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

Homemade cottage cheese is the most delicious because it is always fresh and natural. You can prepare it in different ways. The final result depends on the quality of the milk. Some people like cottage cheese fatty, with an oily structure, while others like a dietary product, with a small amount of fat and a sour taste.

Read more about how to make cottage cheese at home to suit every taste in the recipes.

Step-by-step recipes for homemade cottage cheese from milk - basic technological principles

Cottage cheese is made from natural (whole) milk. As you know, milk contains natural milk protein – casein. At a temperature of 10-12°C, milk ripens within 12-15 hours. During this time, the structure of the protein changes, and the process of natural ripening begins.

Then the milk is heated. Whey is separated and a clot is formed: under the influence of temperature, casein fibers coagulate (contract), pushing liquid (whey) out of the cells. In production conditions, this process is called pasteurization. It occurs at 63-65°C for 20 minutes. As the temperature increases, the pasteurization time shortens.

In fact, milk coagulation occurs at a lower temperature - 40-45 ° C, but in dairy plants, where huge volumes of raw milk collected from different farms are processed, the increase in pasteurization temperature is due to sanitary standards. When there is absolute confidence in compliance with sanitary standards during milking, in the sterility of the utensils and in the satisfactory maintenance of the animal, homemade milk can simply be heated until the whey begins to separate, and then removed from the stove and allowed to stand until completely cooled.

There is a pattern: the higher the milk pasteurization temperature, the worse the quality of the cheese grain. This is why sour boiled milk never forms a normal curd, although, again, under production conditions soft cheeses are produced from milk processed by high-temperature pasteurization. But there are special technologies for this.

To make homemade cottage cheese, you can use some industrial secrets. Some details of industrial technology for making homemade cottage cheese from milk are in step-by-step recipes and useful tips.

Step-by-step recipe for homemade cottage cheese from fresh milk

Ingredients:

Homemade milk 3.5 l (1 bottle)

Sourdough - the amount depends on the type of fermented milk product or enzyme

Calcium chloride 5% 5 mg (1 ampoule)

Preparation procedure:

1. The first stage is the normalization of milk. Of course, it is difficult to obtain milk of the required fat content using home methods, but the process can be approximately adjusted. The main thing is that the milk is whole. Fat content affects taste and consistency. The industry produces low-fat cottage cheese with fat content of 9% and 18%. Choose your option and skim off the cream as needed.

2. Pour the milk into a saucepan and heat to 35-40°C.

3. Add the starter into warm milk and stir for 5-7 minutes. Leave the pan at room temperature. At the same time, add calcium chloride to speed up the curdling of the milk.

Usually, milk sours without adding starter culture within 7-8 hours. During this time, acidity increases, the product is enriched with lactobacilli, and acquires a characteristic taste. This is an acidic method of preparing homemade cottage cheese. It is more natural.

Adding sour cream and other fermented milk products speeds up the process by 2 times. Sour cream, yogurt, whey or yogurt is the most optimal way to ferment milk at home - these products can be found in every home. There is only one obligatory condition: fermented milk products must be prepared thermostatically from whole milk.

If desired, replace fermented milk products with pepsin or other enzymes. This is the second, acid-rennet method for preparing homemade cottage cheese from milk, which can be used by replacing sour cream with enzyme in step two of the step-by-step recipe.

4. When a clot appears, place the pan on the stove and heat the raw materials again, stirring, at a temperature of no more than 40-42°C. With strong heating, the quality of the cottage cheese will deteriorate. Fat and calcium will go into whey, and the cheese curd will noticeably decrease in volume and become dry. However, this option is also acceptable, but it’s not for everyone.

5. Break the resulting dense clot into small fractions to speed up the separation of liquid.

6. Place a sieve or colander on a tray, the capacity of which should be at least 3.5 liters, so that the whey does not overflow over the edge of the dish. Cover the sieve with gauze folded in four layers and carefully, gradually pour the fermented milk.

7. When the bulk of the whey has drained, tie the ends of a gauze napkin and hang it over the pan for some more time to compact the cheese curd and remove excess moisture from the product.

From the specified amount of homemade milk you can get 350 - 400 g of fresh cottage cheese.

Step-by-step recipe for homemade cottage cheese from sour milk

Ingredient:

Homemade curdled milk

It happens that the milk has already turned sour, and it needs to be “put into action.” If the product has not been boiled, then it is quite suitable for making homemade cottage cheese. This milk does not require any special additives.

Preparation:

1. The curdled milk needs to be heated. When the temperature rises to 40°C, milk protein coagulates. All this has already been described above, in the basic technological principles of producing homemade cottage cheese from milk.

2. The next step is to separate the whey. Just as in the first step-by-step recipe, place a sieve on a saucepan of suitable volume, and pour the heated yogurt through a gauze layer.

3. Allow the whey to drain to the required moisture level of the curd. You can leave the curd in this position, and to speed up the process of separating the whey, hang it in gauze.

Step-by-step recipe for homemade cottage cheese made from milk (with lemon juice)

This is a step-by-step recipe for making paneer, Indian homemade cottage cheese made from milk. To coagulate casein, Indians use the juice of sour fruits - the result is homemade rennet cheese, with a delicate taste and dense consistency. This cheese is not salty, like feta cheese or feta cheese, so it is more like cottage cheese.

Ingredients:

Milk 6 l

Lemon juice 100 ml

Preparation procedure:

1. Heat homemade milk to 40-50°C.

2. Squeeze the juice from a fresh lemon.

3. Pour it in a thin stream at the edge of the pan on the stove, while stirring the milk in one direction.

4. Do not stop stirring until a thick clot forms.

5. Let the mixture cool and pour through a layer of gauze placed in a colander. You can transfer the curd into cheesecloth using a slotted spoon.

6. Fold the edges of the gauze towards the center. Place a plate on the cheese mass and a jar filled with water on it. The cottage cheese should be compressed.

7. Place the finished head into a tightly sealed container. Place in the refrigerator to ripen for 10-12 hours. Paneer is cut into pieces when serving. It is very good for preparing salads and desserts, as a filling for dumplings and pies.

At the stage of heating the milk, you can add herbs and spices to get an original snack. Hot pepper, garlic, ground coriander, cardamom, and mint are suitable.

Step-by-step recipes for homemade cottage cheese from milk - useful tips and secrets

Not every housewife has a lactometer to determine the fat content of milk. There is a solution: you can approximately determine the percentage of fat content by volume. For example: a bottle contains 3 liters of milk. Place it in the refrigerator overnight. By morning, the fat will rise to the top, since its molecules are lighter and larger than liquid. The fatty mass has a slightly creamy tint and is different in color from white milk. All that remains is to measure the volume of fat mass and determine the percentage of milk and fat. If in a bottle with a volume of 3 liters, the third part is a fat “top”, the milk has a fat content of about 10%. This is a good indicator of milk quality.

Domestic cow's milk has the highest fat content in the cold season, when animals are transferred to winter housing. This milk contains 12% fat content. If you need to prepare low-fat cottage cheese, put the milk in the refrigerator for 7-8 hours, then skim off the cream - the raw materials for the cottage cheese are ready.

To speed up the coagulation of milk protein, add calcium chloride to the raw milk. This additive is also used in the dairy industry. It allows you to increase the volume of cheese grains, enriches dairy products with calcium, which passes into whey during pasteurization of milk. Calcium chloride is a cheap drug that is available at any pharmacy without a prescription. Per liter of milk, 0.5 ml of a 5% solution is sufficient. This is literally 2-3 drops of solution. Chloride is an absolutely harmless drug, but it should not be abused. As the great healer said, medicine differs from poison only in dosage.

Goat milk is a very valuable and dietary product. It contains less fat than cow's milk, but goat's milk also has lower coagulability due to the structural features of milk protein. High-quality homemade goat milk cottage cheese can only be obtained using the acid-rennet ripening method.

The dairy industry produces cottage cheese made from reconstituted (powdered) milk, skim milk, but these methods for making cottage cheese at home are complex and require the use of special household appliances and devices.

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.

Many housewives prepare fermented milk products on their own to be sure of their quality and the naturalness of the ingredients. Making the same cottage cheese at home from milk is not such a complicated process; there are many simple recipes and methods for preparing it. However, you should take into account certain nuances, without which you will not get a tasty treat.

Most often, this product is made by mothers for their little children.

You can make a good product from both homemade and store-bought milk. In the first case, it will be fattier and more tender, and will be cheaper in cost. The second option will turn out to be almost fat-free and fine-grained.

To achieve the desired result, you will have to delve into some of the features of how to make cottage cheese from milk correctly:

• the main component should sour naturally, without your help and not in the refrigerator;
• curdled milk should not be overheated; high temperature exposure will make the final dish dry and tough;
• when heating in a water bath, it is important to maintain an optimal temperature, which will prevent the semi-finished product from turning into a rubber mass;
• green whey indicates that the curdled milk has matured enough to be used in cooking.

How to make cottage cheese from sour milk

For those who are faced with the question of how to make cottage cheese from sour milk at home for the first time, there is a simple solution to this problem:

1. the modern method of cooking has not undergone any changes over the years, which cannot be said about the industry;
2. get a delicious curd from well-heated yogurt or sour milk;
3. it is placed in a linen bag to separate the dense part from the liquid, which is whey;
4. for these purposes, use enameled dishes or those made of stainless steel that do not have chips or defects;
5. the process of expressing is accelerated with the help of small weights suspended from the bottom of the gauze in which the curd mass is located;
6. It is strictly not recommended to use powder concentrate, since the finished dish will be far from natural, with less fat content and a less pronounced taste;
7. experienced housewives prepare the delicacy in the evening, since all the whey has time to drain overnight and in the morning they can please their household with a healthy, nutritious breakfast.

Classic recipe from fresh and sour milk

There is one universal method that runs on its own and does not require your direct participation in the process. It cannot be called fast, since you will receive the finished mass only on the second or third day, but ripening will be absolutely natural and will keep all the beneficial lactic acid bacteria alive.

In the classic version, for 1 kg of cottage cheese, you will need:

• 3 liters of fresh milk, if possible not pasteurized;
• a colander and 2 spacious dishes - one large, the second smaller;
• clean thick gauze or cotton cloth.

The classic cooking process has not changed for many years and is completely simple.

So, how to make cottage cheese at home from milk, recipe:

1. pour the main ingredient into a sealed container and leave it until it completely sours for a couple of days;
2. Heat the container with the fermented dense mixture in a water bath over low heat;
3. Stir the mixture constantly and cook it for about 15-20 minutes until curd lumps form;
4. when the heated mixture separates into two parts, set it aside and let cool;
5. use a large bowl and place a colander on it, covering it with cloth or gauze;
6. Never use a sieve or fine cloth for these purposes;
7. pour the contents onto the prepared material and tie it in a tight knot so that the whey drips from it;
8. Once all the liquid has drained and stopped dripping, your curd will be ready.

The second option, how to make cottage cheese from sour milk, can give an unpredictable result, but does not require any effort:

• Immediately place the sour milk in a thick cloth and hang it over the container to drain the liquid;
• gauze will be irrelevant, since it will have to be folded in many layers due to the delicate texture of the main component; the protein will still leak through the holes.

Made from fresh cow's milk and sour cream

Another simple recipe - cottage cheese from fresh milk at home with the addition of sour cream:

1. mix both components in a ratio of 2 tbsp. spoons of sour cream per liter of liquid;
2. leave the container with the mixture warm until completely soured;
3. pour 0.5 liters of fresh milk into a saucepan and add yogurt to it;
4. stir everything until smooth and keep on low heat for 15-20 minutes;
5. cover the pan with a lid and let the contents cool;
6. Place a colander with gauze or a linen bag and separate the liquid from the protein mass.

It is worth noting that home cooking is not a more economical option than store-bought

From milk powder and lemon

A dry product is far from the best solution, but if you don’t have a natural ingredient on hand and want to speed up the cooking process, then you can use this recipe from milk on how to make homemade cottage cheese:

• dilute the dry powder so that you get 3 liters of liquid;
• take 3 medium-sized lemons or a packet of citric acid;
• squeeze out lemon juice, about 120 ml;
• pour everything into the pan and stir;
• heat the mixture in a water bath, stirring occasionally;
• heat until the curd flakes begin to separate from the whey;
• turn off the heat and let the semi-finished product brew for 10-15 minutes;
• place the mixture in a colander with linen and strain off the whey;
• After 20 minutes, release the finished curd from the fabric and let it rest for 40 minutes.

How to make cottage cheese from goat milk

Some housewives are often interested in the question of how to make cottage cheese from goat milk, and this is not particularly difficult if you follow this method:

1. prepare 1 liter of goat's milk and 2 tablespoons of fat sour cream;
2. heat the main component to about 50 degrees and remove from the stove;
3. dilute the sour cream in a small amount of cold milk and add it to the warm liquid;
4. mix everything thoroughly and put it in a warm place to curdle and settle;
5. as soon as bubbles form, your curdled milk will be ready;
6. place it in a water bath and heat for about 20 minutes;
7. turn off the heat and keep the container with yogurt in the bath for another 10 minutes;
8. Express the whey in the standard manner.

Goat's milk is also often used as an ingredient

Cottage cheese from store-bought milk

The specifics of preparing this dairy product are quite similar. Cottage cheese from store-bought milk at home is prepared in the same way as any other, although it has its own nuances:

• the pasteurized product is cooled and seasoned with kefir, yogurt or sour cream;
• For 1 liter of liquid ingredient there are approximately 3-4 tbsp. spoons of your chosen starter;
• the prepared mixture is placed in a warm place for 8-10 hours;
• the resulting curd clot is separated from the whey using gauze.

Cooking methods and recipes

There are many ways to make delicious and healthy cottage cheese. Making cottage cheese at home from milk has many options:

1. classical method in a water bath;
2. using a microwave oven;
3. by baking in the oven;
4. You can also make it in a slow cooker.

In the microwave

One of the most basic recipes, which was created literally for lazy people. All you need is a package of sour milk or kefir. It must be poured into a container suitable for a microwave oven and, without covering with a lid, put into it for 10 minutes, setting the power to full. Next, drain the resulting water and enjoy the dish.

In the oven

A labor-intensive process that requires attention and strict adherence to recommendations. It is a variation on the theme of how to cook cottage cheese from sour milk:

1. 5 hours before readiness, the jar of sour milk is brought into a warm room;
2. the acidic product easily comes off the glass and easily rotates when the container is turned;
3. the jar should not be completely full, there should be 1-2 cm free up to the neck;
4. it must be placed in a cold oven and left for 40-50 minutes at a temperature of 120-150 degrees;
5. then turn off the oven and leave the product in it until it cools completely, it is best if you cooked it in the evening so that it stands until the morning.

In a slow cooker

A modern method of cooking in a slow cooker will require a liter of high-fat milk, a 150-gram jar of natural yogurt, a teaspoon of sugar and salt. Everything is placed in a bowl and mixed thoroughly, after which it is cooked for half an hour according to the milk porridge program. If there is no such thing, then the same 30 minutes at a temperature of 95 degrees. When everything is ready, the whey is filtered through a sieve.

How long can cottage cheese be stored?

Like any perishable fermented milk product, cottage cheese is not stored for long, at a temperature no higher than 8 degrees and no more than three days from the moment of preparation.

If you place the product in the freezer, it can stay there for about a month, but after defrosting, most of the taste properties will be lost.

To prevent the product from turning sour ahead of time, do not store it in polyethylene - give preference to glass or enamel containers with a tight lid.

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 a 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 an unpleasant odor and may begin 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.

Making cottage cheese from milk at home is a completely simple process. And the resulting product will be both healthier and tastier than cottage cheese purchased at the market or in a supermarket.

Ingredients:

3 liters of milk poured into a glass jar;
- pot;
- colander;
- gauze.

How to make cottage cheese from milk at home:

To make good cottage cheese, it is best to use natural homemade or farm milk. The pasteurized store-bought product probably won't work. The quality and purity of milk should not cause you any doubts, because milk cannot be boiled - good cottage cheese does not tolerate high temperatures.

A jar of fresh milk does not need to be placed in the refrigerator, it should be in a warm place. After 2-3 days, the milk should turn into curdled milk. When the curdled milk is ready, you will be able to see vertical “movements”. They are formed by bubbles of carbon dioxide rising upward. Ready yogurt resembles jelly, easily separating from the walls of the jar. It is extremely important to ensure that the milk does not acidify, otherwise the cottage cheese will turn out very sour.

If the milk was of high quality, then a fairly large amount of cream will form on the surface of the resulting curdled milk, which needs to be skimmed off. The more of them left, the fattier the cottage cheese will be. This is how you can achieve the desired fat content of the final product.

The jar of curdled milk must be placed in a saucepan, which is set on fire (very low) and on the bottom of which a thick cloth folded in several layers has been previously placed. You need to pour water into the pan so that it reaches the middle of the jar.

To warm up the curdled milk better, you should take a knife with a long blade and cut it crosswise. The jar must be covered with a small piece of gauze. The curdled milk should be in the pan until the water begins to boil, but under no circumstances boil. This process will take approximately an hour. After this, you need to turn off the fire and leave the jar of yogurt, from which the whey has already separated, in hot water for another 10 minutes.

In the meantime, you need to prepare a container into which the whey will be poured, and a colander covered with a fairly large piece of gauze, folded 3-4 times, or a thick cotton cloth. The cottage cheese will remain in it. You need to carefully shake out the contents of the jar in order to preserve the integrity of the product as much as possible, because the larger the pieces of curdled milk, the tastier the cottage cheese will be.

Next, the edges of the gauze need to be lifted up, tied and hung over the container into which the whey will drain. You can tie gauze with cottage cheese, for example, to the handle of a kitchen drawer, and place the whey container on a stool under it.

You cannot squeeze the cottage cheese by hand, because the structure of the product may be damaged and it will turn out dry and grainy. The serum should drain on its own. The cottage cheese will be ready when the gauze completely stops dripping.

From 3 liters of milk you can get from 500 to 800 g of cottage cheese. This depends on the fat content of the milk and the moisture content of the final product. Cottage cheese prepared according to this recipe turns out to be quite dense, but not dry, moderately fatty and with a very pleasant, milky, not sour smell.

From this homemade cottage cheese you can make delicious homemade cheesecakes according to our recipe!