Preparation
To prepare tasty and healthy Ossetian cheese at home, you should stock up on milk. It is advisable to take a homemade product. In cases where this is not possible, you can use milk similar in quality and fat content to the product shown in the photo.
Prepare all the products shown in the photo. Heat kefir (yogurt) to room temperature to start the work of fermented milk bacteria in it.
Pour the milk into a thick-walled stainless steel saucepan or enamel bowl. Aluminum containers should never be used for making cottage cheese! Also take into account that to obtain high-quality homemade cheeses and cottage cheese, you must maintain sanitary conditions in the room, wash your hands before cooking and use equipment disinfected with boiling water.
Prepare two pepsin tablets for every liter of milk.
Grind them into powder.
Pour a few tablespoons of water into the acidin-pepsin and leave it warm for a few minutes.
Heat the milk to a temperature of thirty degrees Celsius. To be sure, use a special cooking thermometer.
Add kefir to the milk, and then mix the mixture thoroughly. Leave the milk for about five minutes to infuse.
Dissolved acedin-pepsin will look similar to the product in the photo.
After the time has passed, pour the enzyme into the pan. Stir the milk well.
The milk will begin to curdle very quickly. Proof of this will be the settling of grains on the spoon.
From this moment the process of milk fermentation begins. In order for it to proceed correctly, the container with milk must be placed closer to the heat source or in the oven, in which the temperature will be maintained at twenty-five degrees Celsius.
If the conditions are met, the curdled mass will completely separate from the whey in sixty minutes.
The finished starter will look like the one in the picture.
Using a long knife, chop the curd curd directly in the pan. Try not to shake the vessel, because the larger the pieces of sour milk, the fattier the cottage cheese will be.
Once chopping is complete, carefully place the pan on the stove and turn the heat to low. If necessary, use a flame breaker.
Heat the workpiece to forty degrees Celsius.
Remove the pan from the heat and leave the milk to cool to room temperature. It will take no more than fifteen minutes.
After time, the milk will look like the product in the photo.
Strain the curds from the whey. To do this, use a colander and several layers of gauze.
Don't try to pour out the whole mass at once. Carefully remove the curd with a slotted spoon and transfer to cheesecloth.
When all the curd has been selected, press firmly on the workpiece and try to strain out as much water as possible.
Cover the workpiece with the free ends of the gauze, and then form the workpiece into a round shape. From the specified amount of ingredients, about a kilogram of wet cottage cheese is obtained. Place the workpiece in a colander, and place a container weighing about one kilogram on top of it. A jar filled with water is suitable as a press.
After two hours, turn the cheese over. You can free the workpiece from the gauze.
That's all the technology on how to make real Ossetian cheese at home. The mass of the finished product is about eight hundred grams. Store the product in the refrigerator for no more than ten days in a container with a tight-fitting lid. Use the treat in accordance with recipes that contain this product among the ingredients. Bon appetit!
All dairy ingredients can be easily purchased at the farmers market, but acidin-pepsin can be purchased at the pharmacy. If this ingredient is missing, you can use starter cultures or rennet. These two components are sold in supermarkets, online stores and some pharmacies specializing in the sale of baby food.
Homemade Ossetian cheese has a low calorie content, so it can be eaten by those who adhere to a diet. The delicacy can undoubtedly be used to prepare delicious salads, soups and baby food.
KBJU and composition for the entire dish
Ossetian cheese is a traditional fermented milk product of the Republic of Ossetia. This type of cheese is very popular and loved in the Caucasus region. Since ancient times, highlanders have used Ossetian cheese as the basis for many dishes.
The cheese has a pronounced aroma and unsurpassed taste (slightly salty taste), a whole range of useful qualities and a unique appearance - curd consistency.
The history of Ossetian cheese dates back to ancient times, when Alans, mainly cattle breeders, used it as one of the main components of their food.
Ossetian cheese with its characteristic taste is close to cheese of Greek origin. Ossetians initially used sheep, goat or cow cheese to make cheese.
Today, most people make it using cow's milk. To obtain a dairy product, dry and salted cow or sheep rennet is used. Ossetians have a lot of dry rennet, because traditionally they kill sheep for every holiday (kuvd), wedding, as well as funerals and wakes. To make cheese, they put a piece of rennet in a cup (0.5 liters) of whey. It takes several days to obtain the finished rennet mixture.
Ossetian cheese can be used both fresh (as a cheese product) and for making famous Ossetian pies. To keep it longer without refrigeration, the Ossetians put it in brine several times until the brine dried out and soaked all the cheese. With this salting technology, the shelf life of cheeses increases to two years.
Ossetian cheese recipe
To prepare Ossetian cheese at home, you need to take eight liters of fresh milk (not skimmed), one hundred fifty grams, one hundred grams of whey solution. How to prepare Ossetian cheese? The milk needs to be poured into a metal container and put on fire. The milk needs to be heated to thirty degrees. Remove from heat and add kefir.
It is important to mix everything until smooth so that the fermented milk product is distributed as evenly as possible through the milk. Leave the milk mixture for two hours - during this time the cheese ripening process occurs. Prepare rennet (whey solution). Slowly pour the rennet into the milk, stirring constantly with a whisk. Stir for at least five minutes. Allow the milk to sit for 3-5 hours until the curds become firm and you can get a clean break when cutting out the curds. Gently stir the cottage cheese, leaving large pieces. Let the cheese sit for thirty minutes, stirring occasionally.
Ossetians carefully and slowly collect pieces of cottage cheese with their hands at the bottom of the pan (a bucket can also be used), and then take the cheese from. The first few days they keep it in a 10-12″ cup once a day, pouring out the accumulation serum.
The Greeks prepare cheese using the same technology, only the last step is different. Using gauze, the whey will separate from, tie the gauze with a bag and hang for five hours so that all the whey completely escapes. Place the dry cottage cheese in a rectangular shape and place under pressure for at least one day.
Ossetian cheese can be used fresh for traditional pies, as well as as a salty and unique snack. To preserve cheese for a longer time, preserving its taste and quality, Ossetians prepared a little brine (khanda) in a special barrel (migan). They put about 30-50 pieces of cheese in a barrel.
To determine the desired consistency of the brine, an ordinary raw egg was used. When the egg floats freely on the surface of the brine, there is enough salt.
In Ossetia there are traditional pies filled with Ossetian cheese. There are many recipes for preparing Ossetian pie; below are recipes for the most popular ones.
Useful properties and calorie content
This fermented milk product is able to saturate the body with a whole group of vitamins such as,. In addition, Ossetian cheese is rich in minerals, including:
Ossetian cheese has a high calorie content, therefore, those who want to lose weight should consume it carefully and preferably in the first half of the day.
Ossetian traditional pie
We will need ankhi jan, this is a mixture that you can make yourself. Also flour, butter, milk, salt, etc. To prepare a cup of anhi jan, mix one teaspoon of flour, one teaspoon, one teaspoon and 3/4 cup of warm water.
Use it after about ten minutes. About six cups of whole wheat flour is enough to make three medium-sized balls. Add salt. Pour the ankhi jan into a large bowl with flour. Add warm water or 1/2 cup milk and start kneading the dough. Important: mix by hand.
When it stops sticking to your hands, you have added enough consistency. Optionally, add an egg for richness. You can add one hundred grams of milk to the dough. The dough is ready. If you add 30g of vegetable oil, it will not be as sticky. Now cover the dough with a towel and let it rise (2-3 hours). It's time to prepare the filling.
This time we'll make tsakharajyn - an Ossetian pie with cheese and. We can also use onions, although some Ossetians make tsakharadzhin without them. Cut the beet leaves into very small pieces. Do the same with other ingredients. The dough has risen. It's time to form an Ossetian pie with cheese and herbs.
Place the dough on a wooden board with flour. Divide the dough into three even balls. Now we can salt the filling. It is not recommended to do this before. Add 0.5-0.7 kg of fresh Ossetian cheese. If the filling is too wet, you can add flour. The filling is ready. Preheat the oven. Roll out the dough with your hands. Place some filling in the center. Bring the edges together in the center. Roll out the flatbread so that the filling can be seen through it.
Transfer to a baking tray. Bake the pie until the top is browned, but do not overbake. After you remove the pie from the oven, use a skewer to soften the top and sides.
Ossetian pie with potatoes and cheese
To prepare Ossetian pie with and cheese you will need: 7-9 Rosset potatoes (depending on size), cut into pieces; 2 cups or, chopped; 2 cups Ossetian cheese or Greek feta, grated; milk; salt; whole or bread flour; melted butter.
The first thing to do is to put the potatoes to boil. While the potatoes are cooking, you need to chop all the other ingredients; for this we use a grater. First mozzarella, then feta. All pieces of cheese should be small so that they do not tear the dough during baking. The potatoes are cooked, drain off the excess water and puree them.
Let the puree cool a little and only then add cheese to it (so that the cheese does not immediately dissolve). You can use milk to adjust the consistency. Spices are added to taste. The previously prepared dough according to the standard recipe should already increase several times. Divide the dough into even pieces and form pies, filling them with potato and cheese filling. Bake the pie in a preheated oven until golden brown.
The calorie content of Ossetian pies with cheese depends directly on the chosen filling. For example, the calorie content of an Ossetian pie with cheese is one hundred and eighty-three kilocalories per hundred grams of product, and a pie with meat is one hundred and seventy-three kilocalories. The average caloric value of pies with Ossetian cheese per hundred grams of product is one hundred eighty-two kilocalories.
Do not deny yourself such a tasty and incredibly healthy fermented milk product - like Ossetian cheese, especially since it is so easy to prepare at home.
Ossetian cheese is an important part of the national culture of Ossetia.
This cheese is one of the most famous national dishes outside Ossetia, prepared on the basis of whole milk - cow, goat or sheep.
Ossetian cheese belongs to the pickled varieties.
The characteristic features of this product include a sour taste with a salty and pungent, even sometimes bitter note.
This cheese has a fairly dense, but brittle consistency.
If you cut off a piece of Ossetian cheese, you will notice eyes of different shapes on the cut.
This product does not have a crust and is characterized by a white color with a yellow tint.
Most often, Ossetian cheese is used to prepare national pastries -.
In addition, it is included in recipes for salads, casseroles, snacks, etc.
This cheese can also serve as an excellent breakfast along with bread.
To make Ossetian cheese at home, you don’t need much skill, you just need to follow this recipe.
Ossetian cheese recipe
Ingredients:
- good quality milk at least 3.5 liters - more possible (fat content - 3.2, protein - at least 2.6)
- Acidin-pepsin or Abomin tablets at the rate of 1.5-2 pcs. Acidin-pepsin tablets per 1 liter of milk or 1-2 tablets. Abomina per 1 liter of milk, taking into account the starter.
- rennet tablets - according to instructions.
- refir or yogurt without filling or curdled milk or sour whey for fermentation - 5-10% of milk
How to make Ossetian cheese at home:
It is better to choose milk from a manufacturer you trust. Those. so that it is not powder.
Sour-milk starter is not added to homemade Ossetian cheese (only rennet), because milk from under the cow.
Pasteurized milk is more difficult to curdle. For these purposes, sour milk starter is used.
Pour milk into a saucepan, heat it on the stove to 28-32 ºС, i.e. your hand should be a little cool.
We add the starter at room temperature (kefir or yogurt or homemade curdled yogurt or sour whey or natural yogurt without additives), I did it with everything one by one, 10% - 1-1.5 cups, it is important that the starter is not from the refrigerator! Stir thoroughly and leave for 5 minutes.
Pound the tablets into powder and add 50 ml of water until they completely dissolve. Pour the liquid into the milk. Stir thoroughly
Cover with a lid and place in a warm place. If it’s cold in the kitchen, you can cover it with a terry towel or place it near the radiator, or put it in a bowl with warm water so that the milk is about 30ºC when inhaling.
Do not touch the pan, do not stir, do not stir with a spoon until a clot forms - this may take from 1 to 2 hours
After an hour, you can carefully open and check - shake the pan a little.
If we do a test with 2 tablets/liter, we can check after 30-40 minutes. The clot should look like milk jelly.
You can also check by pressing a spoon - it is difficult to enter and yellow serum is released.
If the milk is not strong enough or the whey is milky in color, leave it for a while.
10.
As soon as the curd has become jelly-like, carefully use a long-handled spoon or a long knife and then stir it to pieces of 2-3-4 cm, it is important to break the curd especially well at the bottom. Break into small pieces, but not into porridge.
Leave for 15-20 minutes, it may take 30 minutes, wait for the cheese mass to settle.
During this time, the cheese pieces will shrink, settle to the bottom, and the whey will be yellow-green on top.
Place the pan in a water bath or in a sink with hot water, or on gas, if the cheese mass is in a plastic bowl - in the microwave for a couple of minutes, so that the temperature of the cheese and whey is 38-40ºC, hold for a while, stirring with a slotted spoon. The cheese mixture will be sticky and heavy.
With this gentle heating, the cheese will be a little denser and less crumbly. Do not overheat above 40 degrees! Because it may become rubbery.
Using a slotted spoon, carefully catch the cheese pieces from the bottom and place in a colander. They almost instantly stick to each other. Collect the remaining cheese by pouring the whey through a fine sieve.
The cheese yield is 1/5 or a little less of the initial weight, i.e. if I take 3.5 liters of milk + 300 ml of yogurt, then 700 g of fresh cheese comes out.
Let the cheese drain in a colander, helping with a slotted spoon.
Tamp down a little and compact with your hands. After a while, carefully turn it over.
Place the cheese in the refrigerator, covered with something.
After 2-4 hours (when the main whey has left), you can add salt - to do this, lightly rub the barrel of cheese with coarse salt.
Fresh Ossetian cheese, prepared at home, is ready.
Due to the well-known events with cheese, there is tension in our country. Our cheese is either very expensive or very tasteless in stores. I had to get down to business myself and make Ossetian rennet cheese at home. This is quite possible, nothing that cannot be obtained will not be required.
The main thing in cheese making is good milk. Sterilized or ultra-pasteurized will not work. Only pasteurized. And by no means powder. Ideally, village milk from a familiar cow. If there is none, buy milk with “undetermined” fat content. This kind of milk is not “normalized” to a certain fat content; it practically comes from the cow. The shelf life of such milk is three, well, five days. This milk costs from 60 rubles per liter. It always makes cheese. Many manufacturers produce this milk, and it is not difficult to find it in big cities. Not in Russia, this is probably the kind of milk that is “organic”.
Here's what I prepared: 4 liters of milk, half a liter of normal-fat kefir (you can use sour milk or yogurt), and, most importantly, rennet starter. The easiest way to start is with acidin-pepsin. It can be bought at a pharmacy. It is not sold in every pharmacy, but it is not difficult to find. Further, the “advanced” can buy special cheese starters via the Internet. This is also simple and easy, available all over the world. I also bought myself a thermometer and a cheese mold, they are convenient, but you can do without them.
She poured the milk into a large saucepan and set it to heat. You need either a stainless steel or enameled pan, no aluminum!
Kefir was warmed to room temperature under running hot water.
For 4 liters of milk you need 8 pepsin tablets. If you are using sourdough starter, read the packaging to see how much you need.
I crushed the tablets.
Dissolved in 30 ml warm water
The milk was heated to 30 degrees (a range from 28 to 32 degrees is suitable). If you don’t have a thermometer, it doesn’t matter; it’s easy to tell by touch. The milk should be slightly cooler than your body temperature. But warmer than "room" temperature
Pour in warm kefir (the milk should not cool) and stir
5 minutes after adding kefir, add dissolved pepsin to the milk.
The milk begins to curdle very quickly
It is clear that its structure is changing
To keep the milk warm, I turn on the gas on all burners. You can put the pan next to the radiator. In general, you need to keep the milk warm for an hour.
After 40-60 minutes you will see that the milk has separated into whey and cheese curd
The curd needs to be cut into large pieces with a knife.
And put it back on the stove to heat up.
Up to 40 degrees (your fingers will be a little hot, a thermometer is not necessary). If the curd is not dense, you can heat it a little longer/stronger
Let the heated milk sit for 15 minutes, no more.
The clot has become denser
Well, it's time to transfer the cheese to a strainer, sieve or cheese mold :-)
Cover with a saucer and place under pressure
After 1-2 hours the cheese needs to be turned over
And again under pressure
After another hour, I transfer the cheese into the mold (or you can leave it in a sieve). I got 800 g of cheese.
And I send it to the refrigerator (the press is needed until tomorrow)
But this is daily cheese. It's already quite tasty. Now you can salt it (for 800 g of cheese, try taking 2 teaspoons of salt, rub them into the cheese on all sides, and then decide how you like it), you can sprinkle it with pepper, oregano, whatever you want. I like cheese best on days 5-7. The pies with it are excellent. Delicious with tomatoes or beet slices.
You can store this cheese for ten days. If you need to store it longer, then put it in a brine made from whey, then you will get feta cheese, which can stand in the refrigerator for months.
Bon appetit!
Due to the well-known events with cheese, there is tension in our country. Our cheese is either very expensive or very tasteless in stores. I had to get down to business myself and make Ossetian rennet cheese at home. This is quite possible, nothing that cannot be obtained will not be required.
The main thing in cheese making is good milk. Sterilized or ultra-pasteurized will not work. Only pasteurized. And by no means powder. Ideally, village milk from a familiar cow. If there is none, buy milk with “undetermined” fat content. This kind of milk is not “normalized” to a certain fat content; it is practically “from the cow.” The shelf life of such milk is three, well, five days. This milk costs from 60 rubles per liter. It always makes cheese. Many manufacturers produce this milk, and it is not difficult to find it in big cities. Not in Russia, this is probably the kind of milk that is “organic”.
Here's what I prepared: 4 liters of milk, half a liter of normal-fat kefir (you can use sour milk or yogurt), and, most importantly, rennet starter. The easiest way to start is with acidin-pepsin. It can be bought at a pharmacy. It is not sold in every pharmacy, but it is not difficult to find. Further, the “advanced” can buy special cheese starters via the Internet. This is also simple and easy, available all over the world. I also bought myself a thermometer and a cheese mold, they are convenient, but you can do without them.
She poured the milk into a large saucepan and set it to heat. You need either a stainless steel or enameled pan, no aluminum!
Kefir was warmed to room temperature under running hot water.
For 4 liters of milk you need 8 pepsin tablets. If you are using sourdough starter, read the packaging to see how much you need.
I crushed the tablets.
Dissolved in 30 ml warm water
The milk was heated to 30 degrees (a range from 28 to 32 degrees is suitable). If you don’t have a thermometer, it doesn’t matter; it’s easy to tell by touch. The milk should be slightly cooler than your body temperature. But warmer than “room” temperature
Pour in warm kefir (the milk should not cool) and stir
5 minutes after adding kefir, add dissolved pepsin to the milk.
The milk begins to curdle very quickly
It is clear that its structure is changing
To keep the milk warm, I turn on the gas on all burners. You can put the pan next to the radiator. In general, you need to keep the milk warm for an hour.
After 40-60 minutes you will see that the milk has separated into whey and cheese curd
The curd needs to be cut into large pieces with a knife.
And put it back on the stove to heat up.
Up to 40 degrees (your fingers will be a little hot, a thermometer is not necessary). If the curd is not dense, you can heat it a little longer/stronger
Let the heated milk sit for 15 minutes, no more.
The clot has become denser
Well, it's time to transfer the cheese into a strainer, sieve or cheese mold
Cover with a saucer and place under pressure
After 1-2 hours the cheese needs to be turned over
And again under pressure
After another hour, I transfer the cheese into the mold (or you can leave it in a sieve). I got 800 g of cheese.
And I send it to the refrigerator (the press is needed until tomorrow)
But this is daily cheese. It's already quite tasty. Now you can salt it (for 800 g of cheese, try taking 2 teaspoons of salt, rub them into the cheese on all sides, and then decide how you like it), you can sprinkle it with pepper, oregano, whatever you want. I like cheese best on days 5-7. The pies with it are excellent. Delicious with tomatoes or beet slices.
You can store this cheese for ten days. If you need to store it longer, then put it in a brine made from whey, then you will get feta cheese, which can last in the refrigerator for months.
Bon appetit!
