Dishes 2 liters of milk, heat it to the desired temperature (about 40°). Add 2 jars of natural yoghurt and leave in a warm place until the milk curdles and you get a thick yogurt. This usually takes 10-12 hours, but it depends on the room temperature.
2. Place the bowl of yogurt in the microwave for 15 minutes at maximum power 800 W - the contents will heat up, warming up evenly, and curdle. The clear serum will clearly come off.
3. Carefully transfer the curdled lump into a colander lined with gauze, located above the pan (to collect the whey), being careful not to damage the integrity of the lump.
4. Let the main whey drain, then hang the bundle with cottage cheese for a while so that the whey drains better.
The advantages of “your own” cottage cheese over store-bought ones become clear to anyone who has at least once tried a homemade product “made from gauze” - natural, grainy and delicate in taste.
Firstly, it will always be fresher, because you can eat it almost immediately, secondly, you know exactly what kind of milk it was made from and what was put in it, thirdly, the gentle preparation technology allows you to preserve vitamins and other useful substances (phosphorus, calcium).
The only drawback of this method is that cottage cheese cannot be stored for a long time, but for a natural product this is rather a plus. The likelihood that the product will not work out is quite low - the preparation method is simple, and the nuances can be mastered in practice.
Choosing milk
Natural whole milk is preferable for cottage cheese. Cottage cheese, as you know, is a fermented milk product, but the starting material does not have to be sour. You can also cook from fresh milk if you add kefir (100 ml per 1 liter) or sour cream (1 tablespoon per 1 liter).
The fat content of milk depends on your preference. If you are cooking for a child, you can take special milk for children.
How to make cottage cheese from milk: recipe
Pour the sour milk into a saucepan, heat over low heat, without bringing to a boil - the milk should curdle. Place a sieve with gauze on the pan, put the curdled milk into it, the whey will drain into the pan, and the curd will remain in the gauze.
Calcined cottage cheese: recipe
You will need:
- 1 liter of milk
- 2-3 tbsp. 10% calcium chloride solution (sold in pharmacies).
Cooking method.
Pour milk into a saucepan, heat, but do not bring to a boil, pour in calcium chloride one spoon at a time, stirring each time, then bring everything to a boil, remove from the stove, let cool and place the cottage cheese in a sieve with several layers of gauze. It is not recommended to consume more than 100 g of such cottage cheese per day.
Lemon curd (very tender)
You will need:
- 1 liter of milk
- juice of 1/2 lemon.
Place the milk in a saucepan over low heat. As soon as it starts to boil, throw in a few grains of citric acid or add lemon juice. The heat must be turned off immediately - the milk will curdle instantly.
Allow the milk to cool, then strain it, placing it in a colander lined with several layers of gauze. The disadvantage of such cottage cheese is that it cannot be used for baking, although it turns out to be very tender.
Homemade cottage cheese the most tender
You will need: 2 liters of natural milk.
Take natural fresh milk, pour into a saucepan, cover with a lid and leave for room temperature for 30 hours - the milk should sour and turn into yogurt. Place the result on the lowest heat, heat without bringing to a boil and without stirring. When small bubbles appear and the pan is hot to touch, turn off the stove.
Leave the pan for 8-10 hours at room temperature. The whey separated from the curd should be transparent after time. Place the cottage cheese on several layers of cheesecloth, hang it over the sink and let sit until the last drops for about an hour. You can store this cottage cheese for 3-5 days.
How to cook homemade cottage cheese correctly
- It is very important not to overboil the cottage cheese when cooking, otherwise it will turn out rough and will crumble a lot.
- It is not advisable to use enamel dishes for making cottage cheese.
- There is no need to stir the milk - then the cottage cheese will turn out grainy.
- Milk should be heated over low heat.
- It is not recommended to keep the cottage cheese in gauze for a long time when drying - 1-2 hours maximum, otherwise it will be too dry.
I don’t know about you, but in our supermarkets it has become quite problematic to buy real cottage cheese; they mainly sell cottage cheese products. Even if it is written that it is cottage cheese, one wonders whether it is good... Since this is a fairly popular product in our family, I wondered how to make cottage cheese at home.
I recently talked about this useful product and him beneficial influence on our body, if you missed it, read it. And, of course, our body will only benefit from good cottage cheese.
There were quite a few ways to prepare homemade cottage cheese, I have already tried a couple of recipes, so I will share my experience and tell you about other methods so that you can choose the one you like best.
No matter how you make homemade cottage cheese, there is general tips, which are better to take into account in order to do everything correctly, and the cottage cheese turns out tasty and tender.
- If you have never made homemade cottage cheese, then you should not start with large volumes, as it may not work the first time; you still need a certain skill.
- I advise you to keep the process of preparing cottage cheese under control and not to leave the stove, since excessive heat treatment will make the cottage cheese hard and dry, and if it is not enough, the whey will be difficult to separate. A sign that it needs to be removed from the heat is the appearance of yellowish whey and characteristic curd clots. There is not and cannot be a clear recipe indicating the cooking time, since much depends on the degree of heating and on the quality of the original product. After doing it several times, you will already understand how best to do it, everything comes with experience.
- To make cottage cheese, you can use either homemade or farm milk, or store-bought milk. If you make it from the store, then buy it from for the shortest possible time shelf life and pasteurized, not sterilized. From one liter of pasteurized milk you can get about 200 grams. cottage cheese, from whole milk a little more than 220 - 250, depending on the fat content.
- You also need to take into account that the fat content of farm milk is quite high. If for some reason you need skim cheese, then buy low-fat milk or skim the cream from full-fat milk.
- When you separate the whey from the curd, it is important not to overdo it during the squeezing process - the more moisture is removed, the drier the curd will be. Although sometimes you need drier cottage cheese if you make cheesecakes or other baked goods from it. So adjust the time yourself, if you need soft and moist cottage cheese, it is enough to hold it for 30 - 40 minutes, for drier cottage cheese it will take 2 - 3 hours.
- The shelf life of homemade cottage cheese is 3 - 4 days. If there is a need to store it for a longer period, then the cottage cheese can be frozen by placing it in a bag or plastic container. After defrosting, it will be just as tasty and healthy, but repeated freezing will make it a useless product.
I hope the tips didn’t scare you and you still try to make cottage cheese at home. Choose best recipe and forward.
Homemade cottage cheese from milk
I tried this recipe first because some of the milk I bought had turned sour. At first I wanted to use it in baking - it turns out good with sour milk, but then I remembered that I wanted to try making cottage cheese from yogurt. I had farm milk and I knew for sure that it would make high-quality yogurt.
Store-bought milk does not always naturally ferment as it should.
Ingredients:
- in this method there is only one - milk
Homemade cottage cheese recipe from milk:
- She poured the milk into a jar and covered it with a napkin. To prepare yogurt, it is better to use a glass jar or earthenware, as metal utensils can affect the quality of the yogurt and make it not very tasty. It should be covered not with a lid, but with a cotton cloth, which allows air to pass through and speeds up the ripening process.
- I put it in warm place and about a day later the milk turned into yogurt. But this process can take longer, it all depends on the temperature in the room. Another tip - do not place a can of milk under straight Sun rays- it will turn sour, of course, faster, but it can deteriorate and turn green.
- There were tips to do it in a water bath or over low heat. I chose the second option. I put the pan with sour milk on the stove. As soon as the milk began to curdle and the whey separated, I turned off the heat.
- When the milk cooled, I drained it through a colander, after covering it with gauze. I didn’t really follow the advice, because they said that you need to hang a gauze bag over the container so that it would drain excess liquid. I needed soft and tender cottage cheese for eating, not for baking, so I left the cottage cheese in a colander in cheesecloth and, as soon as the excess liquid had drained, I put the cottage cheese in a bowl.
Homemade cottage cheese made from milk, or rather from yogurt, turned out delicious, but I didn’t really like waiting a day or more, so I decided to find another recipe. Although for faster fermentation it is recommended to put sour cream (1 tbsp per liter of milk) or a piece of stale rye bread into the milk, and there are also ready-made starters that are sold at the pharmacy. In this case, the milk may become curdled overnight. But you still have to wait. I found a quicker recipe and really liked it.
How to quickly make cottage cheese at home
I will offer you two recipes instant cooking cottage cheese - from milk and kefir, and also from milk and lemon. Both farm milk and store-bought milk are suitable for making cottage cheese using these methods. But I can only say about the taste of the cottage cheese about the recipe with kefir - tender and tasty, and I used store-bought milk. I haven't tried it with lemon yet.
Cottage cheese made from milk and kefir
Ingredients:
- milk - 1 liter
- kefir - 0.5 liters
- salt - 0.5 tsp.
How to make cottage cheese from milk and kefir:
Since in this recipe the milk is brought to a boil, cottage cheese prepared in this way can be given to children and even infants.
Cottage cheese made from milk and lemon
Ingredients:
- milk - 1 l.
- lemon - 1/2 pcs.
Recipe for cottage cheese made from milk and lemon:
- Bring milk to a boil
- Add the juice from half a lemon into boiling milk; as soon as the milk curdles, remove from heat.
- Cool and strain.
How to make calcined cottage cheese
Of course, cottage cheese already contains calcium, but a certain category of people require a higher calcium content - children, pregnant women, nursing mothers, elderly people, people suffering from atherosclerosis, anemia, kidney and liver diseases.
To replenish calcium in the body, you can include calcined cottage cheese in your diet, but not more often than 2 - 3 times a week. Such healthy cottage cheese can be prepared at home by adding calcium chloride, which is sold in pharmacies.
Ingredients:
- milk - 1 l.
- calcium chloride (calcium chloride) - 2 tbsp. l. liquid or 6 gr. dry calcium
Homemade calcined cottage cheese recipe
- Heat milk to 40 0.
- Add calcium chloride to milk and mix well.
- Bring the milk to a boil, stirring constantly. As soon as the milk boils, remove from heat and allow the product to cool.
- Strain through cheesecloth.
Calcium chloride can be replaced with calcium lactate in tablets, which can also be purchased in pharmacies. The recipe is as follows: 8 - 10 tablets per 1 liter of milk. Grind the tablets into powder and add to milk, brought to a boil. Mix well, once the milk has curdled, strain it.
How to make grain cottage cheese at home
Our supermarkets sell cottage cheese, which is very popular among customers - it is a tender and tasty grain cottage cheese and it can also be made at home.
Ingredients:
- milk - 1 l.
- citric acid - 1/2 tsp.
- salt - 1/2 tsp.
- heavy cream - 6 tbsp. l.
Recipe for cottage cheese with lemon juice:
- Pour milk into a saucepan, place on the stove and bring to a boil.
- Remove pan from heat, add milk citric acid and stir for several minutes.
- Cover the pan with a cotton napkin and leave for 4 hours to allow the whey to separate.
- Strain as soon as the whey has drained, without removing the curd from the gauze, rinse it with cold boiled water and squeeze to obtain dry curd.
- Transfer the cottage cheese to a bowl, add salt, cream, mix well.
Homemade kefir cottage cheese
Another interesting recipe cottage cheese without heat treatment - you can use kefir or yogurt.
- If curdled milk homemade, then pour it into a plastic container and put it in the freezer. Kefir can be frozen in store-bought packaging.
- Place frozen yogurt or kefir in a colander with gauze.
- Hang the thawed mass in gauze over some container and hold until all the whey has drained.
- Of course, it won’t be possible to cook it quickly this way - while it thaws and drains, in total, they say, it takes about 8 hours.