Fermented milk products, such as Mechnikovskaya yogurt, Varenets, fermented baked milk, acidophilus, sour cream and cottage cheese, are healthy dietary products prepared by fermenting whole milk. At home, you can prepare such fermented milk products using special starters purchased at the pharmacy or using existing fermented milk products as a starter, using the same method as in production.

Sour milk has a good effect on digestion, prevents the development of putrefactive processes in the intestines, which complicates digestion and leads to long digestion of food and increased gas formation.

Ready-made starters are pure cultures of lactic acid bacteria and usually come in dry form. In this state, their effect is weakened, but they can be revived with warm milk, pasteurized and cooled to a temperature of 40 degrees. The starter, prepared according to the instructions, is used to ferment milk, and part of the starter is left in the refrigerator for later use; its shelf life is up to two weeks.

If it is not possible to purchase ready-made dry starter, you can use fermented milk products.

How to prepare Mechnikov sour milk

Pasteurize fresh milk by heating to a boil, but do not boil, and cool by placing in cold water up to 45 degrees. Add a special liquid starter into warm milk and stir well. It is better to pour the fermented milk into small dishes into jars and lids, cover with lids and wrap in a warm towel. Fermentation will occur in 6-8 hours. The result will be yogurt, which must be placed in a cool place, then the yogurt will acquire a pleasant taste and aroma.

To prepare the next portions of curdled milk, you need to leave a little sour milk from this batch. Use as a starter.

How to prepare acidophilus.

At home, you can prepare acidophilus, which can be sweet or sour. Acidophilus is not just a tasty fermented milk product, but it is also used medicinally for certain diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, not only in humans, but also in poultry.

Pasteurize fresh milk and quickly cool, stirring to 40 degrees, pour in a special fermentation starter made from pure cultures of lactic acid streptococci, and stir the acidophilus bacillus for uniform distribution in the milk. Pour into jars or leave in an enamel pan, be sure to cover with a lid.

Acidophilus curdled milk has a viscous consistency and a normal sour taste. When consumed, you can add jam, sugar and fruit syrups to it. With additives, acidophilus becomes more tasty, but liquid and can be drunk from a glass, like milk.

To ferment milk, you should always cover it with a lid so that cooling occurs evenly, then both Mechnikov’s curdled milk and acidophilic curdled milk will have a smooth surface and a pleasant sour-milk taste.

How to make kefir at home.

To prepare kefir at home, you need to use kefir grains or pure cultures; for the first time they can be purchased at a pharmacy, then leave part of the fermented kefir for subsequent starters. You can also ferment milk with kefir from the retail chain.

Pasteurize the milk and cool it to 25-27 degrees, add the starter, the amount of which is 5% of the amount of milk. Stir the mixture well and pour into containers, close with lids and keep in a warm place at a temperature of 18 degrees. After 12-14 hours, the kefir is ready; a dense clot will form and can be stored in the refrigerator, where it can infuse for up to three days.

Useful properties of kefir.

If kefir is kept for 24 hours, you will get one-day kefir, two days - two-day kefir, and three days - three-day kefir. One-day kefir is used in medical nutrition, and it has a laxative effect on the intestines. Three-day kefir has a fixing effect.

How to prepare fermented milk products yourself

We tell you how to prepare cottage cheese, sour cream and fermented baked milk at home.

The most delicious fermented milk products are homemade. They are the most reliable. After all, when making them, you definitely won’t use palm oil, harmful preservatives, or dilute milk or cream. Unfortunately, we rarely make these products. It seems so long and labor intensive. In fact, making homemade yogurt takes about 20 minutes + one night of standing time. The next morning you already have high-quality, delicious yogurt. The same can be said about sour cream or cottage cheese.

You just need to make thoughtful preparation for the process, but only once. Buy starters and a thermometer, if necessary, find a place with high-quality milk.

Milk

If you buy milk in a store, you need to buy pasteurized milk. Good test: buy and wait until expiration date. If the milk sours easily, and the resulting yogurt has a pleasant taste, such milk is suitable for preparing dairy products at home.

Sourdough starters

To obtain most fermented milk products, you need to add starter to milk. Usually this is the original product already obtained. That is, if you need yogurt, you need to add a spoonful of yogurt to the milk. Moreover, in some cases, the older the starter and the bacteria living in it, the better the fermented milk product. Therefore, it is best to take sourdough from neighbors or friends. Although you can buy it: some stores and companies that make fermented milk sell starter cultures for yogurt, kefir and other fermented milk products; starter cultures are also sold in pharmacies.

For cheese making, you need rennet, which you can’t easily find in stores. Most the right way- online stores. Specialized for cheese making. There are many different starters there and they are inexpensive. The only downside is that you have to pay for delivery.

Thermometer

You can’t do without it if you decide to start making cheese at home, and even if you just want to make sour cream. Because “by eye” - the temperature of liquids is not determined. For example, 29-30 degrees is cool water for the hand. It seems colder than room temperature. Theoretically, you can only determine a temperature of 40 degrees by tasting the liquid with your lips; if it doesn’t burn or cool, then that’s about what you need. But in cheese making you often need to raise and lower the temperature by 5-10 degrees. And here you can’t go without a thermometer.

A regular probe thermometer will do for us. By the way, it is universal. For both liquids and steaks, you can also measure the temperature of the baked goods inside.

Yogurt

It is usually obtained by self-fermentation. That is, the milk simply sours and after a day is converted into yogurt. If you want to speed up the process, you can add a spoonful of old yogurt and a crust of black bread to the milk.

Ryazhenka

The same curdled milk, but from baked milk. Baked milk is milk that has been simmered for a very long time at a temperature of 95 degrees. Previously, this product was obtained in Russian ovens. In urban kitchens we can use a slow cooker.

Yogurt

It is often recommended to use store-bought natural yogurt as a starter, but this is not entirely safe, since it may contain unaccounted for components, for example, thickeners and stabilizers. It is best to take the starter from a friend who makes homemade yogurts, or buy dry starter - it is sold in some pharmacies.

We will need:

Pasteurized milk with a short shelf life
Sourdough: Bulgarian bacillus and thermophilic streptococci
Tools: thermos or yogurt maker

Step 1. Dilute the starter with a glass of warm milk.

Step 2. Pour into a thermos and leave for 6-8 hours in a warm place.

Tip: The starter can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. After it is used up, you can use your own yogurt for fermentation.

Step 3. Boil milk and cool. Pour into a thermos.

Step 4. Add the starter. For 1 liter of milk - 1 tablespoon. Leave for 6 hours.

Sour cream

Once upon a time, sour cream was prepared very simply - it formed on the yogurt as a thick yellow layer of sour cream. This method is suitable if you have a familiar cow and a reliable milkmaid - you can make sour cream from village fat milk without any effort.

But usually, even good milkmaids sell us skim milk. This is milk that has had a layer of cream removed from the top. Therefore, there will be a layer of cream on the milk, but a very thin one. And there’s nothing to say about store-bought milk. It does not produce cream.

Still, sour cream can be made at home.

You will need:

1 liter of cream
Sourdough starter: 1 g (1 sachet) sour cream starter
Tools: slow cooker, thermos or yogurt maker

Step 1. Heat the cream to a temperature of 35 degrees.

Step 2. Add sourdough into the cream (if there is no dry sourdough, you can add a spoonful of sour cream).

Step 3. Pour the cream with the starter into a yogurt maker, multicooker or thermos, and keep constant temperature about 35-38 degrees for 8-12 hours.

Step 4. When the cream thickens, put it in the refrigerator.

Cottage cheese

For homemade cottage cheese you will need good milk with short term storage A simple test: if the milk sours and produces decent curdled milk, then it is suitable for cottage cheese, yogurt and other experiments. It is best, of course, to buy milk from a farmer, fresh, tasty and fatty. This milk will also make sour cream, and the yield of the final product will be greater.

3 liters of fresh milk
Sourdough: 1 crust of black bread
Tools: Gauze

Step 1. Place a crust of black bread in the milk and leave it to sour for 2-3 days and turn into yogurt.

Step 2. Place the curdled milk in a saucepan and place on low heat.
Advice: if sour cream has formed on it, they are also sour cream, it is better to remove it.

Step 3. Heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring gently from bottom to top several times with a wooden spoon.

Step 4. Leave to cool and separate overnight. Then put the cottage cheese in cheesecloth and leave to drain for several hours.

From whey

By the way, the whey, that is, the liquid that is cut off when the curdled milk is heated, does not need to be poured out. You can cook a lot of delicious things with it, and you can use it for cosmetic purposes - like nourishing mask for face, body and hair. White kvass is also made from whey, and pancakes are baked with it. And they cook ricotta.

Jun 12, 2017 Olga

Drink, kids, you'll be healthy! Do you remember a song you knew from childhood?Milk, and especially dairy products, are beneficial not only for children, but also for adults.

What is their use?

First of all, it is a source of protein, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, lactic acid, amino acids, vitamins A, D, B2. Moreover, the ratio of all these beneficial substances is optimal.

Deserves special attention dairy products. They contain lactic acid bacteria that are beneficial to the human body, necessary for normal intestinal function and strengthening the immune system.

Everything seems simple - use milk, kefir, cottage cheese, yoghurts in your diet and your health will be what you need. But the problem is that nowadays it is difficult to find natural milk and dairy products that meet all the necessary qualities. We buy everything in supermarkets and often don’t even read the packaging (in best case scenario pay attention to the expiration date).

Often many things are simply hidden from consumers. Most modern manufacturers of dairy products use all kinds of additives and preservatives to extend shelf life, and the milk itself is often and thickly produced from dry powder.

To protect yourself and at the same time receive substances beneficial to our body, you need to try to find proven sources of dairy products, in particular milk, for yourself and your family.

Where can I find such a source? If you don’t have friends who could recommend sellers of homemade natural milk, you will have to search on your own through trial and error. Where to buy milk? Of course, on the market, carefully looking at the sellers. Try to find someone who sells their cow's milk rather than repurchasing it. Pay attention to neatness and how hygiene is maintained (for example, cottage cheese is not placed next to chicken eggs). When buying, take the number from the seller mobile phone and if you like the milk, you will become a regular customer.

Having good homemade milk, you can always prepare homemade dairy products fresh and of excellent quality. And they will be cheaper in cost.

What dairy products can you prepare at home?

Here is a partial list of foods that are easy to prepare at home:

1. Cottage cheese
2. Yogurt
3. Baked milk
4. Ryazhenka
5. Homemade condensed milk
6. Homemade ice cream
7. Delicious ricotta cheese

How to make homemade cottage cheese?

Cottage cheese is not difficult to prepare at home, following technology and hygiene rules.

Two ways to make homemade cottage cheese:

Method 1:

Boil the milk and cool to 37 degrees. Add 2-3 tablespoons of fresh sour cream or kefir per 3 liters of milk. Stir with a clean wooden spoon, cover with a lid and leave at room temperature for about a day.

After 24 hours, pour water into a larger saucepan than with fermented milk and boil it. When the water boils, place our pan with milk in it and immediately turn off the heat. The water will cool and the whey will separate in the pan with the milk, forming a curd. It should be placed in a linen bag or on a large sieve to better strain out the remaining whey.

Method 2:

Milk is fermented naturally without fermentation. To do this, leave it in a sealed container at room temperature for a day. After a day, the milk will sour, and from sour milk we prepare cottage cheese in the same way as in the first case.

The resulting whey is good for making okroshka, pancakes, pies, or just drinking.

How to make homemade yogurt?

Yogurt is wonderful dietary product, a great breakfast or snack between meals.

Two recipes for making yogurt:

1. Using sourdough.

Such starters are sold in supermarkets. They are dry and liquid.

We dilute the dry mixture directly in the bottle with a small amount of warm boiled water.

Add liquid starter to milk in an amount of 2-3 tablespoons (according to instructions)

Boil the milk, cool to a temperature of 37 degrees (if you don’t have a thermometer, drop it on your hand - the milk should be pleasantly warm). Add the prepared starter. Mix gently with a clean wooden spoon.

If you prepare homemade yogurt in a yogurt maker, you need to first scald and cool the jars, pour the milk with the starter into them, without closing the lids, place them in the yogurt maker and turn on the heat. In a yogurt maker, the cooking time is 4-6 hours.

You can do just fine without a yogurt maker by using a regular heating pad. Fill the hot water bottle hot water 70-80 degrees, wrap in a small (baby) blanket. Pour the milk with the starter into a prepared scalded and cooled small saucepan with a thick bottom, cover with a lid and place on a heating pad. The yogurt will be ready before morning.

From already prepared yogurts within 5 days, you can prepare yogurt one more time, setting aside 3 tbsp. spoons per liter of milk.

2. Using regular yogurt(preferably without additives).

Of course, in terms of the number of beneficial bacteria and, accordingly, the usefulness of the product, it will be inferior to yogurt made from special starter cultures. But, having 1 liter homemade milk and leftovers (3-4 tablespoons) of yogurt You can easily make 1 liter of fresh yogurt in the morning.

Boil the milk, cool to 37 degrees, add yogurt, stir and cook in a yogurt maker or thick-bottomed pan on a heating pad with boiling water, wrapped in a blanket.

How to make baked milk at home?

If you like baked milk, prepare it yourself. It's very simple.

Pour the milk into a thick-bottomed pan, stirring, bring to a boil, skim off the foam. Then, reducing the heat to a minimum, continue to “simmer” it over the fire for 3-4 hours until it turns yellowish (the color of baked milk :)), stirring constantly and skimming off the foam from time to time.

How to make fermented baked milk?

Add 20% (or higher) sour cream to the prepared baked milk (300g per 1 liter of milk). Mix thoroughly. Heat, stirring until the temperature reaches 70 degrees, remove from heat, cover with a lid and leave until completely cooled at room temperature.

How to make homemade condensed milk?

Condensed milk is a favorite treat for both children and adults. It goes well with pancakes and pancakes and is included in many culinary products. The harmful components in store-bought condensed milk have been discussed and discussed in all television programs talking about testing this product. But you can have the same taste, but without harmful additives make condensed milk at home.

For 1 liter of milk you need 1 cup of sugar and 0.5 cups of water.

Prepared from milk and water sugar syrup. Bring the milk to a boil, pour hot sugar syrup into it, bring to a boil over high heat and boil for 15-20 minutes, stirring. Afterwards, reduce the heat to low and cook our condensed milk for another 1.5-2 hours.

Homemade condensed milk ice cream.

If you boil homemade milk, cream will form on top when it cools. And from them and the same homemade condensed milk you can make homemade ice cream.

Beat any fresh or frozen berries in a mixer with condensed milk until pureed. Cool in the freezer. Whip the cream until the cream is thick, add the cooled berry mixture and beat everything together again. Spread into molds in a thin layer and place in the freezer to freeze for 2 hours.

(for 1 cup condensed milk, 1 cup berries and ¾ cup cream)

Homemade sire ricotta.

Italian ricotta cheese has an unusually pleasant, delicate taste. He's very helpful. It contains a lot of calcium and vitamin A. It is a delicacy, is quite expensive and is included in many delicious dishes.

Ricotta cheese can be easily made at home. For cooking 250 gr. For this cheese you will need 2 liters of homemade milk, 1 teaspoon of sugar and 30 ml of lemon juice.

Heat the milk to 80 degrees (steam starts, but does not boil yet), add sugar, salt on the tip of a knife and lemon juice. Remove from heat. Stir gradually until the milk from the lemon juice curdles and separates from the whey. Using a spoon, carefully transfer the separated cheese to a fine sieve. Let it drain, gently stirring with a spoon all the time. When all the whey has drained, leave the cheese for another 30 minutes, covering the sieve with a towel.

Photo: Yulia Davidovich/Rusmediabank.ru

The benefits cannot be overestimated. Its presence in a person’s daily diet is the key to good health and excellent well-being. Good fermented milk improves immunity, protects the body from infections, saturates it with many useful substances, and improves intestinal motility. According to World Organization healthcare, our anti-cancer and antiviral immunity is 70 percent dependent on intestinal microflora. To maintain it at a sufficient level, you need to consume fermented milk products with a high content of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli.

The process of preparing the “correct” sour milk is simple and accessible even to a novice housewife. The reward for your efforts will be the pleasant taste of the delicacy, a lot of nutrients and a guaranteed absence of “chemicals”. You yourself will decide what fat content to use in milk and what to add to yogurt to make the perfect dairy product.

Bacterial starter – what is it?

Externally, the bacterial starter is a coarse, cream-colored powder. in sourdough they are in a “dormant state”, that is, in a state of suspended animation. Once they get into good conditions, favorable for their reproduction, their biological activity will be restored. Favorable conditions mean, of course, milk at a certain temperature.

All bacterial starter cultures contain specially selected strains of microorganisms that are capable of fermenting milk. Fermented milk products obtained as a result of the use of starter cultures have special preventive medicinal properties, which are inherent in the bacteria that are included in the starter.

Manufacturers, as a rule, indicate on the product label what bacteria are contained in the sourdough and what effect they have. For example, the popular symbiotic starter culture is designed to restore intestinal microflora during and after taking an antibiotic and helps cope with dysbiosis.

Biokefir is an essential component of a healthy dietary ration, helps regulate the digestion process, improves intestinal motility.

For the little ones, the bifidocomplex helps the baby grow healthy and strong, increases appetite and improves digestion.

There are starters that help you lose weight and normalize your weight. Their action is so unique that dairy products created with their participation reduce the volume subcutaneous fat and reduces its amount on internal organs.

There are special starters for athletes - fermented milk prepared with their help is a rich source of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and other trace elements. Such products promote healthy muscle growth and strengthen bones.

How to make fermented milk from sourdough

It is most convenient to entrust the preparation of a delicious fermented milk product to kitchen appliances or utensils with a temperature-maintaining effect. This could be a slow cooker, a yogurt maker or a small thermos. If you don’t have all this on hand, don’t worry, you can ferment milk in a regular glass jar. Just wrap it in a warm blanket and leave it like that for several hours.

Cooking recipe: bring the milk to a boil, wait until it cools to 45 C. The temperature can be measured with a special tea thermometer, it is sold in the haberdashery department. But in the absence of this cunning device, drop the cooled milk on your wrist: if it is warm, but does not burn, the product is ready for fermentation.

Combine a little milk with the starter in a separate container, shake well, wait until the starter is completely dissolved. After this, add the resulting mixture to the remaining milk and place in a container that maintains a warm temperature for 6-9 hours.

The finished product, like regular milk, is stored in the refrigerator. Unfortunately, its lifespan is short-lived; after just three days, the number of beneficial bacteria begins to decline. Therefore, enjoy the pleasant taste of homemade fermented milk in the first days after preparation.

How to choose milk

To ensure that homemade yogurt brings you maximum benefits, choose carefully. It is best to purchase homemade milk from a trusted farmer, but pasteurized and ultra-pasteurized milk from the manufacturer is also suitable. If you make the right choice, the prepared fermented milk product will contain not only beneficial microflora, but also essential amino acids, complete milk protein, as well as vitamins and minerals.

Enjoy your meal! Be healthy!

Home cooking
sweet and sour milk,
curdled milk, yogurt
And various types cottage cheese

Sweet milk

Boiled milk

To prevent the milk from burning, rinse the pan with cold water first. Pour milk into the pan, put on the fire without a lid and bring to a boil. Do not leave unattended and watch carefully so that the milk does not escape.

Baked milk

Pour the milk into a clay jug or pot, cover with a lid and place in the oven over low heat.
The milk will be ready when it reduces in volume, becomes dark creamy, and acquires a specific taste.

THICK MILK (boiled)
(this is also a necessary component for making YOGHURT - see below)

Pour the milk into a thin aluminum pan, low and wide. In one and only one and the same one, all dairy products should be prepared and milk should be boiled, without using it for anything else.
Make a low, barely noticeable fire and leave the milk on it for long time, for three to four hours, without a lid (!), waiting for the moment when it decreases by about 1/3. After this, the milk acquires a different, even more pleasant taste and aroma.
Used as a stand-alone drink or for cooking Bulgarian yogurt(katyka). To prepare thicker greek yogurt the milk is boiled down by 2/5 or almost half.

Varenets Siberian

Season hot baked milk with thick fresh cream at the rate of 1/2-1 glass of cream per liter of milk.
Varenets can be served with tea or coffee.

Dairy products

Fermented milk products are necessary components of a complete healthy diet for children and adults.

Taking into account various violations during their modern industrial production, as well as the inevitable extremely undesirable additions of preservatives to increase shelf life, you should, if possible, prepare fermented milk products at home directly from milk, especially for children, pregnant and lactating women.
Unfortunately, at present, at least 70% of commercially available dairy products are adulterated and therefore unsuitable for a healthy diet.
It is almost impossible to distinguish a counterfeit dairy product from a benign one at home.

Remember that the shelf life in the refrigerator of any good-quality fermented milk product cannot exceed 2-3 days! And there are “yogurts” on sale with a shelf life of 6 months or more. For more information, see page (at the end of the page).

NOTE. Home fermentation of fermented milk products should only be carried out in complete darkness - carefully wrapped or in a dark closet.

Part 1
Fermented milk drinks

Fermented milk drinks include: curdled milk, kefir, acidophilus, as well as national fermented milk drinks ayran, kumiss, matsoni, yogurt and some others.

Fermented milk drinks are produced from milk of different fat content and skim, with or without the addition of fruit and berry fillers or other aromatic substances, sugar, by fermentation with pure cultures of lactic acid bacteria, followed by the destruction of the protein coagulum, which provides a liquid or semi-liquid consistency.

The types and combinations of lactic acid bacteria used in the starter determine the taste and consistency of the drink.

Many fermented milk drinks can be prepared at home.

SOLD VASH

Yogurt is a fermented milk product made from whole or low-fat pasteurized, sterilized or rendered cow's milk fermenting it with sourdough prepared with pure cultures of lactic acid bacteria.

Dairies produce ordinary, mechnikovsky, acidophilic, southern, Varenets, Ukrainian (ryazhenka) curdled milk. Based on fat content, yogurt is divided into fatty milk (usually 3.2% milk fat, and in Mechnikovskaya, Varenets and Ryazhenka up to 6%) and low-fat (no more than 0.05% milk fat). The curdled milk should have a strong and undisturbed curd.

Ordinary curdled milk made from whole or skim pasteurized milk, which is fermented with pure cultures of lactic acid streptococci.

Mechnikov sour milk made from pasteurized whole or high-fat milk; milk is fermented with pure cultures of lactic acid streptococci and Bulgarian bacillus.

Acidophilus curdled milk prepared from whole pasteurized milk, which is fermented with pure cultures of lactic acid streptococci with the addition of Bacillus acidophilus.

Southern curdled milk prepared from whole pasteurized milk, fermented with pure cultures of lactic acid streptococci and Bulgarian bacillus. Sometimes milk yeast is added.

Varenets- yogurt made from baked or sterilized milk with high fat content or low-fat milk, which is fermented with pure cultures of lactic acid streptococci. Sometimes a pure culture of lactic acid bacillus is added.

Ukrainian curdled milk (ryazhenka) prepared from baked milk with high fat content (6%) by fermentation pure cultures of lactic acid streptococci.

At dairies, flavoring or aromatic substances (sugar, honey, vanillin, cinnamon, fruit jams and preserves) can be added to curdled milk during packaging. The same products can be added at home to regular yogurt before using it.

Curdled milk is digested and absorbed much better than milk.

PREPARATION OF HOMEMADE SOCKED MOUCH

First way
Milk is pasteurized at +85°C without holding or boiled.
Then cool to +35-+40°C in cold water
Milk must be pasteurized and cooled in the same container.
The prepared milk is fermented, stirring well, with the previous yogurt at the rate of 0.5 cups per 1 liter. For fermentation, you can use store-bought sour cream.
After this, the milk is poured into jars and placed in a dark place at +35-+38°C.
The curdled milk will be ready in 6-10 hours.

Second way
Boil milk, cool to 30-35°C, add ready-made yogurt (2-3 teaspoons per glass of milk) or sour cream (0.5 tablespoons per glass of milk), stir everything well, pour into glasses, cover and set for 18-20 hours warm place.
The shelf life of curdled milk is no more than 3 days at a temperature not exceeding 8°C.

In Russian cuisine, curdled milk is traditionally served with sugar and oven-dried crackers made from fresh rye bread.

Varenets

Ingredients :
- 1.5 liters of milk,
- 1 tablespoon of sour cream.

Preparation

Pour the milk into 3 bottles and place in a large, not very deep clay bowl. Place the bowl in the oven.
When golden foam forms on the milk, lower it to the bottom with a spoon. Repeat this 4 times.
Then pour 1 glass of milk, cool, shake with a tablespoon of sour cream, mix with the rest of the milk.
Pour the milk into glasses, distributing the foam evenly, and keep in a warm place. To speed up souring, a crust of black bread is usually added to the milk. When it turns sour, put it in the refrigerator.
Serve with sugar and rye bread crumbs.

Varenets (ancient recipe)

Ingredients :
- 1 liter of milk,
- 0.25 l cream,
- 1/2 cup sour cream,
- 1 yolk,
- 1 tbsp. spoon of sugar.

Preparation

Mix milk and cream in a saucepan and place in the oven. When foam appears, lower it to the bottom with a spoon and shake. Leave one foam on the plate. The milk should boil by one third.
Remove it from the oven and cool to the temperature of fresh milk. Add sour cream mixed with yolk and sugar, whisk, pour into cups and place a piece of foam on top.
Keep in a warm place (30-40°C) until it turns sour. Then put it in the refrigerator.
Serve with sugar, cinnamon and breadcrumbs.

Kaymak

Ingredients :
- 3 glasses of cream,
- 1 cup of sugar,
- 1/4 sachet of vanilla sugar,
- juice of 1 lemon.

Preparation

Boil two glasses of cream, mixed with sugar and vanilla sugar, over low heat until tender (kaymak is ready if a drop dropped into cold water thickens to the consistency of sour cream).
When cooking kaymak, you need to be careful that it does not burn.
Remove the finished kaymak from the heat, cool (you can put it in a bowl with cold water), then beat with a spatula, while adding lemon juice drop by drop. When the kaymak is well ground, i.e. becomes thick and white, add the remaining glass of whipped cream. Mix the mixture well and put it in the refrigerator.
Kaymak is used mainly for layering waffles.

KEFIR

Kefir is a fermented milk dietary drink produced from pasteurized cow's milk by fermenting it with a starter prepared with kefir grains or specially selected pure cultures that cause lactic acid and alcohol fermentation.

Depending on the duration of ripening, kefir is distinguished weak(one day), average(two days and strong(three days).

The longer the ripening, the more alcohol (from 0.2 to 0.6%), lactic acid and carbon dioxide.

Dairy plants produce full fat kefir(3.2% milk fat), fatty with vitamin C And fruit kefir with fruit and berry syrups, containing 2.5% fat, and lean(no more than 0.05% milk fat).

Tallinn kefir differs from usual in the increased content of dry fat-free substances (at least 11% instead of 8%).

Kefir is digested and absorbed much better than milk. The alcohol and carbon dioxide contained in kefir, its sour taste and aroma stimulate the appetite, tone the nervous and cardiovascular systems, and suppress putrefactive processes that occur in the stomach and intestines.

Kefir is used in therapeutic nutrition. Strong kefir has a strengthening effect on the gastrointestinal tract, while weak kefir has a laxative effect.
Strong kefir is not recommended for people suffering from high acidity of gastric juice, stomach ulcers and duodenum.

The shelf life of kefir is no more than three days at a temperature not exceeding 8°C.

PREPARING HOMEMADE KEFIR

To prepare kefir, milk or skim milk is fermented with a starter of kefir grains or a portion of previously prepared kefir (or purchased in a store).

To prepare the starter, kefir grains (obtained from the previous portion) are washed with warm boiled water. Then, in a glass jar, they are poured with milk boiled and cooled to +18-+22°C (1/3 cup per 1 g of fungi).
When the milk has curdled (usually after a day), it is filtered through a sieve.

The fungi on the sieve are washed with warm boiled water and again filled with the same amount of milk.

Secondary curdled milk is kept for a day in the refrigerator or cellar, it is used as a starter for making kefir.

The kefir grains remaining after straining are washed with warm water, placed in a jar and used again to prepare the starter.

The milk is boiled and cooled to +20-+25°C, poured into a clean container and a starter of kefir grains is added - 2-3 teaspoons per glass of milk. After the formation of a clot, kefir is cooled to +8-+10°C and left at this temperature for maturation for 2-3 days.

As mentioned above, in the absence of previously prepared kefir grains, kefir at home can be prepared using kefir purchased in the store as a primary starter.

KEFIR IS VERY USEFUL FOR CHILDREN AND ADULTS. Regular consumption of fermented milk products improves metabolism, strengthens a weakened body, and increases appetite.

NOTE. Regular consumption of kefir simultaneously increases the effectiveness of most anti-cancer drugs and significantly reduces their effects.

ACIDOPHILINE

Acidophilus is a fermented milk dietary product prepared from pasteurized whole or skim cow's milk by fermenting it with a starter culture of pure cultures of lactic acid streptococci and acidophilus bacillus, as well as kefir grains.

Dairies produce acidophilus fatty(milk fat 3.2%) and lean(milk fat no more than 0.05%), fatty sweet And low-fat sweet. Acidophilus is digested and absorbed much better than milk. Acidophilus is used in medical nutrition, because the lactic acid bacteria contained in acidophilus suppress putrefactive processes that occur in the intestines.

The shelf life of acidophilus is no more than 3 days at a temperature not exceeding 8°C.

PREPARATION OF ACIDOPHILINE AT HOME

To prepare acidophilus, milk or skim milk is pasteurized at a temperature of 90-95°C for 30 minutes, cooled to +40°C, add culture of acidophilus bacillus(you can add a portion of store-bought acidophilus), mix and leave for 10 hours.

To prepare a secondary starter, a primary starter is added to the milk intended for fermentation at the rate of 50 ml per 1 liter and prepared in the same way as the primary starter.

After 5-6 hours, the secondary starter is ready. It is used to ferment subsequent portions of acidophilus.

Acidophilus is considered ready if a dense clot has formed.

In extreme cases, in the absence of a pure acidophilus culture or acidophilus, kefir can be used as a primary starter, then each time fermenting subsequent portions of milk with the resulting product.

WHEY DRINKS

Milk serum- a by-product of the production of cheese and cottage cheese. It contains about half the nutrients of milk - soluble protein, making up 20% of milk protein, all milk sugar, mineral salts, water-soluble vitamins. Therefore, it is recommended to widely use whey for human nutrition.

Whey is used in the production of baby food, bakery, pasta, confectionery products and whey drinks.

Whey drinks are produced by fermenting pasteurized whey with the addition of flavoring and aromatic fillers: kvass wort concentrate, sugar, yeast, salt, tomato juice, etc.

Depending on the added fillers, kvass “New”, “Milk”, acidophilus-yeast drink, drink with tomato juice, drink “Coolness”, drinks “Aromatic”, “Summer”, “Sunny”, etc. are produced.

KUMYS

Kumis is a fermented milk dietary drink prepared from the milk of mares or skim milk of farm animals of other species.

If kumiss is prepared from cow's milk, then a mixture of whole and skim milk, whey and sugar (2.5%) is pasteurized, cooled and then fermented with a special starter, which ensures mixed fermentation - lactic acid and alcoholic- and promotes the formation of antibiotic (including anti-tuberculosis) substances.

Ready-made koumiss is a fizzy drink of white color, strongly fermented milk, with an admixture of alcohol, taste and smell. There are different types of kumiss weak(one-day), containing up to 1% alcohol, average(two days) - up to 1.75% alcohol, strong(three-day) - up to 5% alcohol.

Kumis stimulates appetite and has dietary and medicinal properties; it has long been used for the prevention and treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, as well as some diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Kumis is also used for exhaustion after illness.

The nutrients of koumiss (proteins, fats, milk sugar) are absorbed almost completely (up to 95%). When consuming koumiss, the digestibility of proteins and fats contained in other foods increases sharply.

Strong kumiss is not used for medicinal purposes; they use it only as a refreshing or intoxicating drink (which is much healthier than drinking beer).

The shelf life of kumys is no more than 3 days at temperatures up to 8°C.

KAZAKH AIRAN

Ayran in Kazakh is a fermented milk drink common in Kazakhstan.

To prepare Kazakh ayran, you need to take from half to three quarters of a glass of starter per liter of milk. You can use yogurt, kefir or sour cream as a starter.

The milk needs to be brought to a boil, cooled to room temperature, add the prepared starter, stir, pour into glass jars or ceramic cups and leave to mature for five to six hours.

MATSONI

Matsoni is a fermented milk drink common in Transcaucasia.

To prepare matsoni, milk must be boiled, cooled to a temperature of 45°C, poured into glass jars of 0.2 or 0.5 liters, and added to each full teaspoon or tablespoon of starter - live yogurt (see below) or, in extreme cases, sour sour cream, mix well, wrap and place in a warm place for 6-8 hours.

Part 2
SOLD VASH
DIFFERENT TYPES OF COOK COOK
GUSTYANKA and RYAZENKA
BULGARIAN and GREEK YOGURT
SUZMA (cottage cheese from yogurt) and AIRAN

Curdled milk as the basis for fermented milk products

The simplest fermented milk product is yogurt.

It forms itself, without any artificial help, by simply souring raw milk in a warm room. In this case To speed up souring, a crust of black bread is usually added to the milk.

That’s why people call it not only yogurt, but also cheese milk And self-brew. However, self-brew requires two days to fully form, otherwise it will be runny. Therefore, milk is sometimes helped to turn into curdled milk - a spoonful of sour cream is stirred into it and placed in a hot heated room (kitchen). No matter how simple yogurt is, it is the basis of most fermented milk products.

From its top, “verts”, they remove sour cream, and the bulk of it goes to cooking cottage cheese.

Cottage cheese

There is always a lot of whey in curdled milk, even two days old. Therefore, the first operation is to cast, to separate the whey from the clot. To do this, part of the whey is simply drained from a jar of yogurt, and then the remaining curd is poured into a special linen bag shaped like a cone.

Such a bag must be sewn and used constantly. This is more convenient than every time looking for a suitable random cloth (gauze, calico, linen) for making cottage cheese.

It is best to make a bag with a volume of 3-5 liters of milk, but no less.

After pouring the curdled milk into a bag, hang it over some dish and leave it for at least 5-6 hours, during which the whey will gradually come out of the curdled milk and curd will form. Only after this can you try to artificially squeeze out the hidden whey by placing a bag of cottage cheese under a press weighing 3-5 kilograms (between two boards or plywood).

In this way, after 5-8 hours you will get a tender homemade raw plastic cottage cheese. It will not crumble, but will break off in large, thick, beautiful layers.

But if you want to make drier cottage cheese, then you should put the curdled milk in a bowl, before squeezing out the whey, in a water bath and heat it up. Then the serum itself will bounce off the clot.

In this case, you must be careful and do not overheat the curdled milk (!), otherwise the cottage cheese will become hard, fine-grained, and unpleasant in taste, because the sour milk will brew and coagulate.

If you heat the yogurt lightly, moderately, then when you squeeze out the whey you will get a wonderful dry, dense blade cottage cheese, which will look like a block in appearance.

Special types of cottage cheese:
skyr, irimshik, ezgey

Usually we use cottage cheese only from yogurt, that is, from raw fermented milk.

Meanwhile in home cooking It is advisable to use other types of cottage cheese, created by world culinary practice in the past and forgotten now.

All of them are easy to do, and most importantly, they provide a ready-made, usable product 20-40 times faster than ordinary Russian cottage cheese, and moreover, they do not require any fuss with expressing, squeezing, washing dishes and a blade bag.

Try them and they will quickly gain popularity among the adults and children in your family.

Skyr

You have a liter or three liter jar of milk placed in the evening: by the morning yogurt has formed, not yet quite strong for cottage cheese and at the same time quite sour. You can’t eat that much yogurt right now, and you don’t want to, but you need to have something hearty for breakfast. What to do?

Take a liter or two of fresh milk, quickly boil it in a large deep saucepan and at the very moment when the foamy head of boiling milk begins to rise to the edges of the pan, preparing to run away, pour in in one fell swoop exactly the same amount of curdled milk as boiling milk. The fire can be increased by 1-2 minutes, or you can leave it the same. Then continue boiling the mixture for no more than 2 minutes or less, depending on the amount of liquid.

As soon as the whey turns greenish-yellow, stop boiling and pour it off, trying to combine all other grains of curdled milk with the large milk curd. Place the resulting curd in a deep plate and lightly press with a spoon on all sides so that all the greenish-yellow whey is separated, but not the whitish liquid. As soon as a white, milk-like liquid begins to separate, stop pressing on the clot.

It turned out skyr - cottage cheese made from half sour and half sweet milk, not sour, pleasant, with a particularly elastic consistency, with a barely noticeable creamy, rather than the usual cottage cheese smell. It is ready for immediate use.

Irimshik and Ezgey

If you change the ratio of curdled milk and fresh milk and instead of the 1:1 ratio take two liters of fresh milk and one liter of curdled milk, you will get cottage cheese with a different taste and consistency, called irimshik.

It can be boiled until the whey separates for a maximum of 5 minutes.

If you change the proportion in the opposite direction and take twice as much yogurt as fresh milk, that is, two liters of yogurt and one liter of milk, you get cottage cheese hedgehog, which cannot be boiled for more than one minute - in fact, at the same moment when the curdled milk is poured into hot milk, the whey will bounce off.

To both of these types of cottage cheese, you need to add half a teaspoon or one teaspoon of salt and 25-50 grams of butter, mixing them with the cottage cheese while it is still warm.

Irimshik and ezgey work out much better if they use not ordinary Russian curdled milk, but katyk (yogurt), which we will talk about below.

In addition to the combination of curdled milk and fresh milk, sour cream is used as a starter for one or another type of milk to formulate a whole range of fermented milk products.

Guslyanka (gustyanka)

If one liter thick milk(see at the beginning of the page) or simply into boiled and cooled to 30-35 ° C, pour a tablespoon of sour cream diluted in half a glass of the same milk (per liter of milk) and put in a warm place, tightly closing, then the resulting yogurt will wear Name "gustyanka", or "guslyanka", and differ in taste and thickness from ordinary cheese milk (yogurt).

It can be used in the future to create different cottage cheeses, thereby modifying their taste.

Ryazhenka or Ukrainian Varenets

If in baked milk(see above) pour one glass of sour cream per one liter of milk, you will get fermented baked milk, or Ukrainian Varenets, after fermenting for 3-4 hours.

Bulgarian and Greek yoghurts (katyki)
Suzma (yogurt curd)

If thick milk(boiled milk, sweet milk product - see above at the beginning of this page), cooled not lower than 30°C and not higher than 35°C, ferment with 100-150 grams of live yoghurt per liter of milk and at the same time carefully wrap the container with milk in cotton wool blanket, batting or quilt, left warm for 8-10 hours and protected from shaking and moving (!), you can prepare a very tasty YOGURT (or katyk), i.e. sour milk fermented with a culture of fermented Bulgarian bacillus.

It should be taken into account that the 30°C required for ripening yogurt will be maintained due to the ripening process only in large quantities milk (at least 2-3 liters) with careful wrapping. For fermentation of small quantities it is necessary yogurt maker- thermostat that maintains temperature.

When cooking thick milk for fermentation Bulgarian yogurt milk is boiled down by about 1/3 for thicker greek yogurt- by 2/5 or almost half. You can also use store-bought and boiled 6% milk.

Home breeding culture of fermented Bulgarian bacillus. When simply fermenting thick milk with sour cream, yogurt (katyk) will not be obtained immediately, not the next day, but only after similar re-fermentation of thick milk is done at least three or four more times, but not with sour cream, but with 100-150 grams the previous portion of katyk, and gradually it will be created Bulgarian stick culture, which in the future must be maintained continuously and every day a new katyk must be fermented with an old katyk. In the first two fermentations, the result will be not katyk (yogurt), but “gustyanka” (see above) - a product closer to very tasty thick yogurt.

After a month or two of sequential repetition of such fermentations, it will be finally cultivated pure culture of Bulgarian bacillus, creating the real taste of katyk (yogurt) and forming its special valuable properties.

Self-prepared live yoghurts are very useful for children and adults, especially for dysbiosis, allergies and a tendency to frequent colds. The shelf life of live yogurt in the refrigerator is no more than 2 days after preparation, because The very beneficial healing substances produced by the Bulgarian stick gradually disappear with further peroxidation of the yogurt.

If possible, it is better to initially ferment thick milk not with sour cream, but with “live” yogurt purchased in a store - which has a shelf life indicated on the package of no more than 2-3 days (!), i.e. to which no toxic preservatives have been added that killed the Bulgarian bacillus - then yogurt will turn out right away.

From all other types of curdled milk katyk differs not only in taste, but also in the fact that it has very little whey. It is practically invisible, and it is detected only when expressing the katyk in a blade pouch.

After decanting the yogurt (katyk), you get not cottage cheese, as from ordinary yogurt, but SUZMA- a product that occupies a middle position between cottage cheese, sour cream and butter.

Suzma has all the good qualities of these three products and none of their negative qualities.

Its main advantage and miracle is its reversibility both “backward” - to the “pre-light” state, and “forward” - along the path of transformation into products of a higher order, with a higher concentration of fat and protein fractions. After two or three days, or even after a week of storage in the cold, Suzma can be diluted and turned into a kind of sour cream, milk, katyk, or, conversely, turned into butter, starting to beat, or make cottage cheese out of it by heating it over a fire in a water bath. But suzma itself, without additional dilution or heating, can simultaneously serve as sour cream, cottage cheese, and butter.

It can be put in borscht and cabbage soup, spread on bread and used in cheesecakes, cheesecakes, and curd pastes.

Ayran (drink made from suzma diluted with water)
Fruit yogurt

In summer, 100-200 grams of suzma, diluted in a liter or half a liter of cold boiled or mineral water, gives an excellent thirst-quenching and invigorating drink - ayran.

Thus, suzma is an excellent, healthy, tasty fermented milk product with a diverse, wide profile of use. That's why it can be highly recommended for home cooking and as a convenient ingredient in many home cooking dishes.

In trade practice the name is used "yogurt" to denote a specific Bulgarian sour milk (katyka), made from thick milk(see above). Strictly speaking, yogurt(in Bulgarian “yoghurt”) is the same katyk, but named in a different Turkic dialect (Turkish); some peoples of our country also call it Chekise, tarak.

However, gradually in European countries the name “yogurt” began to be understood only as katyk, which is prepared with vegetable (berry and fruit) additives.

Since old times in Tatarstan, very often they put a small piece of beet into the katyk during fermentation in order to tint it, give it a slightly pinkish tint, and make it beautiful. Many other peoples whose national cuisine includes katyk do the same.

Sometimes cherries, blueberries, currants and other berries with intense, highly coloring juice are used for tinting.

This technique, used in folk cuisine only for beauty, gave rise to the idea Food Industry a number of European countries - Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Romania, Finland, etc. - produce katyk with various additives of berry and fruit juices and purees, no longer for beauty, but to change and complement its taste, to create a variety of vitamin-enriched products. This katyk with the addition of berries and fruits is now called “yogurt” in trade practice.

Fruit yoghurt is easy to make at home:

Just when fermenting thick milk to prepare katyk (see above), together with the starter (100-150 grams of old katyk per 1 liter of thick milk), you need to dilute 50 grams of any fruit or berry puree or put 4-5 berries per liter of fermented yogurt like this so that for each glass there is approximately one berry or one teaspoon of puree.
You can use apple, currant, strawberry, plum, cherry puree, tomato paste, raspberry and blackberry juice.