Homemade Cottage Cheese
Cottage cheese is believed to be the first cheese produced, probably by the Egyptians or Greeks. Originally, it was made by allowing milk to sit at room temperature until the good bacteria in the milk make milk proteins (casein) coagulate. Now, as we do not use raw milk but pasteurised milk in our everyday use, the milk proteins have to be coagulated by other means e.g. lemon juice, vinegar or addition of bacterial cultures that create an acidic environment in the milk, causing proteins to coagulate https://highlandcottagerentals.com/. A little known fact about cottage cheese is that it takes 100 pounds of milk to produce just 15 pounds of it. We eat cottage cheese as a diet food, since it is low in carbohydrates and fat and high in protein. Regular cottage cheese only has 4% of fat by weight, while low-fat made with skimmed milk has only 2%. A half-cup of cottage cheese has 14 grams of protein. This is about as much as 2 ounces of cooked lean meat, poultry, or fish.
The term cottage cheese was first used in 1848; it refers to the fact that the cheese making process was one done at home or cottages. This cheese is not aged, so it has a much milder flavour than other cheeses. This mild flavour makes it popular among children and pregnant women who wish to add protein to their diet. Although cottage cheese is drained, it is not pressed like most cheeses and it still contains some whey. The excess whey may be drained, rinsed off, or eaten with the cheese. Rinsing cottage cheese removes a portion of the residual sodium; this is an option for those who are limiting their sodium intake but would like to continue to eat cheese https://adesignstorie.com/. As calcium from the milk is converted to an unbound form when the milk becomes acidic (to enable coagulation of the proteins to make cottage cheese), most of the calcium is in the whey.
Cottage cheese is often mixed with fruits or chives, eaten with salads or in recipes. Weight lifters in particular try to integrate cottage cheese into their diets, since the high protein makes it a good muscle builder. As a small amount of cottage cheese contains lots of casein which is a slow-digesting protein. This means that if it is consumed in the evening, breakdown products from casein absorbs slower into the bloodstream thus making it available to your body for longer periods of time. So while you sleep your body will be able to keep using it, rather than being hungry for 8 hours.
Homemaking of this cheese is so easy and it tastes delicious. We use cultured buttermilk which is added to a 1:1 ratio to milk. The acidic environment created by the buttermilk, along with heat helps coagulate the casein in milk. Hence, we get the benefits of buttermilk (see homemade buttermilk) along with the benefits mentioned above. Try it! If you run it trough a blender, it gets a similar texture to ricotta cheese, which is great for use in dips.
Ingredients: 1/2 pint full cream or semi-skimmed Milk. Only use regular pasteurised milk not UHT or Homogenised 1/2 pint cultured buttermilk 1 tbsp. Double cream (optional)
Method:
Heat the milk in a saucepan over medium heat until it is very hot, but do not boil. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon to prevent milk from sticking to bottom of pan and browning. Pour in buttermilk gently and uniformly and DO NOT stir at first. The curd will start to float to the top. When the curd has formed and the surrounding liquid (whey) has turned a light, clear yellow colour, off the heat. At this stage you can gently stir/scrape the bottom of the pot. You don't really need to stir; it's more like pushing the curds together because they all float to the top when they form. Let stand for about 10 minutes to cool. Pour the mixture through a fine cloth on a sieve to catch the curd. Discard the whey or use it instead of water in bread making. You can also culture the whey as you would in making buttermilk, to make whey buttermilk and then use this to make homemade ricotta cheese. Transfer the curds into a small bowl and add the double cream, if desired to give a creamier texture. This cheese can stay in the fridge for a few days but use it fresh as it is so easy to make and so good to eat as it is only milk and without the added preservatives found in processed cottage cheese. Great served on a piece of toast with a touch of homemade butter, a generous helping of cottage cheese and a couple of slices of smoked salmon with a green side salad. Also good in pancakes, especially cottage cheese hot pancakes.
Comments
Post a Comment