We make curd cheese from kefir. Saving 300 percent

A friend taught me how to make curd cheese from frozen kefir. It only takes 10 minutes of work, and the results are finger-licking good! And savings of 200-300%. Have you seen how much a pack of Philadelphia costs?! And in this recipe for expenses - 2 liters of kefir, 140 rubles for everything about everything.

A friend taught me this method

All you need is kefir, a freezer and a cloth for pumping

I warn you right away: don’t skimp on kefir, take fatty and tasty ones. For an experiment, I took a pack of cheap and sour cheese, and at the end I got a handful of the same sour cheese, the rest was glass with water.

Place the kefir packets in the freezer overnight. The liquid should freeze completely.
In the morning, take out the kefir and remove the bags from it. To make the plastic come off the ice easier, I put the packages in water for a few seconds. Then I simply cut and pulled off the thawed bags.
Take a large colander or sieve and line it with gauze.

By the way, advice! I didn’t have any gauze, but I did have an unnecessary piece of organza. Great stuff! The holes in the organza are tiny, they hold even tiny particles of cottage cheese, and allow liquid to pass through. Much better than gauze.

Place ice “bricks” in a colander. Leave in a warm place to drain the liquid.
When most of the thawed water has gone, flakes of cottage cheese will remain on the fabric. Wrap the gauze tightly over the top into an overlapping “envelope” and place a weight on top. I placed a plate on top and a 5-liter bottle of water on it.
Place the “Eiffel Tower” in the refrigerator for 5-6 hours. The longer you keep the cheese under pressure, the drier it will turn out.

I recommend unrolling the fabric from time to time and tasting the cheese. If you like the consistency, take off the pressure and invite your family for a tasting. All is ready!

From 2 liters of kefir I got 420 g of cheese. For 140 rubles! In the supermarket, for the same money I will buy only one jar of Almette, and it weighs 150 grams. 3 times more expensive!

My experiments

Having gotten the hang of using kefir, I tried making cheese from fermented baked milk. It turned out very tasty! Delicate creamy color, sweetish taste of baked milk - I haven’t even tried this in the store.

Sour cream makes cheese very fatty. I made it into a cake filling and added fresh fruit. Awesome! I think it would be good for cheesecakes too.

And don't be afraid to overpay. Sour cream, of course, is more expensive than kefir, but it is much thicker, and there will be more finished product at the end. I froze a 0.3 g package and got 200 g of cheese. About 0.5 cups of whey came out, no more.

Very tasty cheese is made from homemade yogurt. I brought 3 liters of farm milk from the village, added starter and got 3 liters of excellent non-sour yogurt. Well, then according to the scheme - freezer, colander. And I got 1,200 cheese from 3 liters of whole country milk. Fatty, tender, tastes like butter cream.

Tip: don't throw away the whey! It’s better to fry pancakes or pancakes on it. The whey dough turns out fluffy and soft, very tasty.

Cheese with twists

Stores often sell curd cheeses with herbs, bacon, and spices. Why are we any worse? That's right, nothing! We can do this too! And the additives will be natural, without chemicals or flavor enhancers.

I added to the cheese:

Greens and garlic. Finely chopped dill and parsley, squeezed out 1 clove of young garlic. The result was a tender and spicy curd mass, just right for sandwiches.
Sun-dried tomatoes, basil and garlic. I drained the oil from the tomatoes, chopped them finely and added chopped green basil. And I browned the garlic a little in a frying pan to make the smell more subtle.
Pickled cucumbers and dill. Finely chopped the cucumbers and squeezed so that all the brine was gone. I also chopped fresh dill and added a little ground black pepper and coriander. It turns out very tasty, but cook this pasta only for one day. Per night. Because of the salt in cucumbers, the cheese still sheds water.

And children love sandwiches with fruit. I take a white bun, spread it with cottage cheese, and put slices of sweet fruit or berries on top. They fly away with a bang!