To make cottage cheese at home, no specialized equipment is required, respectively, the cost of the production process will be minimal. As a rule, to make cottage cheese, it is enough to have:

• two pots of different sizes;
• slotted spoon;
• sieve.

At the same time, the simplest recipe allows you to do with one pan and gauze. It is advisable to use aluminum pots, not enameled ones, because in enamelled pots the milk may burn slightly when heated, which will negatively affect the taste of the final product.

Raw materials

The main raw material for making cottage cheese is milk, but kefir can also be used. Some recipes will require additional ingredients such as sour cream. Moreover, all products used must be natural. - pasteurized milk that can be purchased at the store cannot be used.

Premises

Of course, there are no special requirements for the premises for organizing home production - an ordinary kitchen is quite suitable, the main thing is that it is clean there and that there is enough space for work.

Expanding production

If you want to make not only regular, but also skimmed cottage cheese, you will need a milk separator - a special apparatus that separates milk into skim milk and cream. There are also separators for working with curd. They separate the fermented milk into curd and whey. But such equipment, as a rule, is used only in industrial production.

Technology and recipes

As we wrote above, there are many recipes for making cottage cheese, and each of them involves its own technology. Let's describe a couple of the simplest of them - they allow you to make a product as quickly as possible.

Recipe number 1

Fresh milk should be poured into a small saucepan and placed in a warm place - you can just leave it on the table. Keep the pan warm for at least 30 hours without touching the milk during this entire period - this will deteriorate the quality of the curd curd.

After the specified time, the milk will turn into sour milk and whey liquid. Now the pan needs to be put on the stove over very low heat. Sour milk must be heated, but it should not be brought to a boil. To better control the temperature, you can use a water bath - put a saucepan with fermented milk in another larger saucepan with water, and the water should reach no more than the middle of the saucepan with curdled milk.

If the fermented milk is overheated, the curd may become too hard., because of which it will crumble, and if you do not heat the yogurt enough, the cottage cheese will probably turn out sour, since the whey will not separate well enough.

During heating, the milk mass should not be stirred with a spoon - this will disrupt the process of separating the whey. During heating, the temperature should be checked periodically by simply touching the pan to prevent overheating. It is necessary to heat until characteristic curd curds and transparent whey appear, that is, about half an hour. After that, the pan must be removed from the heat and left to cool - it will take about six to eight hours until it cools completely.

Then you need to put the cottage cheese with a slotted spoon on a sieve, or pour the contents of the pan into a jar through cheesecloth, after which you should leave the cottage cheese for a while so that it stacks. If the cottage cheese was transferred to cheesecloth, it must be hung over the sink or bathtub, if in a sieve, it must be installed over any container so that the liquid has a place to drain. Until fully cooked, the cottage cheese should drain for about an hour and a half: if you leave it for a longer period, the product may become excessively dry.

Recipe number 2

This technology allows you to get ready-made curd even faster.

Pour milk into a jar, put a few tablespoons of sour cream or kefir there (about 50 grams per liter of milk), and leave in a warm place for fermentation. The addition of fermented milk products will give the cottage cheese a special taste, and in addition, it will significantly speed up this process - depending on the temperature, fermentation can take from 12 hours to a day. Do not stir the milk during fermentation.

When the milk mixture turns into curdled milk, you will need to take a clean saucepan, put a jar in it and pour in such an amount of water that it is approximately on the same level as the curdled milk. After that, the jar must be removed, and the pan must be put on fire. After bringing the water to a boil, turn off the heat and put a jar of fermented milk in a saucepan of hot water. The jar should be covered with a lid and left for about half an hour.

After the specified time has elapsed, the jar must be removed from the water and allowed to stand for another 40-45 minutes. After that, the contents of the can must be poured onto cheesecloth and the resulting curd curd hang over the bathtub or sink for two hours.

Profitability

Based on the fact that making one kilogram of cottage cheese requires about three liters of milk, a small subsidiary farm with two cows producing up to ten liters of milk a day can produce an average of six kilograms of cottage cheese daily. The average cost of one kilogram of medium-fat homemade cottage cheese on the market is 250 rubles. Low-fat cottage cheese costs about 300 rubles per kilogram. The net profit per month, therefore, will be about 45-50 thousand rubles. Additional profit can be obtained by selling by-products of production - whey and, if a separator was used in milk processing, cream.

There are no special difficulties in the production of cottage cheese at home, and it can bring significant profits, while taking away very little time. This is an ideal option for earning additional income from your personal subsidiary plots.

Homemade cottage cheese made from natural cow's milk will cost almost half the price of a store one. It does not contain chemical additives and antibiotics, which can increase the shelf life of raw materials. To get a healthy and safe product of our own production, you will have to go through three stages: the conversion of milk into yogurt, heat treatment and separation of the mass from whey.

Selection of raw materials

What base to use for curd? There is an opinion that store-bought pasteurized milk is "dead" and is not suitable for such purposes. Better to go to the market or visit familiar farmers, where you can get hold of a natural cow product.

Packaged milk is suitable for making cottage cheese, if there is no other raw material, but when choosing it, some nuances should be taken into account:

1. Do not buy options with a long shelf life. They must contain antibiotics that do not allow the raw material to sour.
2. Choose a product with a fat content of 3.6% or more.
3. Remember that about 200 g of cottage cheese is obtained from 1 liter of packaged raw materials.

Pasteurized milk is more expensive than homemade milk sold on the market. Manufacturers subject the product to heat treatment, therefore, when reheated, it will lose 60 - 70% of nutrients.

Packaged raw materials have several advantages:

1. Store-bought cottage cheese has a soft and delicate texture. It is not as grainy as the whole cow option.
2. It is enough to knead the product with a fork to turn it into an airy homogeneous mass, which is ideal for baking. You do not need to grind the fermented milk component with a blender or through a sieve.
3. Pasteurized milk cottage cheese is suitable for people who are afraid to eat extra calories. The product is obtained dietary, with minimal fat content and delicate creamy taste.

1. Natural raw materials contain a lot of calcium and other minerals, useful for both adults and children.
2. The cottage cheese turns out to be fatty, with a characteristic sour taste.
3. A liter of whole milk is 250-300 g of a fermented milk product plus cream, which can be removed from the raw material on the first or second day of settling.

The whey remaining after straining the cottage cheese is used to make okroshka, add to the dough for dumplings or pies.

Milk preparation

If you are not sure about the quality of a cow product, it is recommended to boil it. High temperatures kill E. coli and disease-causing bacteria. You can melt cottage cheese from sour milk, or rather, from yogurt, so the raw material must be brought to the correct consistency.

Dishes
Pour the whole or pasteurized product into a glass jar or earthenware jug. Iron pots and other containers are not suitable for standing milk. Fermentation triggers oxidative processes, and the raw material takes on an unpleasant aftertaste.

Banks are not sealed, but only covered with a towel or rag. The lid, unlike the fabric, does not allow air to pass through, which accelerates the fermentation of the product. The rag also protects the raw material from ultraviolet radiation. Milk in the sun not only sours quickly, but can turn green and spoil, especially if it is a pasteurized variety.

How to speed up fermentation
To get curdled milk in 1-2 days, add a piece of rye or black bread to the raw material. Fresh bread is also suitable, because the main thing is the yeast contained in the additive. Mushrooms activate fermentation, and milk turns sour in 12-24 hours, depending on the freshness of the product itself.

It is recommended to add 1-2 tablespoons of sour cream or 150-250 ml of kefir to boiled raw materials cooled to 40-38 degrees. Foods contain lactic bacteria, which are responsible for fermentation. It is better to use homemade sour cream or kefir, and not purchased.

The third option is citric acid or table vinegar. A spoonful of the additive is diluted in 3-4 liters of warm milk. Stir thoroughly and leave for 1-2 hours. The raw material turns into curdled milk almost instantly. Whey obtained from milk with vinegar should not be drunk or used for making okroshka. The product increases the acidity of the stomach, irritates the walls and can burn the mucous membranes. An alternative to vinegar is freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Pasteurized milk is mixed with dry bacteria or liquid starter cultures that are sold in pharmacies and large supermarkets. The additive is activated only in heat, therefore the raw material is preheated. Bacteria transform milk into yogurt in just 6-8 hours.

The right place
The containers with the workpiece must be warm:

• next to the battery;
• near the stove;
• you can lean the jar against a hot pot or kettle;
• place next to the back of the refrigerator.

Milk quickly turns sour in the bathroom, because it is always warm there. The main thing is that sunlight does not fall on the container with the product, because of which vitamin C evaporates and the taste of future cottage cheese worsens.

Important: In the refrigerator, the fermentation processes are inhibited, and the milk does not turn into curdled milk, but simply becomes unusable.

Pasteurized or whole food should not be stirred, pounded, whipped or shaken. Wait until the milk separates into yellowish-greenish whey and large white breasts. If small flakes are floating in the container, then the process is not over yet. On average, 1 to 3 days is enough for the raw material to reach the correct consistency, and it can be heated.

Heat treatment

Pour the sour milk carefully into a large saucepan: for 3 liters of product, you should take dishes with a volume of 5 liters or more. The curd rises a little during cooking and may escape if the container is too small.

Put the pan on an electric or gas stove, turn on the minimum temperature. The yogurt needs to be heated, but not brought to a boil. It is recommended to regularly check the temperature of the liquid with your fingers: dip your index or middle in the raw material and wait 2-3 seconds. If it is too hot, turn down the power or turn off the stove.

Stir the future cottage cheese with a wooden or iron spoon, but not too often. When large lumps float to the surface, set the pan aside and allow to cool slightly. It remains to strain the curd and squeeze out the excess whey.

There is also a steam heat treatment option. Heat water in a large saucepan, and put a smaller container into it, into which the yogurt is poured. Warm up for 15–20 minutes, until small flakes collapse into a large breast resembling jelly in consistency.

Microwave option
The method will appeal to girls who want to spend a minimum of time preparing a healthy product.

1. Transfer the yogurt into a liter jar or microwave oven with high sides.
2. Set the power in the range of 360 - 400 W.
3. Timer for 10 minutes, do not cover the jar with anything.
4. The finished curd will float to the surface and the whey will turn transparent greenish. If it has a milky shade, you need to turn on the microwave for another 2-3 minutes.

It remains to strain the curd when it cools down. You do not need to squeeze the mass, it will turn out to be rather dry.

Tip: If you put the microwave on maximum power, the process will not speed up. The mass dries up from high temperatures and burns at the edges.

Oven recipe
A convenient and simple way to melt cottage cheese is to put it in the oven. To get a lean fermented milk product, only yogurt is used. If you need fatty cottage cheese, mix the sour milk with sour cream: for 3 liters of the first ingredient, approximately 1-1.5 liters of the second.

Pour the products into an enamel saucepan, cover. Preheat the oven to 145-150 degrees, simmer the yogurt for 45 minutes. Turn off, leave inside until cool. Separate from the whey, let it brew and can be consumed.

Multicooker cottage cheese

• Pour the sour milk into a bowl.
• Select the "Heating" mode.
• Set the timer for half an hour, if you need dry crumbly cottage cheese, then for 45 minutes.
• Discard the mass in a colander. After cooling it can be consumed.

In a bowl with a volume of 5 liters, pour no more than 2-3 liters of sour milk. If there is too much curdled milk, it will run away during cooking and flood the multicooker.

We filter correctly

You will need a clean saucepan or large bowl, a thick piece of cloth or cheesecloth that is folded in at least 4 layers. Attach a colander to the container, put a rag inside so that its edges hang from the bowl by 4–5 cm.

Pour out the curd gradually, pushing the large pieces with a spatula. When all the mass is in a colander, it needs to be lightly tamped and knocked down into one lump. Tie gauze like a pouch and hang on a hook or rope. Place a bowl or saucepan under the curd, into which the remaining liquid will drain.

You can not hang the gauze, but put a press on top:

• one and a half liter bottle of water;
• grindstone;
• two-kilogram dumbbell.

Cover the cottage cheese with foil or a plate on top. If you like a soft “wet” product, 20–40 minutes is enough. To get dry crumbly cottage cheese, you need to hold the press for 2-3 hours. Store the prepared mass in the refrigerator. It is advisable to use it within 3-4 days, because a homemade product quickly deteriorates.

The method works with any milk: whole, sterilized, pasteurized, or even lactose-free options. Raw materials do not need to be defended, it is enough to heat up to 40 degrees and add 10% calcium chloride powder.

For 500 ml of base, take 1 tbsp. l of a pharmaceutical preparation. Stir the milk until the calcium is completely dissolved, wait until it boils. The mass will curl up and lumps will float to the surface. Cool the workpiece and strain.

Important: You can eat no more than 100 g of cottage cheese per day, prepared with calcium chloride, otherwise mineral metabolism in the body will be disrupted.

Option without heat treatment

Pour the sour milk into a plastic container or glass bowl and put it in the freezer. Wait for the mass to freeze and turn into a hard, white breast. Remove the curdled milk and put in a colander covered with gauze. When the mixture has melted, hang it over a bowl and wait for all the whey to drain. Delicate and fluffy cottage cheese reminiscent of mascarpone is ready to eat.

Curd mass for the little ones

Pour 3 liters of milk into a saucepan, bring to a boil

1. Add 1.5 l of kefir
2. Switch the stove to minimum fire
3. Keep for 10 minutes, stirring gently
4. When the mass curdles, cool and lay on cheesecloth
5. Mix curd with bananas, apples or other fruits. Bring in a blender until smooth
6. A delicious and healthy dessert for kids and adults is ready.

Homemade cottage cheese is one of the healthiest foods that you can eat every day. It will strengthen teeth, bones, immunity and improve mood. And the preparation of curd mass from whole or pasteurized milk will take only 40-50 minutes, not counting the time spent on purchasing and settling raw materials.

Video: how to cook cottage cheese at home

Everyone knows about the wonderful qualities of cottage cheese and its benefits for our body. But not everyone knows how to make cottage cheese at home.

Cottage cheese is extremely useful for the human body, while a lot of healthy and tasty dishes can be prepared from cottage cheese. To make cottage cheese, we need 2 liters of milk, a clean gauze napkin, two pots that fit one into the other, and a little patience. This process takes me about a day, but on the other hand, the cottage cheese turns out to be great.

Pour the milk into a saucepan, cover it with a lid and put it in a warm place - near a stove or radiator - for a time during which the milk should turn sour. If you, say, put milk in the morning, then you can be sure that by the morning of the next day it will definitely be ready, although everything also depends on the quality of the milk.

Sometimes, for taste, I add a couple of tablespoons of kefir or low-fat sour cream to the pan. Then I put the saucepan with sour milk in a large saucepan, but about the same height, and fill the gap between the sides of the saucepans with water.

Now you need to put pots with milk and water on low heat and not leave the stove for a minute. As the water boils, you will see the sour milk move away from the edges of the pan, a yellowish liquid will come out. Here it is urgent to remove the pots from the heat, remove the smaller pan and cool the semi-finished product.

Then everything is simple. You put a gauze napkin on the bottom of the sieve and gently spread the original product on it with a tablespoon. I tie the edges of the gauze together and hang the knot so that the serum gradually drips from it. What remains on the gauze bandage is cottage cheese.

It is important to remember that there is still a lot of water in fermented milk. The challenge is to get rid of the excess. In order to better prepare cottage cheese from a curd, it is cut into rectangular pieces in a saucepan, and only then transferred to cheesecloth.

Making cottage cheese at home is not difficult.

It is important to properly separate the whey.

Overheat the water - the cottage cheese will come out crumbly.

If you are not hot enough, it will be difficult to separate the whey and the curd will become sour.

If you want to get a denser cottage cheese, then put a kitchen plate scalded with boiling water on a cheesecloth with cottage cheese and place a load on top.

After getting the curd, many throw away the whey. And in vain! You can get jelly, fruit and berry jellies and even kvass from whey.

Here's how, for example, you can do whey jelly... We take 120 g of sugar for 1 kg of whey. 30 g of gelatin and 80-100 g of berries from jam. Sugar is added to the gauze strained through several layers and heated whey. Better in the form of a whey syrup. Then, after half an hour, add gelatin. The mixture is heated to near boiling. After that, berries from jam are added there and hot jelly is poured into molds.

Try it, delicious!

Make cottage cheese at homevery easy with your own hands and in this article you will find the best recipes for making a delicious product - including a very simple step-by-step recipe for homemade cottage cheese from milk and low-fat kefir.
Any, even the most expensive store product, will be inferior in taste and natural quality to the homemade one.

There are many methods of making cottage cheese at home, both old and new. It can be made from sourdough, milk, kefir, even yogurt will do. The classic way of making curd is based on milk.

A classic recipe with a photo. The fastest way to make delicious cottage cheese from milk:

STILLRECIPES (CHILDREN'S CREAM, CREAM CHEESE, FROM KEFIR) AND HELPFUL TIPS .

Allow fresh milk to sour a little. There is no need to create special conditions for this process, just put a container with it in the kitchen. Room temperature is fine. When the house is cool, you need to rearrange the jar closer to the battery or window.

When a thick white consistency with lumps has appeared, you can safely proceed to the following steps. The longer the souring period, the more sour the curd will turn out. Do not touch the jar for the first two days, then look to find the desired consistency.

Carefully, slowly, pour the acidic liquid into the pan, while shaking it cannot. Place the saucepan on low heat and leave it on until all the whey has flaked off. Make sure that the milk does not overheat, it should not be boiled - the finished product will have a rubbery taste.

When the heat has been turned off, let the substance cool down and use a colander. Gauze will be needed, which must be folded a couple of times and lowered into a colander. The area of \u200b\u200bthe folded gauze piece should be larger than the container itself, so that the rag edges hang from it.

The consistency has cooled down, put it in cheesecloth. It is advisable to substitute a deep plate for whey under the colander. If it is completely glass, tie the edges of the cheesecloth and hang over the container. It is not recommended to squeeze the product with your hands, it will become completely dry. When the serum stops dripping from the gauze, the substance can be taken out; this is the finished cottage cheese.

When using yogurt instead of milk, start to act with them in the same way as with sour milk. The presence of dyes or additives in yoghurt is not allowed.

Now you know how to make delicious and healthy cottage cheese at home. Different recipes will help diversify your morning diet and pamper your kids

In this article:

Preparing cottage cheese in your own kitchen will not be difficult for absolutely any housewife. It is customary to use store or farm milk as the main raw material, regardless of fat content. Making cottage cheese is possible from ready-made kefir, sometimes milk is added to the resulting consistency.

Homemade cottage cheese has many advantages, because it can be prepared at any time and in the required quantities. This process will be especially relevant for families with children, since a fresh and healthy product will always be present on the table in the house.

Features of the production of cottage cheese at home

To make 500 grams of cottage cheese you need:

• 2 liters of milk and 1 liter of kefir;
• sieve, slotted spoon (gauze);
• 2 saucepans of different sizes.

Milk should be poured into a saucepan, covered with a lid and left in a warm place for 5-6 hours.

For the specified time, it should turn sour. For a rich taste, you can add 6 tablespoons of kefir (low fat sour cream). The resulting mass with sour milk is placed in a saucepan and placed in a water bath.

The contents of the pan with milk are constantly stirring.

As the water boils, sour milk will gradually begin to move away from the edges of the pan, and the isolated yellowish liquid will indicate the initial stage of the formation of the curd mass. If such signs occur, the pans are removed from the heat and cooled. Separate the curd from the whey with a slotted spoon or gauze.

In the latter case, a gauze napkin should be placed at the bottom of the sieve and the almost finished product should be carefully laid out on it. The edges of the gauze are tightly tied together and suspended to drain the serum. Such a seemingly uncomplicated process has its own tricks.

If the water overheats, the cottage cheese will turn out to be crumbly, if it is not heated, there will be difficulties in separating the whey and the finished product will be too acidic. If there is a goal to get a cottage cheese denser in consistency, then a scalded kitchen board is placed on the cheesecloth with the product, and a load is placed on top. After the immediate receipt of cottage cheese, many throw away the resulting whey, but in vain. On its basis, you can prepare jelly or fruit and berry jelly.

Kefir-based curd production process

Raw materials - kefir put in a warm place in order to quickly separate the whey. After its release, the pan with kefir is placed in a water bath and heated to directly obtain the curd mass. Placing the mass in a gauze (cloth) bag will help drain the serum. Cold production of homemade cottage cheese. The following recipe for making cottage cheese is quite popular: 1 liter of kefir in a package is placed in the freezer for 3 days, after which the frozen product is taken out, placed in a colander with gauze and the whey is waited for separation.

The end result is a delicate and delicious cottage cheese.

Preparation of calcined curd

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 the preparation of cottage cheese is the addition of lactic acid calcium (diluted with water) at the stage of boiling milk with constant stirring (3 teaspoons per 2 liters of milk). The powder can be purchased at pharmacies. The finished product will yield 300-400 grams. Further, the technology is similar to the above methods.