Sourdough cheese: review, instructions, recipes and reviews. Sourdough for cheese at home

As you know, cheese is a product useful and familiar to mankind for more than one millennium. It is made from ruminant milk: mostly cow, goat, sheep, mare. But not everyone knows that cheeses are used in cheese making, which, by the way, can also be of different origin. It's clear that the product cooked at home will be tastier, and more useful than the store. Especially in the light of recent inspections, which showed that the production of many cheeses does not comply with the laid technology and admixtures are added, completely superfluous and spoiling the natural taste. This is done, as a rule, in order to save on the cost of production, and in order to increase the shelf life of the fermented milk product. So the leaven for cheese at home is clearly useful to you, if you are very close to the question of how to make it with your own hands. So at least you will know for sure what it is made of.

Types of home-made cheeses

What can be produced in your kitchen, using sourdough for cheeses, is divided into three types.

1. Hard cheeses. They are made on the basis of starter for cheeses and cottage cheese. They stand under a special press (you can make it yourself or buy it in a store, but it will cost a pretty penny). Exposure takes place during the month at least. The more exposure there is, the later the taste will be better. The density of the structure of the body of the product itself largely depends on the time and weight of the press load. Another nuance: the production of hard cheese is possible only from whole milk.
2. Soft cheeses. It also uses leaven for cheese and cottage cheese. The difference with the solid variants is mainly in the aging time. And soft cheeses are made from skim milk, and the product can be consumed in a week (soft types are not covered with paraffin for long-term storage).
3. Homemade cheeses (by the type of Adyghe, suluguni or brynza). They are also made from cottage cheese, in which a rather high content of liquid. The shelf life of such cheeses is small. And they are made mainly of milk removed (but it is possible and from the whole). Such products are fairly simple to manufacture, they can not withstand presses.

What you need to make

• Milk is desirable to take whole (mostly cow in modern conditions). The main thing is to choose quality. Clarify that during the feeding of the animal antibiotics are not used (at least for a week, as they slow down the oxidation process). It is best if you have a private farm and have their own horned or have the opportunity to constantly buy raw materials from friends who are engaged in subsistence farming. It should be remembered that out of 10 liters of milk, you can get only one kilogram of hard cheese, or 1.5 kg of soft cheese, or 2 kg of brynza or suluguni.
• From equipment - it can be built cheaply and with your own hand, so as not to buy expensive import options - you will need: cheese molds (can be made from ordinary cans), a press with a piston (at home made of boards and clamps), a liquid thermometer, a knife , Colander, gauze, paraffin (if preparing hard cheese).

Sourdough for cheese at home

And, of course, for cheese is very necessary leaven. It should be used to stimulate as quickly and as best as possible the formation of the amount of acid that would be sufficient for the correct process. In home-made cheese, buttermilk, yogurt, powdered starter, natural dairy products, and yeast are used. Keep in mind that the character that has a leaven for making cheese (more precisely, its origin) directly affects its flavor and aroma. So you have to choose the options, matching your own tastes and preferences with classical technologies.

Cheese. Leaven. The recipe is the simplest

Half a liter of fresh natural whole milk is left to sour at room temperature (or slightly higher). Usually, the day is quite enough at the optimum temperature of 30 degrees. Such a starter is used, adding to the main raw materials, in the production of home-made cheeses that do not require the use of a press.

Another option

The leaven for homemade cheese can also be prepared with the help of yeast. In warm milk, add 1/8 stick yeast. Leave this mixture to wander for a day in a warm place. Then half the milk is cast and fresh. We do this for a week. During this time, the leaven will mature and be ready for use. We add it to the main raw materials.

Abomasum

This product has long been known in cheese making as a starter for homemade cheese. And in the cheese industry it is used very actively for the production of most cheeses. What is this substance? Even the ancient Greeks, according to scientific data, using the stomachs of ungulates as containers for liquids, most likely accidentally discovered the phenomenon of its effect on dairy products. Or maybe this technology was known before? In ruminant animals this is the 4th section of the multi-chamber stomach (glandular stomach). In calves (or lambs), for example, feeding on mother's milk, a special rennet enzyme is actively produced there, which participates in digestion - rennin. It cleaves peptides. This rennet is the first enzyme isolated chemically, by laboratory route. By the way, the Dane Christian Hansen, who discovered it by salt extraction in 1874, subsequently founded a firm that is still the largest producer of the enzyme. The main source - the stomachs of dairy calves (age - not more than 10 days), dried and ground in a special way. The abomasum is the basic substance used in cheese making.

The essence of the process

When the rennet is injected into milk under certain temperature conditions, the process of rapid coagulation of the milk begins - curling. At home, it is quite easy to use abomasum, so do not be afraid of it. Just take a pill or extract (in the form of which it is usually sold) and dissolve in milk at room temperature (or slightly higher). The effect is visible in an hour. By the way, in the production of soft cheeses, the use of rennet is not necessary. It is enough to use leaven from naturally sour milk. The only inconvenience is that the process of securing will take much longer. Usually a little over a day. During this time, the clot separates - the curd principle - and the serum. But still some prefer to use abomasum at home to improve taste and speed cheese ripening.

For Vegetarians

Many questions vegetarians call the use of animal enzyme in the production of cheese. Therefore, in recent times (for example, in Europe), cheese substitutes are used for cheese making. Back in the 60s of the last century, the corresponding strains of fungi were isolated, which are involved in the synthesis of the enzyme. And since the beginning of the 90s, gene biotechnology and rennin, produced by bacteria, have been used. According to unverified data, with such substitutes in Europe now more than half of cheese production is made. But some firms still adhere to more traditional technologies in cooking and use animal rennet enzyme.

In the pharmacy

By the way, for homemade cooking a delicious sour-milk product is suitable and such a leaven for cheese. The pharmacy sells pepsin. The only drawback is some high cost of the pharmacy enzyme and its deficiency. But if you have the opportunity to get this medicine, you can safely use it to make homemade cheeses.