Preparation of cheese at home.

What is cheese?

Cheese is a useful and nutritious product, which is obtained by the method of processing milk. The processing process is quite simple: milk is under the influence of lactic acid bacteria, as a result of which complex biochemical and enzymatic processes occur in the product. Due to the simplicity of the process, the preparation of cheese at home is possible.

Making cheese at home

The advantages of home-made cheese are: it is cheaper, tastier, nutritious, does not contain chemical additives and preservatives. The best cheese ripens in a piece from 0.5 kg and more, so it is recommended to calculate the volume of cooking of house cheese. Prepared at home, the cheese has nutrients, 0.5 kg of cheese contains as many useful substances as 4.5 liters of milk. The proper preparation of cheese at home makes cheese more rich in vitamins.

If you need to make a large amount of cheese, you can collect milk for some time. Milk should be stored in the refrigerator. To make a small amount of cheese, 10-15 liters of milk are enough. This will require:

• Milk.
• Leaven (a rennet enzyme is well suited).
• Equipment: mold, press, dishes, two pieces of gauze.

Cheese recipes at home

For the preparation of cheese, milk powder should never be used. It is necessary to use high-quality milk (milk of healthy animals that do not take any antibiotics). First of all, you need to collect the right amount of milk, while mixing milk should be done only if the milk is the same temperature. Otherwise, the preparation of cheese at home will be unsuccessful, i. E. The cheese will turn out to be of poor consistency.

Together with milk, the leading role in the preparation of cheese is played by leaven. It gives the milk the necessary acid and makes the cheese more tasty. Sourdoughs are different and can be made at home. The simplest is the leaven of milk: it is necessary to leave 0.5 liters of milk for 24 hours at room temperature in order to make it sour.

In the collected milk should be added to the leaven (the amount depending on the type of ferment). Milk should be sour for 15-24 hours before the formation of the curd. In order for the cheese to turn out more delicious, it is recommended to add a little salt. The resulting thick mass is placed in a bowl in which gauze is pre-lined. Then the ends of the gauze are joined in such a way that the entire surface of the dense mass is covered with gauze. The preparation of cheese at home is nearing completion. It remains only to drain all the whey from the curd. To do this, you need to design a simple system: on top of the mass apply a press (you can use bricks, from 2 to 8, depending on how hard the cheese should turn out), and provide a place for the flow of whey (suitable dishes, for example, saucepan ). Cheese should be under the press within a day. After that, the resulting mass is processed in various ways. One of the popular ones is aging in a saline solution. To do this, a saline solution is made at a rate of 300 grams per 4 liters of warm water. In the resulting solution, the cheese must be aged for 10 days. Homemade cheese is ready!

Correctly performing each technological operation improves the quality of the cheese. The process of making home-made cheese requires constant improvement, i.e. It is impossible to learn how to make high-quality cheese the first time. If you show diligence, then in time you can become a real cheese master.