How to prepare cottage cheese at home. How to make cottage cheese from milk at home

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Lately, the dairy industry has not made us very happy - everywhere you look there is reconstituted milk. Therefore, in order to eat not only tasty, but also healthy, you have to make cottage cheese from milk at home.

This is not so difficult, you just need to get suitable milk - either store-bought milk intended for baby food or farm milk will do. And I’ll tell you how to make cottage cheese from sour milk or yogurt. I’ll give you two proven recipes at once, choose the one you like best.

What to look for when choosing milk? On the manufacturer's reputation and shelf life. The lower the last parameter, the greater the likelihood that the product is natural.

Homemade sour milk cottage cheese

2 liters of farm milk (or other reputable milk)
2 tbsp. sour cream of any fat content

I know two ways to make cottage cheese at home: with and without heat. The first option takes less time, the cottage cheese is dense, suitable for making cheesecakes, casseroles and other cheesecakes.

Without heating, we get a very tender, I would say juicy product, this cottage cheese is suitable for consumption in its natural form with or without additives.

Of course, the division is conditional, and heat-treated dishes can be prepared from tender cottage cheese. For such purposes, it needs to be squeezed out of the whey a little harder. Oppression copes well with this task.

You don’t have to ferment milk with sour cream, as described below, but make cottage cheese from sour milk yourself, without human help.

How to make homemade cottage cheese from yogurt

Pour milk into a saucepan with a thick bottom, add sour cream and stir with a whisk, but without fanaticism - no need to whisk. The goal is to evenly distribute the sour cream throughout the entire volume of liquid.

Cover the dish with a lid and leave in a warm place for a day, maybe a little more. As a result, we get excellent yogurt. How do you understand that you can already make cottage cheese from sour milk fermented at home? The curd should be dense and quiver like jelly, and the whey will begin to flake off at the sides of the pan.

Place the dishes on the stove, low heat. After 10-15 minutes, the curd begins to curdle, separating from the whey. At this point, I stir the mass a little for more uniform heating (literally 4-5 movements from the edges to the center). Otherwise, the curd near the walls heats up more than in the middle, which affects the quality of the curd.

Important! We do not bring it to a boil, the heat is minimal all the time, this is the key point to make homemade cottage cheese from milk tender. Otherwise, the boiled yogurt will turn into rubber lumps.

Keep the pan on low heat for another 10-15 minutes. Then carefully stir again - literally a few movements from the walls to the center of the dish, no need to try to break the clots into small pieces, just mix the product to equalize the temperature inside the entire volume. Remove the pan from the heat, close the lid and leave for another 10 minutes.

Immediately after this, place the curdled mass in a colander lined with 2-3 layers of gauze. Let the whey drain for 2 hours. Options: tie the ends of the cheesecloth and hang the curd over the sink. When the bulk of the liquid has drained, to speed up the process, the cottage cheese can be placed under pressure. To do this, cover the product with the ends of the gauze and place a weight on top. Thus, the outflow of serum will accelerate.

This recipe for making cottage cheese at home from milk requires a certain amount of time: about 24 hours to prepare the curdled milk and about 3 hours to heat and weigh. Total 27 hours.

Don’t be alarmed, it will take a little less than an hour of your time; the rest of the process will proceed independently, without your participation.

How to make cottage cheese from sour milk without heating

As in the previous recipe, before making cottage cheese from milk, it must be fermented and turned into yogurt.

Pour two tablespoons of sour cream with half a glass of milk and whisk thoroughly with a fork. Only then mix the resulting mixture with the total volume of milk.
We put the dishes with the future yogurt in a warm place. After a day, the milk will completely sour, turning into a dense milk clot and yellowish whey. Sometimes the souring process can take a little longer, up to 30 hours. The duration of the process depends on the ambient temperature. The warmer it is, the faster.
This time we won't heat anything. Usually, in rural life, the clot is weighed out in a canvas or gauze bag. But you can get by with a more everyday set: a saucepan, a colander and 2-3 layers of gauze.
Weighing without heating is exactly the technique that will help make yogurt cottage cheese very tender and juicy.
We take a large saucepan, put a colander on top, and gauze in it. Pour the sour milk into a colander lined with a cloth and put the structure with the product in the cold (refrigerator, balcony). The whey will drain from the cottage cheese for 10-12 hours.

If you plan to use cottage cheese to prepare other dishes, I recommend making it a little drier. To do this, cover the curd mass in a colander with the edges of gauze and place a slight pressure on top; I use a jar of water. Keep the cottage cheese under pressure for a few more hours.

As you can see, this recipe for cottage cheese made from milk at home is more time-consuming: a total of 34-36 (sometimes 40) hours may be required to obtain a product of proper quality. Again, don’t be alarmed, in this case you will spend even less personal time than in the previous option - about half an hour.

Cottage cheese yield from 2 liters of milk: 400-500 g. This is very, very inexpensive for a quality product.

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 its beneficial effects 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 are general tips that are best taken into account in order to do everything correctly and ensure that 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 with the shortest 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 low-fat cottage 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 the best recipe and go ahead.

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 a warm place and after about a day the milk turned into curdled milk. But this process can take longer, it all depends on the temperature in the room. Another tip - do not place a can of milk in direct sunlight - it will, of course, turn sour faster, but it can spoil 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 I needed to hang a gauze bag over the container so that excess liquid would drain. 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 for quick preparation of 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. This 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 the pan from the heat, add citric acid to the milk 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 for cottage cheese without heat treatment - you can use kefir or yogurt.

If the curdled milk is 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.

Among fermented milk products, the most delicious and most nutritious is cottage cheese.

And if there are children in your house, then cottage cheese should always be in your refrigerator. This product is also useful for dietary purposes and for people with health problems.

It contains proteins and fats, as well as mineral elements such as:

Iron
Calcium
Phosphorus
Magnesium

And since the above substances that the body receives from food have a beneficial effect on all vital functions as a whole, such a product should be included in the diet regularly.

This homemade cottage cheese can, without a doubt, be added to children’s meals. Every mother makes sure that her child receives the best, his food is natural and nutritious, so homemade fermented milk product the choice of the best mothers.

Even an inexperienced housewife can prepare cottage cheese at home. There are many cooking options. The choice will depend on what product you want to get, whether you want a thicker curd or, conversely, a more dietary one. You can also independently adjust the consistency of the finished dish, making it, for example, more crumbly or soft.

Homemade milk with good fat content- the main component of delicious cottage cheese. After cooking, waste remains in the form of whey, which, if desired, can also be used in cooking. This whey is natural and healthy; it can be added to dough or used in okroshka.

How to choose the right main ingredient and what are the conditions for making yogurt? We will talk about this in detail in this article.

Preparing cottage cheese is a long process, but in fact, at each stage you will need to do a few manipulations, which will take little time. The rest of the cooking process will be done for you by lactic acid bacteria.

You can use any milk to make homemade cottage cheese. It can be homemade or store-bought pasteurized. The main condition for the ingredient used:

Increased fat content. If this is store-bought milk, then the fat content should be at least 3.2%.
Milk cannot contain preservatives or antibiotics, so purchased milk should have the shortest shelf life;
Milk must be of high quality and fresh.

Cottage cheese can be made from absolutely any milk. You can curd an excellent product from pasteurized milk and even from lactose-free milk. And if this is village milk that was used by the separator, then cottage cheese can also be made from the so-called waste. The main condition is that the product is fresh and of high quality.

From 1 liter of milk you can get a maximum of 300 grams of finished cottage cheese.

How milk sours

The process of making curdled milk is quite simple. At the very beginning, the milk should sour well. The result should be curdled milk. There are many ways, for example you can:

If you decide to use the standard method - keep it warm, then you can do it in the following way: put a can of milk in a warm place, for example, near a radiator and leave it there for about a day. To make the process happen faster, you can put a crust of black bread in the jar.

Important! The milk must not be stirred during the entire fermentation period. When thick lumps and bubbles appear in the jar, the mixture is ready. At the end of ripening, the yogurt will look like jelly. To check the yogurt for readiness, stick a spoon into it; if the ingredient is ready, it will be a thick mass.

If the milk was bought in a store, the curdled milk will rise closer to the surface, and the whey will be at the bottom.

Make sure that the yogurt does not sit for too long, otherwise it will ferment and the finished curd product will turn out sour.

How to make homemade cottage cheese for a child

It’s easy to make cottage cheese from milk for a child; you don’t even need to ferment the milk.

Take milk and kefir. You can take any quantity, depending on the desired amount of cottage cheese. The main thing is that there is two times less kefir than milk.

The milk must be poured into a saucepan and brought to a boil. Pour kefir into the heated liquid and boil over low heat for 10 minutes. As soon as the milk has curdled, the resulting mass should be poured into cheesecloth and allowed to drain well. What happened inside the gauze is ready-made cottage cheese for the baby.

If desired, you can add fruits or berries and beat it with a blender. You can also add yogurt or sugar. Using this cottage cheese, you can bake cottage cheese or casserole. All these dishes will be incredibly tasty and will only benefit your child.

Classic homemade cottage cheese recipe

We will need 3 liters of milk. Approximately 1–3 days will be spent on souring.

After you have decided on the choice of milk, taking into account all the recommendations and brought it home, you need to pour it into a clean jar or directly into a saucepan for further ripening. The dishes can be enameled or stainless steel.

Afterwards, the curdled milk is heated, as a result of which the fermented milk breaks down into two components, one of which is cottage cheese.

So, put the pan on the stove, but do not wait for it to boil. When the white flakes separate from the whey, remove the pan from the heat.

Next, take a colander and put clean gauze in it, folded several times and drain the entire mass. When all the whey has drained, the finished curd mass will remain in the gauze. Such cottage cheese will be tender, with a layer.

If you want crumbly cottage cheese, then you need to leave the mixture in gauze to drain for a longer time, for example, overnight.

Three liters of milk will ultimately yield about 600-800 grams of fermented milk product.

Recipe for cottage cheese in a water bath

We have already discussed how to make curdled milk from milk. Therefore, for this recipe you need take ready-made yogurt, made in any way you like and put in a pan.

Next, you need to take a pan that will fit the container with yogurt, and pour water into it. But this must be done so that the water does not come into contact with the bottom of the smaller pan. We put the finished structure of two pans on the fire and bring the water to a boil. After a few minutes, the whey will begin to separate.

You can turn up the heat a little, but watch so that the curdled milk does not boil. It is necessary to wait until curd clumps appear and sink to the bottom of the pan.

The thermal exposure process is complete and you can remove the pan from the heat and let the resulting liquid cool.

Making cottage cheese with kefir

If there is no milk in your refrigerator, and you don’t want to go far to the store, but you have a pack of kefir, then you can also make a delicious curd product from it.

Kefir should be:

Fresh.
Thick as yogurt.

So, after pouring 1 liter of kefir into the desired container, place it in a water bath. On medium heat, or even less, keep the liquid for about 30 minutes. Next, cover and let cool.

The cottage cheese is ready. The pumping procedure is the same, through gauze or a sieve.

Method for preparing low-fat homemade cottage cheese

This recipe is suitable for dietary nutrition, breakfast with low-fat homemade cottage cheese will be healthy and will not harm your figure.

For such cottage cheese, the milk must also be low-fat. Milk with 1% fat content can be bought in the store. You can buy homemade or store-bought milk with a fat content of 3.2% and skim off the cream several times during the settling process.

To ferment such milk, you need to put 2 tablespoons of low-fat kefir into a liter of raw materials used. This will significantly speed up the fermentation process.

From 1 liter of curdled milk you will get approximately 250 grams of cottage cheese.

The finished low-fat cottage cheese will not be as loose as regular cottage cheese, but it retains all the beneficial properties of this fermented milk product.

Making cottage cheese from milk at home is not difficult and anyone can do it. The main thing is desire, free time and a recipe that will be followed exactly. Without a doubt, it is easier and faster to purchase a finished product, but it is difficult to predict in advance whether it will be beneficial and whether it will be tasty. You prepare homemade cottage cheese from obviously fresh and high-quality ingredients, and, therefore, the result will please you in any case. Homemade cottage cheese – healthy and nutritious. This product is suitable for feeding the most demanding consumers: for children, the elderly, and for those who watch their figure.

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

Selection of raw materials

What base should I use for cottage cheese? There is an opinion that store-bought pasteurized milk is “dead” and is not suitable for such purposes. It’s 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 are no other raw materials, but when choosing it you should take into account some nuances:

Do not buy options with a long shelf life. They necessarily contain antibiotics, which prevent the raw material from turning sour.
Choose a product with a fat content of 3.6% or more.
Remember that 1 liter of packaged raw materials produces about 200 g of cottage cheese.

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

Packaged raw materials also have several advantages:

Cottage cheese made from store-bought milk has a soft and delicate consistency. It is not as grainy as the whole cow option.
It is enough to mash the product with a fork to turn it into an airy, homogeneous mass, which is ideal for baking. There is no need to grind the fermented milk component with a blender or through a sieve.
Cottage cheese made from pasteurized milk is suitable for people who are afraid of eating extra calories. The product is dietary, with minimal fat content and a delicate creamy taste.

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

The whey remaining after straining the cottage cheese is used to prepare okroshka and added to the dough for dumplings or pies.

Preparing milk

If you are not sure of the quality of the cow product, it is recommended to boil it. High temperatures kill E. coli and pathogenic 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 clay jug. Iron pans and other containers are not suitable for settling milk. Fermentation triggers oxidative processes, and the raw material acquires an unpleasant aftertaste.

The jars are not sealed, but only covered with a towel or rag on top. The lid, unlike fabric, does not allow air to pass through, which accelerates the ripening of the product. The cloth also protects the raw materials from ultraviolet radiation. Milk left in the sun not only quickly sours, but can also 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 cracker to the raw material. Fresh bread is also suitable, because the main thing is the yeast contained in the additive. Mushrooms activate fermentation, and the milk sours 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 that have cooled to 40–38 degrees. The products contain lactic bacteria, which are responsible for fermentation. It is better to use homemade sour cream or kefir rather than store-bought ones.

The third option is citric acid or table vinegar. A spoonful of the supplement 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 to prepare okroshka. The product increases the acidity of the stomach, irritates the walls and can burn the mucous membrane. An alternative to vinegar is freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Pasteurized milk is mixed with dry bacteria or liquid starters, which are sold in pharmacies and large supermarkets. The additive is activated only in heat, so the raw materials are preheated. Bacteria turn milk into curdled milk in just 6-8 hours.

Right place
Containers with the workpiece should be kept warm:

next to the battery;
near the stove;
you can lean the jar against a hot pan or kettle;
Place it near the back of the refrigerator.

Milk quickly turns sour in the bathroom, because it is always warm there. The main thing is that the container with the product should not be exposed to sunlight, due to which vitamin C evaporates and the taste of the future cottage cheese deteriorates.

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

Pasteurized or whole product should not be stirred, crushed, beaten or shaken. You need to wait until the milk separates into yellowish-greenish whey and large white breasts. If small flakes float in the container, it means the process is not finished yet. On average, 1 to 3 days are enough for the raw material to reach the correct consistency and it can be heated.

Heat treatment

Carefully pour the curdled milk into a large saucepan: for 3 liters of product, take a container with a volume of at least 5 liters. The curd rises a little during cooking and can escape if the container is too small.

Place the pan on an electric or gas stove, turn on the minimum temperature. The curdled milk 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 finger into the raw material and wait 2-3 seconds. If it is too hot, reduce 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 let cool slightly. All that remains is to strain the cottage cheese and squeeze out the excess whey.

There is also a steam heat treatment option. Heat water in a large saucepan, and place a smaller container in it, into which the curdled milk is poured. Heat for 15–20 minutes until the small flakes form a large pile, resembling a jelly-like consistency.

Option with microwave
The method will appeal to girls who want to spend a minimum of time preparing a healthy product.

Place the curdled milk in a liter jar or microwave oven with high sides.
Set the power within 360 – 400 W.
Timer for 10 minutes, do not cover the jar with anything.
The finished curd will float to the surface, and the whey will turn transparent greenish. If it has a milky tint, you need to turn on the microwave for another 2-3 minutes.

All that remains is to strain the cottage cheese when it cools down. There is no need to squeeze the mass, it will turn out dry.

Tip: Setting the microwave to maximum power will not speed up the process. The mass dries out from high temperatures and burns at the edges.

Recipe in the oven
A convenient and easy way to heat cottage cheese is to put it in the oven. To obtain a lean fermented milk product, use only yogurt. If you need fatty cottage cheese, sour milk is mixed with sour cream: for 3 liters of the first ingredient, approximately 1–1.5 liters of the second.

Pour the ingredients into an enamel pan and cover. Preheat the oven to 145–150 degrees, simmer the curdled milk for 45 minutes. Turn off and leave inside until cool. Separate from the whey, let it brew and can be consumed.

Cottage cheese from a slow cooker

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.
Drain the mixture in a colander. After cooling it can be consumed.

Pour no more than 2–3 liters of sour milk into a 5 liter bowl. If there is too much curdled milk, it will run away during cooking and flood the multicooker.

Straining correctly

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

Pour in the curd gradually, pushing large pieces with a spatula. When the whole mass is in a colander, it needs to be lightly compacted and knocked into one lump. Tie the gauze like a bag and hang it on a hook or rope. Place a bowl or pan under the cottage cheese, into which the remaining liquid will drain.

You don’t have to hang the gauze, but put a press on top:

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

Cover the top of the cottage cheese with foil or a plate. 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 mixture in the refrigerator. It is advisable to consume it within 3-4 days, because the homemade product spoils quickly.

The method works with any milk: whole, sterilized, pasteurized, or even lactose-free options. The raw materials do not need to be settled, just heat to 40 degrees and add 10% calcium chloride powder.

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

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

Option without heat treatment

Pour the curdled milk into a plastic container or glass bowl and put it in the freezer. Wait until the mixture freezes and turns into a hard white breast. Remove the curdled milk and place in a colander lined with gauze. When the mass has melted, hang it over a bowl and wait until all the whey has drained. Tender and airy 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

Add 1.5 liters of kefir
Switch the stove to low heat
Leave for 10 minutes, stirring gently
When the mixture has curdled, cool and place on cheesecloth.
Mix cottage cheese with bananas, apples or other fruits. Blend in blender until smooth
A delicious and healthy dessert for kids and adults is ready.

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

Video: how to make cottage cheese at home

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