How to make Adyghe cheese at home. How to cook homemade Adyghe cheese

Homemade Adyghe cheese can be easily and simply prepared at home - there would be a desire. Unlike a store-bought product, homemade cheese is much more tender and it is always fresh. Adyghe cheese itself is quite bland, but its taste can be improved without any problems by adding regular salt.

Adyghe cheese is a product that has a sour-milk taste and a relatively delicate, slightly dense texture. Among the analogues are such cheeses as brynza, ricotta, feta or mozzarella. Being a national dish of the Circassian cuisine, it is customary to cook Adyghe cheese most often from cow's milk (but it can also be based on sheep or goat's milk) by adding whey.

For culinary purposes, Adyghe cheese is used very widely. It can be eaten by itself, added to vegetable salads or various snacks. First courses, spreads, casseroles, cheesecakes, stuffing for pies, pies or dumplings - not the whole list of uses for this cheese. In addition, the product goes well with vegetables and fruits, herbs, pasta. It is even fried in butter - it turns out very tasty and satisfying.

I cannot but dwell on some points that relate directly to the preparation of Adyghe cheese at home. First of all, an important condition is the presence of acidic, namely acidic whey. If you take fresh (for example, immediately after making homemade cottage cheese), the cheese may not work - the whey simply does not curdle the milk. Therefore, you need to give her a chip - we leave the fresh one at room temperature for about a day, after which we let it stand in the refrigerator for another 3-4 days.

The second point: cow's milk for homemade Adyghe cheese is not suitable for everyone. Ideally, take whole, market - then the cheese will turn out more tender, and the yield of the finished product will be greater. From the store, choose pasteurized (nothing will come of ultra-pasteurized, since everything that is alive has already been killed in it).

From the indicated amount of products, I get 440 grams of finished cheese and 2.1 liters of fresh whey. My milk had a fat content of 2.5%, and whey - after making cottage cheese from kefir (fat content is also 2.5%). I think you understand that the yield depends both on the fat content of the feedstock and on the degree of moisture content of the cheese (if desired, the whey can be squeezed out mechanically). In both versions (read about this in the steps), I have Adyghe cheese that is not dry, it is perfectly cut with a knife, and practically does not crumble.

Ingredients:

Cooking step by step with photos:

The recipe for homemade Adyghe cheese includes the following ingredients: whey, milk and salt (optional). Products do not have to be at room temperature - milk and whey can be used directly from the refrigerator.

Pour milk into a suitable volume (I have a four-liter saucepan). Put on the stove and heat almost to a boil. Boiling is not necessary, unless you have homemade milk. To speed up the heating process, I advise you to cover the pan with a lid, just make sure that the milk does not boil to the bottom - stir it.

Ideally, the temperature of the milk should be 95 degrees, but in the absence of a cooking thermometer, navigate visually (dense steam will appear above the surface). Now, while constantly stirring the milk, pour the whey.

Literally before our eyes, the milk will curdle, forming curdled flakes. Turn off the fire and remove the pan from the stove.

Here I wanted to show closer how curd flakes look like. They are not very large, but not small either - medium, in a word. Let the contents of the dishes rest on the table for 5-7 minutes (no need to interfere) - during this time the clots will thicken and the whey will separate well. By the way, the more you keep the liquid on fire (even if you let the milk with whey boil), the tougher the homemade Adyghe cheese will turn out.

Then you have a choice of how to shape the future Adyghe cheese. Special molds for making cheese are best suited for molding, but I don’t have any, unfortunately. You can also just throw the mass on a sieve or colander, after lining it with 3-4 layers of gauze. Do not forget to substitute a volumetric container into which the whey will drain.

After 10-15 minutes, most of the whey will drain (pour it into another bowl and use it as needed) and it will be possible to shape the future cheese. To do this, tightly twist the head into gauze, trying to make as few folds as possible.

We put something flat on top and put a load (for example, a jar of water). When the cheese has cooled, we place the structure in the refrigerator for 8-10 hours. During this time, the head will compact well, while excess whey will leave.

Now another option for molding (for the site I prepared Adyghe cheese for the second time, as soon as I ate the first batch), since I don’t really like the method with a sieve - well, the head is not ideal, it’s flat. If taste is more important to you, and the form is not so important, skip the next step. Here I (not without the advice and help of my husband, of course, I admit) built the following structure: I took 2 plastic cups (with a capacity of 400 milliliters each) from sour cream. The husband made many holes (using an awl) at the bottom and along the bottom of the walls. When the curd flakes in the whey thickened, she transferred them to glasses with a slotted spoon. I placed cookie cutters in a deep bowl at the bottom so that the bottom of the glasses and the container did not touch each other. Thus, the whey went into the container. As a load, when the whey was no longer flowing, but slowly dripping, I placed glasses (of a smaller volume) filled with water on top of the cheese. I also put it in the fridge overnight.

Hello dear readers. I really love homemade cheese. I like the recipe to be simpler. But at the same time, the dish turned out very tasty. True, I’m not going to cook hard cheese, but I need to tinker with it a little. I have never cooked Adyghe cheese at home. But I tried it in the Crimea and I really liked it. I'm talking about homemade Adyghe cheese.
Very gentle, not sour with a creamy aftertaste. And we also used Adyghe cheese to make Greek salad, as well as feta cheese.

I know how to cook cheese from cow's milk. Previously, they often cooked, then they ate. And all the time I want to try something new and interesting. My recipe is simple, my mother often used it to prepare cheese for us.

To be honest, I like homemade cheese more than plastic cheeses that are sold in our supermarket. One thing, the presence of village milk. And it is better if the village milk is thick.

The advantage of Adyghe cheese is the natural raw materials for its preparation. It is useful for children and adults, and pregnant and lactating women.

The calorie content of Adyghe cheese is approximately 270 kcal per 100 grams of product.

How to cook Adyghe cheese at home

Soft and delicate taste will not leave you indifferent. Moreover, the ingredients are more than simple.

Ingredients for making cheese:

Are you surprised by the amount of ingredients? Me too when I got the recipe. Our friends shared the recipe with us. I don't know how they make it in dairies, but you can make it at home. If you know how to cook Adyghe cheese correctly, write the recipe below in the comments.

Making Adyghe cheese is even easier. From this amount of ingredients, we got 550 grams of delicious homemade Adyghe cheese.

I try to cook cheeses at home and try different recipes because I like to have a cup of fragrant tea with a piece of cheese for breakfast. Sometimes I eat cottage cheese with honey. Well, there is oatmeal. But every day for breakfast, oatmeal gets boring and I want to diversify breakfasts. So that it is tasty and healthy.

I made homemade cheese from a liter of milk, eggs and sour cream. It turned out 300 grams of cheese. But the cheese was also very tasty. I recommend trying it if you haven't tried it yet. The recipe is very simple.

Milk bought at the local market from friends. Kefir is made from milk. You can say all the products are rustic. I must say right away that I don’t know whether the cheese will turn out from store products or not, I don’t know. Because I have never made cheese from them. As you know, the milk there is powdered.

To make cheese, you need to boil 3 liters of milk. I took a larger saucepan so that the milk would not “run away”. In boiling milk, you need to pour kefir in a thin stream while stirring the milk.

But I read, after searching the Internet, that kefir can be replaced with ordinary whey or even lemon juice. But I have an original recipe with kefir. Therefore, I try and cook with kefir.

The milk will curdle. Leave the milk on the stove until it boils. When you see pieces separated from the whey, then the cheese must be strained. It boiled for me for about a minute. It is important not to overexpose on fire, otherwise the cheese will be hard.

Usually you need to wait until the serum turns greenish. So that the milk curdles well.

There is a lot of whey left. I have over 3 liters left. Serum is delicious, not acidic. From it you can cook many different dishes or drink just like that. Moreover, there is no salt in the serum. The serum is not acidic, I would even say sweet. Very pleasant to the taste.

Then the whey drains and we collect the cheese in a ball, while I tied the cheesecloth. Be careful the mass is hot. Next, you need to put a press on the cheese. I cover it with a plate and put a bottle filled with water on top.

You need to leave it for 2-3 hours under pressure. But I did not leave it so long and left it for 1 hour. The cheese turned out amazing. I had it with cheese. I left it under pressure for a long time and it was rubbery and dry.

I pour 0.5 liters of whey and dissolve half a tablespoon of salt in it (1 tablespoon of salt per 1 liter of whey) and dip the cheese into the salt solution. Then I covered it and put it in the fridge.

But of course, before that, we tried the Adyghe cheese. Very, very tasty cheese.

Do not be afraid that it will not work, everything will work out. Moreover, you already know how to cook Adyghe cheese at home.

It can be added to salads, eaten with honey, as well as greens and vegetables. I add this cheese to a Greek salad. Sometimes I cook with cheese, sometimes with Adyghe cheese. It turns out very tasty. You can cut cheese on the festive table. A natural and healthy product is obtained in a matter of hours.

We ate half of it almost immediately. Our children love homemade cheese, especially my daughter. She eats it without bread, tea and vegetables.

So try and get ready. You will succeed. Good appetite.

Any housewife can easily make Adyghe cheese at home. Is there any recipe for it? depending on the ingredients available. For example, it is worth carefully considering some of the most interesting options.

Cheese from whole milk and kefir

Adyghe cheese is a product of white (sometimes light yellow) color with a delicate, moderately dense texture and a characteristic sour-milk taste. It is usually made from whole milk (cow, goat or sheep) and is a traditional dish of Circassian cuisine. Local housewives very often cook Adyghe cheese at home. Each of them uses the recipe that her parents taught her. For example, such a product can be made quite simply with only 3 liters of milk, 20 grams of edible salt and 1 liter of kefir.

The technology of the production process is simple:

1. First, kefir must be poured into a saucepan and put on the stove. As it heats up, the whey in it will separate from the curd. It will need to be poured into another container and left to sour for 2 days at room temperature. Cottage cheese can be simply eaten or used to prepare other dishes.
2. Boil fresh whole milk after two days.
3. Add the previously fermented whey to it and make the fire smaller. Milk protein will begin to gradually separate, and after 7 minutes the cheese will freely float to the surface.
4. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth and squeeze well.
5. Salt the resulting clot, mix and leave for a while in a suspended state so that excess moisture can drain.
6. Put the product under the press and leave it in the refrigerator for about a day. During this period, it is necessary to periodically drain the water that will be released.

In this way, the easiest way to cook Adyghe cheese at home. The recipe is extremely simple, even the most inexperienced hostess can cope with such work.

Souring with yogurt

Some chefs tend to use all sorts of non-standard solutions to prepare ordinary products. For example, replacing kefir with any yogurt, you can make wonderful Adyghe cheese at home. This recipe is slightly different from the previous version. For work you will need: a glass of yogurt, 2 liters of fresh whole milk and a little salt.

In this case, it does not take much time to make cheese:

1. First, put a pot of milk on the stove and bring it slowly to a boil over low heat.
2. With constant stirring, add yogurt in portions. Continue the cooking process until the liquid (whey) becomes almost transparent.
3. Strain the mass through a colander.
4. Leave the cheese in it for about an hour. This time will be quite enough to glass excess whey.
5. Transfer the cheese to the form prepared for this.
6. Sprinkle salt on top of it.

After that, the finished product can be eaten immediately. If necessary, it can be stored in the refrigerator. True, for this you need a container with a tight-fitting lid.

Technique to help

To prepare a delicious and healthy breakfast, it is not necessary to come up with some complicated dish. For this, ordinary Adyghe cheese is suitable. The recipe for cooking at home can be simplified if you use a slow cooker for work. You will need a rather interesting set of products: 3 liters of milk, a bunch of greens (dill and parsley), half a glass of curdled milk, 4 chicken eggs and 80 grams of peeled walnuts.

Cooking technology:

1. Put the milk somewhere in a warm place for the whole day.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with salt, and then pour them into the multicooker bowl.
3. Add sour milk there and mix everything well.
4. Turn on the “baking” mode on the panel and set the timer for 30 minutes.
5. Allow mixture to cool for at least 5 minutes.
6. After that, it must be filtered through two layers of gauze.
7. In a blender, chop the nuts with chopped herbs.
8. Mix them with the clot that remained in the gauze.
9. Put the mass under the press and leave it for 6 hours in the refrigerator.

A piece of this cheese for breakfast will be a good start to the day.

Cheese from cottage cheese

There is another interesting recipe for Adyghe cheese at home. A step-by-step recipe in this case will be very useful, since with its help you can control the intermediate result and avoid unnecessary mistakes. For cooking, the following ingredients are used: a liter of whole milk, 3 raw eggs, a kilogram of fat cottage cheese (minimum 9 percent), 120 grams of butter, 20 grams of salt and 12 grams of baking soda.

The recipe requires the following steps in sequence:

1. Boil fresh milk.
2. Add cottage cheese. Wait for the mixture to boil again.
3. Make the fire smaller and cook the mass for half an hour, stirring occasionally.
4. Strain the contents into another saucepan using one layer of cheesecloth. After that, let the cottage cheese lie on it for 3 minutes, so that the liquid is completely glass.
5. Transfer the clot to a bowl, adding soda, oil and eggs to it, and then mix everything thoroughly until a homogeneous mass.
6. Put the prepared product back into the pan and cook it over low heat for 10 minutes.
7. Treat a clean container from the inside with the remaining oil.
8. Pour the still warm cheese mixture into it.
9. After cooling, the container is sent to the refrigerator for 3 hours.

Now the cheese can be carefully cut into pieces and served with hot tea or coffee.

According to the recipe of Circassian cheese makers

The classic recipe for Adyghe cheese deserves special attention. At home, Circassian women, as a rule, use the following ratio of products to prepare it: for 4 liters of pasteurized milk - 15-20 grams of salt, 700 milliliters of acid whey and various spices.

The whole process usually takes several days:

1. First you need to ferment the whey. You can buy it in the store before that, cook it yourself, or use the one left after cooking another cheese.
2. Slowly bring the milk to a boil over low heat.
3. Introduce serum. The mass will immediately begin to be divided into two fractions (liquid and solid). Continue heating until the liquid becomes almost transparent.
4. Cover a colander with gauze and strain the cheese mass through it. To speed up the process, you can lightly press down with a slotted spoon.
5. Let the remaining clot lie down for another 30 minutes.
6. Grate the resulting cheese on both sides with salt.
7. Transfer it to a colander and hold for 3 hours, turning the product over every 30 minutes.
8. Transfer the cheese to a plate and put it in a cool place for 12 hours.

During this time, he will have time to ripen, take a certain shape and partially harden. Now the finished cheese can be eaten with pleasure. Experts say that it is very similar to the one that women cook in Circassian villages.

diet option

People who try to monitor their weight and are forced to constantly count the calories they consume can safely use Adyghe cheese for food. A simple and dietary recipe for its preparation provides for the following components: one and a half liters of milk (fat content 3.5 percent), 8 grams of citric acid, 10 grams of salt, as well as a teaspoon of dried chili and basil.

Making such cheese is not at all difficult:

1. First you need to heat the milk. It is not necessary to boil it. The temperature of the milk should be such that it can be touched with a finger and held for at least 2 seconds.
2. Add lemon juice and stir. After that, milk clot flakes will immediately begin to appear.
3. Strain the contents of the pan through a sieve or cheesecloth and wait until all the whey has drained.
4. Mix the remaining cottage cheese with dried spices, and then wrap it in clean gauze and put it under pressure for 3 hours. To do this, you can use, for example, a two-liter jar of water.
5. Prepare brine. To do this, take a glass of whey remaining after filtering and add salt to it.
6. Put the pressed cheese into the brine and leave it there overnight.

In the morning, the finished dietary product can be used to make sandwiches and all kinds of salads.

Simplified Recipe

Homemade curd cheeses are traditionally prepared in many Asian countries. For example, in India such a product is called "paneer". It is better known to the inhabitants of Russia as Adyghe cheese. The recipe, cooking process and composition of the ingredients can be very different. Any known option will do here. The easiest and fastest way to make this cheese is from the following set of basic ingredients: 6 liters of milk, a little salt and a few grains of pepsin.

The whole process consists of several stages:

1. Pour milk into a large saucepan and heat it to 70 degrees (no more).
2. Add pepsin, mix and leave covered for 2 hours.
3. Place the contents back into the pan and heat it over low heat with constant stirring for 10 minutes.
4. Mix the resulting mass, and then pour it into a colander lined with several layers of gauze. The sifting process takes approximately 15 minutes.
5. Transfer the remaining clot to a clean colander (without gauze) and set it over a deep bowl. Press the product on top with a plate.
6. Put the structure in a cold place for 7-8 hours.

If you start work in the morning, then by the evening you can already enjoy a fresh product. You just need to buy pepsin at the pharmacy in advance. There it is sold as a cheese sourdough.

Recipe with sour cream

There are dozens of ways to cook Adyghe cheese. Recipes, as a rule, differ from each other only in the type of fermenting component. For example, you can use the following composition for work: 7.5 liters of natural milk, salt and 2.5 kilograms of sour cream (fat content 25 percent).

Sequencing:

1. Heat milk in a saucepan without boiling. In this case, it is better not to take risks and stock up on a thermometer in advance. With it, you can easily control the level of heating of the original product.
2. With constant stirring, slowly add sour cream.
3. Put the cheese mass on a sieve and wait until the liquid has completely drained. In this case, the product itself will be compacted under the action of its own weight.
4. After that, it should be lightly salted on all sides and transferred to a container. In this container, the product can be stored in the refrigerator for a long time.

This cheese is very useful to eat. It contains a huge amount of minerals, vitamins and organic acids, without which the normal development of the human body is almost impossible.

Store-bought cheeses are not at all the healthy and nutritious products that real homemade cheese is. Today, the industry is increasingly introducing chemical components, flavors, dyes, taste and appearance improvers, which make the product look attractive and long-term storage in any conditions. Therefore, good quality cheese can only be prepared with your own hands at home - so you will be guaranteed to know what it contains and what it consists of. The right cheese contains a large amount of vitamins and minerals that any dairy products are famous for, in a large concentrated amount.

Adyghe cheese is not for everyone. I would characterize this cheese as simple with a rather ascetic and unpretentious taste, but at the same time very healthy. Sophisticated gourmets usually bypass this variety, although of all the cheeses on the shelves, it remains the most natural.

I liked this cheese, and today I will tell you how I make Adyghe cheese at home, which is easy to prepare and very nutritious.

We will need:

Milk (preferably country milk) - 2 liters
- curdled milk (or kefir) - 500-700 grams
- salt, spices to taste
- thick gauze and strainer

As you can see, there are a minimum of ingredients, and there will be a maximum of benefits from such cheese. Here is the number of products from which approximately 400-600 grams of Adyghe cheese will come out (the amount of product yield depends on the quality of the milk used).
What is important, after making the cheese, nothing will have to be thrown away or poured out - everything will go into action.
We take a three-liter (not less in volume) pan, pour all the milk into it and put it on medium heat (maybe a little less than average).

We bring to the state that bubbles and a film appear on the surface of the milk. You don't have to wait for the milk to boil.

Then, stirring the milk with a wooden spoon, gradually pour all the curdled milk into it. After that, do not stop stirring. We also leave the fire under the pan on medium.

You will see how the milk begins to curdle before your eyes, gathering into white lumps, and the whey remaining from under it will gradually turn from white to yellow-greenish in color.

As soon as this happens, the fire on the stove under the milk can be turned off, and stirring can be continued for another minute.
Now we are preparing the dishes into which we will pour the whey and lay out the future Adyghe cheese. For this, a large bowl is suitable, on top of which we place a strainer with gauze laid in it. It is better to take gauze dense so that the yield of cheese is maximum.

Carefully and carefully lay out and pour the contents of the pan into the prepared dish.
After letting the cheese drain a little and lie down in a sieve, with a quick and deft movement we shift it into a small deep bowl.

It is not necessary to completely deprive cheese of all whey - it is a natural moisturizer for the finished product.
Now, while the cheese is hot, you can flavor it with salt and spices to your taste.

Spices change the taste of cheese - it becomes more saturated, fragrant, but at the same time loses its pronounced milky flavor. Therefore, I often add only a little salt. How I do it - trying not to destroy the formed lump on the sides, I sprinkle it with salt on top and, for example, gently push the salt inside with a spoon. Then you can sprinkle a little spices on a cheese cap.
Now you need to let the cheese cool at room temperature, after which you can eat it or put it in the refrigerator, covering the cup with a lid or a piece of cloth. This cheese is stored for a very short time - in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Now a couple of important words about the whey that remains after making the cheese. Never throw it down the sink!

It is best to pour the whey into a convenient dish and leave it for 3-4 days in a dark place at room temperature for fermentation - you will get an excellent sour whey for making pancakes, pancakes, cookies and other pastries. Already acid whey for long-term storage can be removed in the freezer.

OK it's all over Now! Homemade Adyghe cheese is ready - eat to your health!

Adyghe cheese has a lot of "relatives" in many countries: Mozzarella, cheese, Ricotta, Feta, Paneer and many other types of pickled cheese invented throughout the history of mankind.

The Adyghe legend claims that the famous cheese existed in the 7th-8th millennium BC. But the cheese with the name "Adyghe" became really famous only after the 1980 Olympics, in Moscow, where it was delivered in beautiful packages specially made in Finland.

The technology for the production of pickled cheese "Adygeisky" has not changed at all for thousands of years.

The only difference in modern production is the use of raw materials.

If earlier goat and sheep milk were used to make Adyghe cheese, then due to the widespread and significant reduction in the number of these domestic animals, cow's milk began to be used in production.

True, after the introduction of this innovation, cheese makers of Adygea began to actively spread rumors that their cows are special, and they give milk, which is not found anywhere else in the world. By the way, about milk: in pasteurized form, the milk of an Adyghe cow does not have any significant differences from the milk of an Indian or Swiss cow.

An interesting fact: Adyghe cheese is produced by many of the largest cheese factories in the CIS, but under a different name. The fact is that the name "Adyghe cheese" is patented by manufacturers in the Republic of Adygea, so exactly the same cheeses made outside of Adygea with an absolutely authentic taste should be called something else. But it's not the name, it's the taste. Therefore, such cheese can be completely prepared in any home kitchen.

Adyghe cheese at home - basic technological principles

The difference between the production technology of Adyghe cheese and other pickled cheeses is that long-term pasteurization is used for its manufacture.

The only difficulty in making Adyghe cheese at home is to ensure long-term heating of milk to a temperature of 95ºϹ, which affects the consistency of the clot. At this temperature, as well as during continuous stirring, the milk protein sticks together into thread-like clots, pushing out the whey mass.

So that milk does not run away and does not burn during pasteurization, there is a simple and effective way to solve the problem: before heating, the raw material must be cooled as much as possible, and then added to the pasteurization pan gradually, in small parts, with continuous stirring, pouring chilled milk along the edge of the container and at the same time lowering the temperature of the pan and raw materials.

So that the milk does not burn, before starting the brewing of the cheese dough, pour a little water into the bottom of the pan, and, bringing it to a boil, start adding fresh milk first, and then whey, sour cream or yogurt. The use of fermented milk products in the preparation of homemade pickled cheeses is the best option. These foods are naturally saturated with essential bacteria and enzymes and every housewife knows how to properly handle them.

Special and rennet enzymes and starter cultures that are used in industrial cheesemaking require a certain level of training from a beginner cheesemaker, and, in addition, their use makes sense for impressive volumes of cheese production: special starter cultures in the amount of 1.5-2 g are added to 100 liters of milk . At home, it is unlikely that anyone will need such an amount of cheese: from 100 liters of milk, you can get 13-16 kg of the product, depending on the type of milk. With such a minimum amount of starter per 100 liters, it will be very difficult to measure its weight to prepare one head of cheese weighing 1.5 kg.

It should be noted that heads of smaller weight can be prepared at home, but the following factor should be taken into account: the separation of whey in pickled cheeses occurs naturally, without the use of presses, under the pressure of the product's own weight. Therefore, based on the laws of physics, with a head weight of 0.5 kg, the whey extrusion process will be slower and less efficient.

The ratio of fresh milk and fermented milk products is 2:1. It will be very convenient if, immediately before starting cooking, dilute sour cream or thick curdled milk with a part of fresh milk: this will allow you to pour in the sour mass more evenly and avoid the formation of lumps in the cheese dough.

To start making Adyghe cheese at home, it remains to consider the quality requirements for the raw materials used and the standard requirements for the finished product. Of course, natural, whole milk, which can be purchased from farmers or specialized markets for agricultural products, is best suited for making cheese. The fat content of Adyghe cheese is, according to standard requirements, 45%; humidity - up to 60%; salt content - 2%.

To obtain cheese of this quality, the raw materials used for its preparation should correspond to these indicators as much as possible. It is allowed to use dry concentrates, with the help of which natural skimmed milk can be brought to the desired fat content. Also, to obtain the necessary fat content, it is possible to use a combination of skimmed milk with full-fat sour cream.

In general, GOST rules do not have absolute power in your own kitchen, but you can give free rein to your creativity.

1. The original recipe for Adyghe cheese at home

Ingredients:

Goat milk, whole 4.5 l

Cow's milk, whole 5.5 l

Whey, natural (from cow's, whole milk) 4 l

Cooking method:

Take two types of milk in equal parts and the same amount of whey. To prepare pickled cheese according to the original recipe, you will need an enameled or stainless steel saucepan with a volume 2 times the amount of milk.

Strain the milk bought on the market through gauze or a linen napkin.

Pour the milk into a saucepan, turning the stove on to the lowest temperature setting. Boil it for 50-60 minutes, pouring in the whey in small portions every time the milk is about to boil. Stir the contents of the pot continuously. In the milk mass, thread-like clots should form, separating from the whey.

When the curdled milk protein gathers into a spherical clot, turn off the heat or remove the pan from the stove. Prepare a container for discarding the cheese, and place another dish under it, into which the whey will drain. When the whey has drained and the cheese has compacted under its own weight, turn the mold over and place the head on a wire rack (grid).

Real Adyghe cheese is filtered through willow wicker baskets. But you can use other containers suitable for this purpose: a sieve or colander will do. Sprinkle the surface of the head with salt. The cheese should ripen within 18-24 hours. Cheese can be stored in a tightly closed package, no more than 72 hours.

Recipe 2. Adyghe cheese at home from dry concentrate

Ingredients:

Milk, whole (3.2%) 6.5 l

Curdled milk, homemade 3.3 l

Powdered milk (25%) 1.5 kg

Cooking:

Heat natural milk to 40ºϹ, and dilute the dry concentrate in it, adding the powder with continuous stirring. When the concentrate is completely dissolved, separate 2.5-3 liters of milk from the total volume and cool this part to 18-20ºϹ.

Heat the second part of the reconstituted milk to 90-95ºϹ and start pouring into it first 200-300 ml of chilled milk, and then yogurt to lower the boiling point. Use curdled milk with a temperature of +5ºϹ to extend the cheese cooking process up to an hour.

Pour in chilled milk and yogurt along the edge of the pan, in a circular motion, so that the clot gathers in the center of the pan. Remove the saucepan from the stove when the milk has curdled and cool again to room temperature. Collect the clot and transfer to the prepared form with holes for draining the whey. Place the mold in a dish that will serve as a tray. After the cheese has firmed, salt the surface and transfer to a grid or wire rack, and salt the cheese on the other side. Place the finished head in a plastic bag with a zipper or in a container with a tight-fitting lid.

Shelf life of cheese - 3 days, at a temperature of 0-5ºϹ.

3. Adyghe cheese at home from whole cottage cheese and milk

Ingredients:

Milk, whole 4.5 l

Cottage cheese, homemade (fatty)

Cooking:

Wipe homemade cottage cheese through a sieve and combine with half of the taken milk into a homogeneous mass, without lumps. Start heating the second half of cold milk in a saucepan, in parts of 200-300 ml: heating one part to 90ºϹ, pour in the next portion of milk. After all the milk has been pasteurized, start pouring in the cooled mixture of milk and cottage cheese, also in parts: in a circular motion, from the walls of the pan to the center. Remove curdled milk proteins from the stove to cool. Next, shape the cheese heads as described in the recipes above.

4. Adyghe cheese at home from milk and sour cream

Ingredients:

Natural milk 7.5 l

Sour cream (25%) 2.5 kg

Cooking:

Also, as in previous recipes, use chilled ingredients to make cheese. Combine 1/3 of the milk with sour cream to get a liquid homogeneous mass: it will be convenient to introduce sour cream into the pan.

Start pasteurizing the milk by pouring it in batches into a saucepan and heating it close to boiling point. Under no circumstances should the milk boil. After all the milk has been poured, pour in the sour cream diluted with milk. In the process of pasteurization, do not stop the smooth stirring of the cheese mass. Leave the curdled milk protein to cool; collect the curd mass in a sieve, colander or other round container with holes. After the whey has drained onto the tray and the cheese has compacted under its own weight, salt the surface and turn the mold over, placing the cheese in the prepared storage container.

Adyghe cheese at home - tips and tricks

For the convenience of making Adyghe cheese at home, use a thermometer to control the pasteurization temperature of milk: if the milk boils, then cheese will not come out of it, and the pasteurization temperature is very close to the boiling point.

To make one kilogram of Adyghe cheese at home, at least 6.5 liters of milk is required.

You can replace rennet in homemade cheese production with sour cream, cottage cheese, curdled milk and any fermented milk products.

If the household has a home smokehouse, try smoked Adyghe cheese: after preparing a cheese head in any of the ways described, keep it in the smokehouse for 3-4 hours, in cold smoking mode (up to 25ºϹ). To smoke, brush the head of cheese with butter. Smoking does not extend the shelf life of the cheese, but allows you to get new, interesting flavors. To increase the shelf life of smoked Adyghe cheese, a longer exposure in the smokehouse is required, but the taste of the cheese changes significantly.

Try making Adyghe cheese with pepper, cumin, cilantro or other spices and spices. Such cheese can be used to prepare original salads and other dishes.