Why cottage cheese creaks on the teeth. Why cheese is useful

Cheese is one of the most popular and demanded products in our country. But how to choose this product? This and other popular questions about cheese were answered by Maria Kazakova, the chief technologist of the Anuiskoye AKH, which includes three butter and cheese plants in the Petropavlovsk region. In 2016, it will be 40 years since our expert has been working in dairy production.

Maria Kazakova, chief technologist of the Anuiskoye holding company and head of the farm Vladimir Nikiforov

Oleg Bogdanov

- How to correctly determine at a glance whether the cheese is of high quality or not?

— When I approach the counter, first of all I pay attention to the color of the product on the cut. If he orange color or close to that, it means there are coloring substances in the cheese. It must be borne in mind that cheese can be neither orange nor bright yellow color especially in winter. "Winter" cheese has, as a rule, weak yellow. If possible, you should smell the cheese. IN quality product the smell of pasteurized milk should be present. If it smells of some kind of impurity, then the rules of sanitation were violated at the plant: the equipment was not washed well. In the event that you are given a piece of cheese to try, you must first chew it on your front teeth. Without swallowing, the cheese must be moved to the molars, and here its taste is revealed.

“Sometimes it happens like this: you buy seemingly good cheese at first glance, you come home, you start tasting it, and it falls apart or “squeaks” on your teeth. Why is this happening?

Because it's not ripened cheese. It was cooked, dried, and after 5-7 days it was sold for sale. I must say that at the first stage, all cheese has a "rubber" consistency. But after two months of ripening, it becomes elastic and uniform.

- It is believed that if the cheese has an "eye", that is, large holes, then the product is of high quality. Do you agree with this?

- I do not think that the presence of a “drawing” is one hundred percent proof of the quality of cheese. good cheese maybe without a "drawing" at all. Although in professional tasting, when the product is evaluated on a 100-point system, quality cheese with the "eye" there are more chances to score maximum amount points\

Production at the "Nikolaev Butter and Cheese Plant".

Oleg Bogdanov

- There is an opinion that home-made cheese is of better quality than the one made at the factory.

- Indeed, now it has become fashionable to cook cheese at home. But mostly these are brine varieties, such as cheese. But I would not say that making cheese at home guarantees its quality. This question depends on the ingredients that are used in cooking, the sanitary condition of the equipment, the skill of the specialist, and not only on the place of preparation.

- Tell me, how to store cheese at home?

— For example, you bought a kilogram of cheese in the market. It is clear that it is quite difficult to eat such an amount at once. In order for the cheese to be preserved as long as possible, it must be cut into several more pieces and wrapped tightly with ordinary cling film pushing the air out from under it. Cheese wrapped in this way will keep longer in the refrigerator.

Oleg Bogdanov

- And if mold has appeared on the cheese, does this mean that it has completely deteriorated?

- Cheese and mold are, one might say, twin brothers. The process of maturation of cheese is inherently associated with the formation of mold on its surface. If it appeared during the storage of the product at home, you can simply cut it off and use the cheese further. In order to prevent mold from appearing again, the cheese must be stored without air access in cling film.

- It is believed that cheese is a fatty product. Is it so?

- 100 grams of 50% fat cheese contains 362 kilocalories. This counts as quite a lot. Therefore, nutritionists advise limiting the use of this product to 30-50 grams per day.

Before publishing specific recipes, I would like to write a few words about the principles of making cheeses. As our teachers said, cheese making is very difficult and simple at the same time. It's like in music: there are seven notes, and there are countless melodies. What are these notes that make up the formation of a cheese head?

First, milk. It can be more or less fatty, dense in protein or not. The composition of proteins can be different. I received confirmation that I made the right choice between the Yaroslavl, Kostroma and Schvitsky breeds of cows. The institute itself makes cheeses from the milk of Yaroslavok and is very satisfied. My Swiss cow also showed itself remarkably well in this sense. Well, Kostromichek, with reservations, can be called a mixture of these two breeds.

There are objective indicators. Fat in milk should be at least 3% (but too fat milk also not for everyone cheese will do, so it is normalized), protein (casein) - also at least 3%. The protein in milk is different. Casein makes up about 80%, and there are also whey proteins that are “extracted” from milk during the preparation of ricotta. How many of them there really are (about 20%) I was convinced now, having learned how to make real whey ricotta. For example, yesterday, from 21 liters of milk, I made 3 heads of cachotta, almost 1 kg each (which is not bad in itself, the milk in the hay is now especially dense), and adding 1 liter of milk to the whey, I got another 900 g of ricotta.

If the milk is too fat, we will not be able to cook hard cheese, if it has little fat, the cheese will not be elastic. Here is one of the "notes" for you! For parmesan, it is taken in half removed and whole milk. Cream is also added to soft cheeses that should be spread on bread. My heifer's milk is not very fat, just right for a semi-hard cheese. One of the members of our group brought his own mozzarella (it must be said, a very capricious cheese), it was very tasty, but not typical, soft for mozzarella. As they explained to us, the reason was that he cooked it from whole milk, not normalized for fat.

The second point is the acidity of milk. At the institute, and in general in production, the acidity of milk is measured at each stage of milk processing, from its acceptance to the finished cheese. Not only is it different for each recipe at different stages, its gradual increase is the most important indicator of the quality of the milk itself. It turns out that in milk from sick animals, acidity does not increase (mastitis, leukemia).

Titratable acidity at the institute is measured by a cunning by chemical means, and this method did not seem completely objective to me. After all, the degree of acidity is determined by the change in the color of milk, to which a reagent is added drop by drop. But color sensitivity is different for everyone. However, the laboratory assistant's eye has long been trained, but our volunteer - Timur - suffered pretty badly.

It is much easier to work with a pH meter, but firstly, the accuracy of these devices is also different, you need to buy a good and expensive one, and secondly, it measures the acidity of the whey (which differs from the acidity of the milk clot) for some reason crookedly.

Is this indicator really that important? After all, we cook cheeses without it, by eye, and it turns out? Here is a nuance. We get what we get, and if we want to get a guaranteed result at the output, and even corresponding to GOST, acidity is important. And my mozzarella didn’t work out, as I now understand, just because I couldn’t control this very acidity. In general, such cheeses as suluguni, provolone, mozzarella, and others, in the preparation of which such a technique as melting is used, are very capricious. There will be no necessary acidity - melting will not work. And if by trial and error, you can spoil a lot of milk. So, to be honest, I don't even bother with them. Bye.

So, whether the milk is of high quality, whether it is fresh, mature or not - it all shows acidity. And also, for example, how much grain should be washed for cheeses of the Dutch group. I'm trying to completely remove the whey and rinse the grain almost clean water. And at the institute they measured the acidity - they replaced part of the whey with water. They measured it again - just, you don’t need to rinse it harder! And so for each recipe.

The next moment is sourdough. In general, they require a separate topic, so now I will only talk about the basic principle. We choose the sourdough depending on what kind of “music” we want to “play” today: with a high temperature of the second heating or not. And the heating temperature is the dominant among our "notes". The cheese is heated once or twice. Soft cheeses are made without a second heating, the first heating is 32-34 degrees - the standard for all soft and semi hard cheeses, for the preparation of which high temperatures are not used. And for them, a mesophilic sourdough is chosen, that is, a sourdough that works at temperatures not higher than 43 degrees. 43 degrees is the limit temperature of the SECOND heating for semi-hard cheeses (if we use mesophilic sourdough).

That is, we heated the milk to 32-34 degrees, introduced the starter and the milk-clotting enzyme, got the sadness, cut it. While the process is the same for all cheeses. If this soft cheese We don't heat it up anymore. If we want to get semi-solid - we got it cheese grain must be reheated. You can heat it up in two ways. Either by turning on our heat source again (gas, electricity. Firewood, finally) Or by pouring it into our container hot water, as is done for cheeses of the Dutch group. The temperature of the second heating is 38-42 degrees. Here it already depends on the specific recipe, and on the quality of milk, and on the size of the cheese grain, and other nuances. And here art begins, and each cheese maker may have his own little secrets.

For example, at one lecture the question was asked: how to get a nutty flavor in a semi-hard cheese during aging. Our lecturer at that moment was an uncle who was not very willing to share his secrets with us. But then the girl who asked the question stuck to him "with a knife to his throat." And he reluctantly said that such an aftertaste is obtained if for a semi-hard cheese the temperature of the second heating is taken at 38 degrees, but in order for the cheese to be sufficiently hard, the milk must be very dense. And he didn't say a word about the size of the curd, so I think he didn't fully reveal the secret. In general, the usual temperature of the second heating is 40 degrees. At lower temperatures it is really difficult to get a hard enough cheese.

Another story is cheeses with a high temperature of the second heating. In this case, thermophilic sourdough is used, which works at temperatures up to 58 degrees. (At the same time, for the first time, milk is usually heated to 36-38 degrees) Most often, Italians use thermophilic sourdough for their cheeses. And not only for hard ones. For example, cachotta can even be semi-soft, but thermophilic sourdough is used for it. The temperature of the second heating of this cheese is not too high - 42-43 degrees. But then the resulting heads "reach" the desired condition on the steam bath, and the water temperature for this steam bath just within 56-58 degrees. You can, in fact, take a little higher, until the steam penetrates the cheese, it has time to cool. The cheese will then turn out denser, not semi-soft, but semi-hard. But in general heat the second heating is used, of course, for making hard cheeses. However, high temperature is important, but not the only condition if we want to get hard cheese. The size of the curd plays a big role here. But more on that next time.

In Lapland it is called bread cheese. This name combines two of my hobbies at once - bread and cheese. Therefore, I could not pass by and not cook it. I got acquainted with this unusual cheese in Finland, thought - "funny" and forgot about it. And I remembered about him only a few years later.

It is difficult to find him in Moscow. And yet he came across to me recently in one chain store. Petersburg, I'm sure it is more common. In Finnish, this cheese sounds like juustoleipa (juusto - cheese, leipa - bread), so you can call it cheese bread. Yes, and outwardly it is very similar to a bread cake.

It is also called "squeaky". Because it creaks on the teeth. It differs from other fellow cheeses in that it is not boiled, but baked like a casserole. Eaten chilled with cloudberry jam and coffee or cream filling.

Why does cheese creak?

In fact, it is very similar in texture to Cypriot halloumi: it also creaks and is most often consumed fried.

The question arises: due to what this creakiness is achieved? Any special ingredient or cooking technique?

I came across several recipes in which starch, sugar and something else were present, I don’t remember anymore. And out of inexperience, if I decided to cook it then, I would decide that this is it. the right recipe. But not now. Having prepared a certain amount of cheese with my own hands, I still think that this is superfluous in the cheese recipe and I believe that such recipes appeared to give "pseudo-squeakiness" to cheese from store milk. In fact, the creakiness of the cheese comes from certain ingredients in the milk itself! The secret is in the casein! Remember, we have already discussed the problem of "store" pasteurized milk? All milk in Russia is subject to mandatory pasteurization, but the pasteurization conditions at different enterprises are different, so one milk can be stored for only 5 days, and the other for 10 or more. And if almost any milk is suitable for yogurt, then the situation is somewhat different with cheese. The "rougher" the pasteurization, the worse it is for the milk protein casein. Now I'm "testing" a few more "shop" brands with a declared expiration date of 5 days, but for now ... I'll tell you about my find, which you can definitely use to make the "right" cheese.

Recently, a good friend of mine wrote to me and told me that he had been ordering for a long time farm products from the Tver region in the Green Meadows store. I looked for free shipping they have quite an adequate volume, plus they can deliver at a strictly defined time - no need to wait all day, and I decided to try it! milk, sour cream, butter And heavy cream- here is a list of products by which you can immediately determine what it is, because the taste of farm milk is very different from the "store" one. Milk from the village of Boncharovo has rich taste, slightly sweet. It's very good for cheese. Well, 40% fat cream is just an unreal find for ice cream! The taste of cream is very strongly reflected in ice cream, since this is its main ingredient.

They also have very good goat milk, which makes an amazing soft goat cheese with herbs. A stable curd and the purest whey after straining is one of the best results from everything I've tried. By the way, for soft goat cheese, in principle, the milk that is sold in a regular chain store is also suitable (the main thing is not to forget to look at the label, it is important that it is pasteurized whole milk, not sterilized milk), although the difference, of course, is still felt! Requirements to goat milk For fresh cheese slightly less. But for semi-hard and hard cheeses - it is also worth taking note!

Recipes different cheeses- from the simplest, not requiring special ingredients, to complex ones - can be found by the "cheese" tag. So if you are lazy to make cheese yourself, in the same store there are excellent cheeses. I ordered cow cachotta and mixed milk cachotta.

For a small cheese you will need
2 liters unpasteurized or pasteurized farm milk
1/8 tsp liquid rennin diluted in 25 ml filtered water
1/8 tsp calcium chloride diluted in 25 ml filtered water (for pasteurized, added to improve curd formation)
salt

Saucepan, thermometer, sieve, slotted spoon, measuring spoons (more convenient to measure)...

1. Warm the milk in a saucepan to 32-34 degrees, remove from the stove, add calcium chloride and stir for 30-40 seconds. Then add the rennin and mix again with smooth movements for a minute. Leave covered for 30-50 minutes to form a clot.
2. Cut the finished clot (the texture should be like yogurt), making a mesh and cutting with a knife to the very bottom. Then draw a knife parallel to the bottom, cutting the entire mixture in half.
3. Return the pan to the stove and continue to heat over low heat, stirring occasionally, to 40-45 degrees. Then remove from the stove and leave for another 20 minutes. During this time, the cheese grain will ripen and separate from the whey. Transfer the grain to a sieve and let drain. You can use a slotted spoon to speed up the process by periodically pressing. As soon as a uniform flat cake is formed, with minimum content whey, you can bake. (I usually give halloumi some time for the serum to reach its maximum glass). Don't forget to salt!
4. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. shift cheese cake into an ovenproof dish and bake for 15 minutes on each side. After turning over, drain the whey formed during baking.
5. Ready cheese cool down.

Lapland squeaky cheese is ready! And he has a taste - a real Finnish winter!
It is served with cloudberry jam, but it is no less tasty with lingonberry, orange, apricot jam and honey! It is said that the Finns love to dip it in coffee or pour cream over it.

This and other popular questions about cheese were answered by Maria Kazakova, the chief technologist of the Anuiskoye AKH, which includes three butter and cheese plants in the Petropavlovsk region. In 2016, it will be 40 years since our expert has been working in dairy production.

- How to correctly determine at a glance whether the cheese is of high quality or not?

- When I go to the counter, first of all I pay attention to the color of the product on the cut. If it is orange or close to that, then there are coloring substances in the cheese. It must be borne in mind that cheese cannot be either orange or bright yellow, especially in winter. "Winter" cheese has, as a rule, a slightly yellow color. If possible, you should smell the cheese. A quality product should have the smell of pasteurized milk. If it smells of some kind of impurity, then the rules of sanitation were violated at the plant: the equipment was not washed well. In the event that you are given a piece of cheese to try, you must first chew it on your front teeth. Without swallowing, the cheese must be moved to the molars, and here its taste is revealed.

- Sometimes it happens like this: you buy seemingly good cheese at first glance, you come home, you start tasting it, and it falls apart or “squeaks” on your teeth. Why is this happening?

Because it's not mature cheese. It was boiled, dried, and after 5-7 days it was sold for sale. I must say that at the first stage, all cheese has a "rubber" texture. But after two months of ripening, it becomes elastic and uniform.

- It is believed that if the cheese has an "eye", that is, large holes, then the product is of high quality. Do you agree with this?

- I do not think that the presence of a "drawing" is one hundred percent proof of the quality of cheese. A good cheese can be without a "pattern" at all. Although in a professional tasting, when the product is evaluated on a 100-point system, a quality cheese with an "eye" has a better chance of scoring the maximum number of points.

- There is an opinion that home-made cheese is of better quality than the one made at the factory.

- Indeed, now it has become fashionable to cook cheese at home. But mostly these are brine varieties, such as cheese. But I would not say that making cheese at home guarantees its quality. This question depends on the ingredients that are used in cooking, the sanitary condition of the equipment, the skill of the specialist, and not only on the place of preparation.

- Tell me, how to store cheese at home?

- For example, you bought a kilogram of cheese in the market. It is clear that it is quite difficult to eat such an amount at once. In order for the cheese to be preserved as long as possible, it must be cut into several more pieces and wrapped tightly with ordinary cling film, squeezing air out from under it. Cheese wrapped in this way will keep longer in the refrigerator.

- And if mold has appeared on the cheese, does this mean that it has completely deteriorated?

- Cheese and mold are, one might say, twin brothers. The process of maturation of cheese is inherently associated with the formation of mold on its surface. If it appeared during the storage of the product at home, you can simply cut it off and use the cheese further. In order to prevent mold from appearing again, the cheese must be stored without air access in cling film.

- It is believed that cheese is a fatty product. Is it so?

What do you know about cheese? It's very tasty, but why? How is it made? Find out a few interesting facts about this wonderful product.

How is cheese made?

Most cheeses are made with virtually the same ingredients: milk, microbial cultures, and sometimes rennet. Rennet is a substance that helps milk proteins to coagulate, holding them together to make curd. Traditionally, rennet is obtained from the stomach of calves, but since the sixties, the production of rennet from cloned microorganisms has begun. To start the process of making cheese, you need to take some milk and add a microbial culture to it. The microbes absorb the lactose in the milk and the fermentation process begins. Then rennet is added. After that, curd and whey begin to form. The whey is drained and the curd is heated and then sliced. Then such blocks are left for a certain time so that they turn into a finished product.

Where did cheese come from?

Cheese has been produced for several thousand years. Footprints milk fat were found on dishes dating back seven and a half thousand years ago. The exact place of origin of milk is unknown, however, as in the case of big amount discoveries, cheese was invented by accident. Probably someone kept the milk in the animal's stomach and forgot about it. When milk is mixed with rennet from the stomach, the formation of an edible curd mass began.

Which milk is best for making cheese?

Cheese can be made from the milk of a wide variety of animals, from cows to goats, sheep, deer or even camels. Some types of milk do not sour well, which is why you don’t see horse cheese anywhere. Human breast milk is one of these types of milk.

Is cheese bad for health?

Cheese contains a large number of fat, but at the same time it is excellent source protein and calcium. As people learn the difference between different types fat, it becomes clear that the fats contained in foods such as milk are not so harmful to human health. However, it is worth remembering that you can not eat exclusively cheese, no matter how tasty it may be.

Why does cottage cheese squeak?

It all depends on physics. Curd contains a lot of moisture, and when it combines with the proteins found in cheese, this gnashing of teeth is born. It's the same reaction that happens when you run your hand through damp hair, making the same squeaky sound.

How to make soft, not hard cheese?

The amount of moisture contained in the cottage cheese, and the temperature to which it is heated, depends on what kind of cheese you end up with: hard or soft. The way the cottage cheese is cut also matters: the smaller the piece, the more moisture is released. How longer cheese aged, the more it loses moisture and the harder it becomes. However, in some cheeses, the aging process can break some of the molecular bonds, making the cheese soft again.

Why do some cheeses smell so strong?

During the aging of cheeses, some varieties become covered with mold and yeast, which allows them to ripen from the inside. And during this process, microbes give the cheese an unpleasant and strong flavor.

Why is cheese so delicious?

The fact is that bacteria break down proteins and fats, turning them into completely different molecules that have different flavors. This process can be compared to the fermentation of alcohol, where microbes eat the sugars and produce alcohol along with a variety of flavors.

Can people with lactose intolerance eat cheese?

It depends on the type of cheese, but there is one general rule: The longer the cheese has been aged, the more likely it is that a person with lactose intolerance will be able to eat it without too much trouble.

Which cheese has the least lactose?

If you follow the rule described above, there are several types of cheeses known throughout the world, such as cheddar, brie, gouda or parmesan.

Is organic cheese healthier?

Short answer: yes. Scientists have found that a cow that grazes on the lawn and eats fresh grass gives milk with more high content healthy fats.

What is the longest aging time for cheese?

Most cheeses are aged for about the same number time, but rarely when this period is delayed for more than two years. However, some types of cheddar can be aged for up to forty years.

When does cheese go bad?

Just because all cheeses age for a while doesn't mean you should do the same with them in the fridge. The best time to eat cheese is within a few days of bringing it home and unpacking it.

Should you avoid any cheeses?

There is no list of bad cheeses, but you definitely shouldn't buy those made by unlicensed producers. If the cheese was made at home, there is a good chance that other microbes interfered with the fermentation process, which can lead to serious problems.