How to make cottage cheese from sour milk at home. Secrets of simple pleasure - delicious cottage cheese made from sour milk

This is what happens: a liter or two of milk sits in the refrigerator and turns sour. It's a pity! What useful things could be made from it? Pancakes or pancakes? For 2 liters of milk, you will be tortured to stand at the stove. Let's make cottage cheese!

In general, cottage cheese can be made from milk in two ways. According to the first method, you get unleavened, calcined cottage cheese - you just need to drop a couple of drops of the Calcium-chlorine preparation into heated milk. But they use fresh milk. Since our milk has already soured, we will use the second method, similar to the one by which cottage cheese and some types of homemade cheese are prepared in villages.

How to make cottage cheese from sour milk at home. Instructions for the housewife

The recipe for making cottage cheese is extremely simple. We will need:

  • 2 liters of sour milk;
  • two pans of the same shape - one for 3 liters, and the other, larger, into which the first pan can easily fit.
  • And also a colander lined with gauze.
  1. Pour the milk into a smaller saucepan.
  2. Pour some water into a large saucepan and place a saucepan with sour milk in it - you get a water bath.
  3. Place the structure on medium heat and heat it up.
  4. When the water between the walls of the pans boils, watch carefully: the milk will curdle, separating into cottage cheese flakes and whey. Do not let the curdled milk boil - overboiled cottage cheese turns out rough and dry. As soon as you see that the clear, greenish whey has separated, immediately remove the smaller pan from the bath and set it aside.
  5. Place a colander lined with gauze in a bowl or pan and carefully pour the contents of the small pan removed from the heat into it.

Now you need to place the colander so that all the excess liquid is drained and the cottage cheese remains dry. Voila! From two liters of milk you will get from 300 to 400 g of cottage cheese. You can transfer it to a plate and use it for its intended purpose.

How to make cottage cheese from sour milk in a slow cooker

In many cases, a multicooker makes life easier, but in this recipe it simply saves it, offering an excellent opportunity to do without a bulky water bath. Especially when the unit was chosen for a large family and has a bowl volume of more than four liters.

We pour our sour milk into the multicooker, set the “warm” mode and forget about it for about an hour. After an hour, remove the cottage cheese with a slotted spoon onto cheesecloth in a colander. You can tie the ends of the gauze into knots and hang them for a couple of hours - the result will be a fairly dense curd “ball” that can be cut into pieces.

Detailed instructions - on video

How to make cottage cheese from sour milk in the microwave

This is perhaps the easiest and fastest way to get homemade cottage cheese - just for those who are sorely short of time.

  1. Take two liters of sour milk.
  2. Pour the milk into a special container with a lid.
  3. We set the program: 15 minutes and 750 W.
  4. We are waiting for a call.

That's the whole method. Let the curd and whey cool and separate them using a colander and cheesecloth.

To make cottage cheese from sour milk, you don’t have to wait for the milk to sour on its own. You can “help” it: boil, cool to a temperature that is pleasant to the touch, add and stir a tablespoon of “live” natural milk yogurt or kefir. Cover the container with milk with a lid and place it in a warm place as you would for yeast dough to rise. After about 7–8 hours, the milk will safely sour, that is, it will become yogurt or kefir, depending on what you fermented with.

If the milk is fat enough, cream will collect on top of it - it can be used as sour cream. However, there will be no more than two tablespoons of cream from two liters of milk.

The longer the milk sours, the more sour the resulting product will be.

The excessively sour taste of milk (and, accordingly, cottage cheese) can be partially corrected: just pour in a glass of fresh milk before heating and stir. With the addition of some fresh milk, the cottage cheese may turn out slightly “rubbery”, similar to homemade cheese.

You can make cottage cheese from both fresh and sour milk. In the latter case, the stale milk will not be wasted and will be beneficial. The cottage cheese will turn out not only no less healthy, but also tasty. There are many recipes for making cottage cheese from sour milk. We will tell you about the most popular of them.

How to make cottage cheese from sour milk - useful tips

Before you start making cottage cheese from sour milk, it is important to remember a few important rules. They will help you prepare delicious and healthy cottage cheese.

  • To make cottage cheese, it is better to use homemade sour milk.
  • In order to get a more aromatic cottage cheese at the end, just add a little fresh milk at the very beginning of cooking.
  • To make sour milk, you need to put it on the fire and after cooking add a little lemon juice.
  • To obtain dry cottage cheese, you need to increase the drainage time of the starter.

Cottage cheese from sour milk according to the classic recipe

Ingredients:

  • Sour milk 2 l.
  • Water.

Sequencing:

  • Take 2 pans (one of them should be smaller than the other). Pour the milk into a small saucepan.
  • Pour some water into a large saucepan. Place a container of milk on this pan. This is necessary for the milk to stand in a water bath.
  • Turn on medium heat and start heating the sour milk in a water bath. It is important that the temperature of the pan heats up gradually. This will result in a juicier cottage cheese.
  • Wait for the water to boil in a large saucepan on which there is a saucepan with sour milk. Immediately after boiling, you will see small flakes forming in the milk. You need to wait until the green serum begins to form. As soon as this happens, remove the pan of milk from the heat.
  • Place cheesecloth in a colander and pour out the entire contents of a small pan, and wait until all the liquid has drained.



Cottage cheese from sour milk in the microwave

Ingredients:

  • Sour milk 2 l.
  • Kefir 2 l. - optional.

Sequencing:

  • Pour the sour milk into a special bowl. If desired, add a little kefir and mix everything thoroughly.
  • Place the bowl of sour milk in the microwave and turn it on at 750 W. Microwave the milk for 10 minutes.
  • Strain the milk through cheesecloth attached to a colander.
  • Place the cottage cheese in a separate container and leave for 7-9 hours.



Cottage cheese from sour milk in a slow cooker

Ingredients:

  • Sour milk 1.5-2 l.
  • Kefir optional.

Sequencing:

  • Pour the sour milk into the multicooker bowl. Set the multicooker to the “Warming” mode. Then wait until the milk in it warms up to 40 degrees. The milk should be heated in the slow cooker for 40-50 minutes.
  • Place several layers of cheesecloth or cotton cloth over the colander. Pour the sour milk from the multicooker into it and let the excess liquid drain. In about 10-15 minutes, all excess liquid will drain.
  • Transfer the cottage cheese to a separate container and let the cottage cheese brew for 5-7 hours.

Cottage cheese prepared according to the given recipes turns out to be very juicy, aromatic and tasty. Immediately after the cottage cheese has infused, you can serve it to the table. As additional additives, you can add fruits, nuts and dried fruits to it. You can also add a little honey, sugar or cinnamon if you wish (you can also use additional spices). This will not only allow you to get a very tasty and aromatic dish, but also remove the aroma of sour milk that may remain after preparing the cottage cheese.

It has long been known that cottage cheese is a healthy and necessary product for the body. It contains a lot of calcium and valuable protein.

Pediatricians allow children to introduce complementary foods with cottage cheese after five months. But in the store you can rarely find high-quality cottage cheese at an affordable price.

We suggest making this dairy product yourself from sour milk. The taste of such cottage cheese cannot be compared with its industrial counterpart, but the benefits are much greater. Read below for recipes using a microwave, multicooker and useful tips.

The benefits and possible harm of homemade cottage cheese

We have already talked a little about the benefits of cottage cheese. These are not all the advantages of this white fermented milk miracle.

The protein in this product is equally beneficial for people of all ages. Contains B vitamins, retinol, vitamin E.

Dairy products can be harmful due to failure to eat in moderation and allergic reactions. Of course, in order for a homemade product to bring only benefits, you need to monitor storage and expiration dates.

The cottage cheese in the recipe, which uses heating of sour milk, is stored in the refrigerator for no more than 48 hours. Provided there is a container with a tightly closed lid.

Do not risk eating cottage cheese after the expiration date, even if it does not have a strong odor and its taste has not changed. Poisoning from fermented milk products has serious health consequences.

Classic recipe for cottage cheese made from sour milk

Making cottage cheese is not as labor-intensive as it might seem. We'll tell you how grandmothers in the villages did and continue to do this.

To prepare, you will need real cow's milk, turned into curdled milk.


Three liters of milk ultimately yields 750-950 grams of product. Add honey, jam or fresh berries to it and enjoy the taste of homemade cottage cheese.

There is another way of cooking without heating the yogurt. You need to prepare thick fabric in advance and make a bag out of it. Pour sour milk into it and leave the whey to drain.

As soon as the liquid stops dripping, you can eat the product. This cottage cheese turns out tender, soft, but runny. Not suitable for filling pancakes, pies and cheesecakes.

An ancient recipe in a Russian oven

Cottage cheese is also one of the most ancient products. This is how they prepared it in the old days in Rus'. If you have a stove, you can repeat the preparation of cottage cheese according to the recipe of our ancestors.

  • Pour the curdled milk into the clay pot;
  • Place in a warm oven (but not very hot) for several hours;
  • When separation occurs, drain the whey and place the curd in gauze under any heavy object.

After 2-3 hours you can try the fermented milk product.

How was cottage cheese stored in the old days without a refrigerator? To do this, after the press, the cottage cheese was sent back into the oven, and then under weight, and so on several times. The finished flatbread was filled with ghee and stored for months.

How to make cottage cheese from sour milk in the microwave

This is the fastest and easiest way to cook. You can take any sour milk and add kefir, sour cream or yogurt.


With experience will come knowledge of how much of this or that ingredient to add to get the cottage cheese to your liking. According to reviews, a tasty product is obtained from a mixture in a one-to-one proportion of kefir and milk.

Pour the mixture into a suitable cup and place in the microwave. Turn on at full power, set the timer to approximately 9-11 minutes.

Place gauze or cotton cloth in a colander and strain the mixture through it. Leave the cottage cheese like this for 5-10 hours.

Homemade cottage cheese in a slow cooker

A multicooker is a convenient thing for making cottage cheese - you don’t need to dirty a lot of dishes and you can free up time for other things.

To prepare, take sour milk and pour it into a bowl. Select the “warm up” mode.

As a rule, this option heats the contents of the bowl at a temperature of 40 degrees. This is exactly what you need to make tasty and healthy cottage cheese. We choose the time from 40 minutes to 1 hour.

Then proceed as in the first recipe. You can take a colander with gauze and place a pan underneath. Pour the contents of the multicooker onto layers of gauze and leave for 5-8 minutes for the whey to drain.

The product will be ready in 4-12 hours. This is enough time to prepare whey-based pancakes and then fill them with homemade cottage cheese.

Children's cottage cheese at home

There are two recipes for making baby cottage cheese:

  1. Sour curd prepared with kefir,
  2. Fermented milk product using calcium.

For the first recipe, kefir from a dairy kitchen or high-quality children's kefir is suitable. Kefir is heated in a bowl.

Once clots begin to form, turn off the stove. The resulting mixture is filtered through cheesecloth. The curd should be stored in a glass container with a closed lid for no more than a day.

For the second recipe, you need to boil milk and add calcium chloride solution to it. It can be purchased at a pharmacy. Next, bring the solution to a boil. Remove from stove and cool. Squeeze out the clot in gauze without much effort. Store in the same way as in the first recipe.

From milk in an amount of 300 ml you get 50 g of cottage cheese. This amount requires 3 ml of 20% calcium chloride solution.

To achieve an airy and homogeneous consistency, beat the curd with a mixer. You can add bananas, peaches, berries or jam.

  1. If you want to get grainy and dry cottage cheese, then increase the time for draining the starter. For those who like soft curds, it will be enough to keep the dough in gauze for 4-5 hours;
  2. Any sour milk is suitable for preparation, but it is better to choose homemade milk;
  3. Do not use milk that has soured after the expiration date in the refrigerator;
  4. Do not throw away the whey, this is also a valuable and useful product. Can be consumed as a drink or added to pancake batter. There are recipes for facial skin care based on serum;
  5. If you don’t have sour milk, but you need cottage cheese in the near future, then a knowledgeable recipe will help. Pour milk into a saucepan and put on fire. As soon as a slight foam appears on the surface, you need to add lemon juice and stir everything. Sour milk must be removed from the heat immediately. Next, you can prepare cottage cheese by simply throwing the curdled milk into cheesecloth. But you will still have to wait at least 4 hours;
  6. For your first attempt at making cottage cheese, you need to take a little milk. So that later, if something goes wrong or you don’t like the final product, you can correct your mistakes on the next portion of milk;
  7. It is important not to overcook the curdled milk, otherwise the curd will turn out hard like chewing gum.

Homemade cottage cheese makes delicious casseroles, dumplings and cheesecakes. Don’t be lazy in the evening to work a little on the yogurt so that you get a healthy and tasty breakfast in the morning.

How to make cottage cheese from sour milk at home? This question is of interest to a large number of housewives whose dairy product has spoiled, and it is a pity to throw it away.

Of course, you can use it not only to make cottage cheese, but also, for example, to knead delicious dough for pancakes or pancakes. However, this option is only suitable for you if you have a small amount of milk that has gone sour. But what to do if about 2-3 liters have spoiled? Of course, delicious and nutritious homemade cottage cheese!

It should be especially noted that such a product, prepared independently, can not only be eaten together with sour cream and sugar, but also baked into cheesecakes, cheesecakes, pies and other products.

How to make cottage cheese from sour milk: the easiest way

If you want to enjoy delicious cottage cheese, but don’t want to go to the store, then we suggest making a homemade product yourself. But in order to carry out your plan, you must have a sufficient amount of sour milk available. It is from this that you can make natural and very tasty coarse-grained cottage cheese.

So, we need:

  • sour milk - about 2 liters;
  • large wide pelvis;
  • 3 l saucepan - 2 pcs.;
  • multilayer gauze - 1 pc.;
  • cold water (from the tap) - about 1.5 l;
  • colander and large spoon.

Cooking process

Before preparing cottage cheese from sour milk at home, you should prepare all the necessary equipment in advance. To do this, you need to take a large and wide basin, and then pour regular cold tap water into it. After this, you need to place a smaller pan in the liquid. You need to first pour all the sour milk into it.

After the described actions have been completed, the entire structure should be placed on high heat. After waiting for the liquid to boil between the walls of the dish, you need to regularly stir the fermented milk product and make sure that it does not boil. If this happens, then most likely the curd made from sour milk will turn out dry, hard and tasteless. In this regard, this process should be carefully monitored.

Final stage

Once you notice that whey begins to separate from the sour milk, the pan must be immediately removed from the water bath. Next, you need to place a colander on another (empty) dish. It should be covered with multi-layer gauze. After this, the heated sour milk must be completely poured into a colander and the liquid allowed to drain into an empty pan. If desired, the gauze can be tied with a string and hung over the dishes.

After 2-4 hours, the sour milk cottage cheese will be completely ready. It needs to be put on a plate and served along with sour cream and sugar.

How to make cottage cheese from sour milk using a multicooker?

Many people know how to make cottage cheese at home from sour milk using a stove. After all, this method was recently used by our mothers and grandmothers. However, modern housewives are increasingly using a popular kitchen device for these purposes - a multicooker.

If you don’t have such a device, then it’s time to think about purchasing it. This is due to the fact that using a multicooker to make cottage cheese at home is much easier and simpler. There is no need for you to organize a water bath for a long time, and then carefully monitor that the product does not boil, but only slightly warms up.

So, before making cottage cheese from sour milk using a device such as a multicooker, we need to prepare the following:

  • sour milk - about 2 liters;
  • multicooker with heating function;
  • 3 l saucepan - 2 pcs.;
  • multilayer gauze - 1 pc.;
  • colander and large spoon.

Cooking method

To thermally treat a sour product, you will not need much time if you use a multicooker. Pour about 2 liters of sour milk into its bowl (if the volume does not allow, then you need to take a smaller amount of the main ingredient), and then close it tightly and set the heating mode. It should be noted that almost all modern multicookers have such a program.

The temperature of this mode is ideal for making homemade cottage cheese. However, you should not keep sour milk in such a program for too long. Fifteen to twenty minutes will be enough.

After the specified time has passed, open the multicooker and see if the product flakes have separated from the whey. If not, then it is advisable to continue heating for another 5-8 minutes. If you have achieved the desired result, then you can proceed to the next stage.

Strain the product

While the sour milk is being heated in the multicooker, you should take a deep saucepan and place a colander in it, on which you need to lay out multilayer gauze. After the product is completely ready, it must be poured onto the mesh and allowed to drain. When the bulk of the whey is in a kind of tray, you can make a bag out of gauze and hang it over a colander.

After keeping the product in this state for about 3-5 hours, it should be removed from the mesh and placed on a plate. This completes the preparation of homemade cottage cheese. It can be served along with sour cream, sugar and tea, and can also be used as an additional ingredient to create delicious and nutritious baked goods.

How to make sour milk?

We talked about how to make cottage cheese from sour milk using a multicooker and a stove. However, some housewives are often interested in the question of how to make a fermented milk product. After all, not everyone turns this drink sour in large quantities (at best - 1 glass). It should be noted that facilitating this is not so difficult.

Thus, to get sour milk, you need to buy it in an amount of 2 liters (preferably homemade), and then pour it into a glass jar, close with a plastic lid and leave at room temperature for 2-3 days. After the specified time has passed, you will definitely notice that the dairy product has curdled. After this, you can safely use it to make delicious homemade cottage cheese.

By the way, if you want to speed up the souring process, then you can add two large spoons of full-fat kefir to fresh milk, mix the products thoroughly, close the jar with a lid, wrap it in a blanket and leave it near the radiator for a day. After this time, you will have tasty and rich kefir. You can use it just like that, and make coarse-grained cottage cheese from it using any of the methods described above.

Let's sum it up

Now you know not only how to make cottage cheese from spoiled milk yourself, but also how to deliberately sour such a product.

It should be especially noted that from two liters of this drink you can get about 350-500 g of fresh cottage cheese. As a rule, its fat content and graininess depend entirely on the fat content of the original raw material.

It should also be said that during the preparation of cottage cheese it is under no circumstances recommended to pour out the whey. After all, this is a very healthy drink that can be added to okroshka (instead of kvass), and also made into pancakes, pancakes and other baked goods.

Store-bought dairy products often contain dyes, antibiotics and other harmful substances. However, you can prepare some dairy treats yourself, such as cottage cheese. So, you can be sure of the quality and benefits of the product.



Benefits and harms of the product

Cottage cheese is a source of easily digestible calcium, which strengthens the human skeletal system. Calcium is a building element of bones and teeth. When consuming fermented milk products, the risk of caries decreases, and trips to the dentist become less frequent.

Cottage cheese also contains other useful elements: magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, vitamins A, B, C and D. Together, they support good immune function and strengthen the cardiovascular system. These substances are indispensable for men's and women's health.


During pregnancy, the female body needs more micro- and macroelements. The vitamins and minerals contained in fermented milk products are involved in the formation of the baby’s skeletal system and prevent the development of osteoporosis in the expectant mother. Cottage cheese improves the condition of hair and nails, which are integral attributes of female beauty.

For men, this product is valuable primarily for its high protein content. Which normalizes the production of male sex hormones responsible for potency. But protein is also involved in the process of building muscle mass, so this product is highly valued by athletes, especially bodybuilders.

Cottage cheese is good for the gastrointestinal tract. The living bacteria contained in its composition improve the process of digestion of food, normalize the intestinal microflora and its peristalsis. Regular consumption of cottage cheese cleanses the body of toxins.


Although cottage cheese made from sour milk is healthy, there are still some contraindications to its use.

  • Individual intolerance to curd product. Cottage cheese is contraindicated for people suffering from an allergic reaction to lactose.
  • The high-fat product should be consumed with caution by people with liver and pancreas diseases. For such ailments, it is better to choose low-fat cottage cheese.
  • Homemade cottage cheese is a perishable product; its shelf life should not exceed 3 days. After this time, the product cannot be eaten.

When consuming a curd product, the main thing is not to overeat, the body itself will tell you when it’s enough. Nutritionists advise limiting its consumption to 250 g per day.


Basic cooking rules

Before preparing homemade cottage cheese, you should choose the right starting product. Cottage cheese can be made from both village and store-bought milk. The rustic one is more recommended, it is fattier and produces more cottage cheese. Store-bought milk can also be used, but its fat content should be at least 3.5%.

The shelf life of store-bought milk should not exceed seven days. The product with a long shelf life contains antibiotics that prevent souring. Such milk may not ferment as needed for making cottage cheese. You should also not buy sour milk from the store; the cottage cheese may taste bitter.

Cottage cheese made from goat's milk is tastier and richer. It contains more nutrients and is healthier. But cooking with goat's milk is more difficult; this milk is more sensitive to cooking errors. Therefore, it is better for beginners in this business to use cow's milk.


Cottage cheese is made from sour milk or yogurt. Therefore, fresh milk must be prepared in advance. It is not recommended to make yogurt in metal containers; metal has a bad effect on the ripening process. It is better to place the liquid in a glass or clay container. An ordinary three-liter jar is well suited for this.

Pour the milk into a jar, cover it with gauze or any breathable fabric and leave it to ferment. The process is affected by air temperature, so in a warm place milk can ferment in 1 day, and in a cool place this can increase to 4 days. Therefore, for faster ripening, you need to place a jar of milk near a warm radiator.

To determine whether the milk has fermented sufficiently, carefully examine the contents of the jar.

The product should separate into a thick milk curd and yellowish whey.



Recipes

Cooking cottage cheese takes from 3 to 12 hours. At the same time, your participation in cooking is minimal; all processes of converting cottage cheese from milk occur independently. To prepare a healthy product at home you will need:

  • pot;
  • gauze;
  • spoiled milk;
  • colander;
  • large spoon or slotted spoon.



It will take approximately 4 liters of milk to make 1 kg of cottage cheese. The fattier the milk, the more curd there will be. The classic cooking recipe consists of two stages: heat treatment of the product and separation of the mass from the whey.

At the first stage, put a saucepan with sour milk on the fire. We set the heating of the stove to a minimum, since boiling of the product is unacceptable during the entire heat treatment. This is a key point in preparing cottage cheese; the pan should not be heated above 50°C. If the curdled milk boils, its tender curds will become hard, like rubber, and such a product can be thrown away.


If the stove is set to minimum mode it still heats up a lot. You can use the water bath method. To do this, place a saucepan with yogurt in a bowl of water, and put the entire structure on medium heat. This will make it easier to prevent the sour milk from boiling.

During the entire process, the contents of the pan must be stirred several times using a slotted spoon. This must be done carefully, without breaking the resulting lumps. After 25 minutes, when the clots begin to settle and the whey turns greenish, the curd raw material is ready. Turn off the stove, put the pan aside and let the resulting mass cool.

Let's move on to the second stage of preparing cottage cheese. Line a colander with 2 layers of gauze and transfer the cooled yogurt into it. The colander must be placed in a deep pan or secured above the sink. The whey will begin to drain, leaving lumps of fresh cottage cheese in the gauze.



After 2–3 hours, the bulk of the whey will drain off and the product will be ready. To obtain a drier product, the future cottage cheese must be placed under a press. To do this, cover the product with the edges of gauze and place a weight on it. This will remove excess moisture from the cottage cheese.

In rural life, a recipe for making cottage cheese without heating is more often used. To do this, place a colander in a deep pan, cover the bottom with gauze, and pour sour milk into this structure. Next, the pan with the contents must be placed in the refrigerator for 14 hours to separate the whey. Cottage cheese obtained without preheating is more tender and lighter.

You can use kefir to make cottage cheese. To do this, pour 1 liter of milk into a saucepan, put on fire and bring to a boil. Once it boils, remove from heat and pour in 1 liter of kefir. Cool and place in a colander to drain the whey. This method is good because the milk does not need to be fermented first. Cottage cheese obtained in this way is more sour.



You can make calcined cottage cheese at home. To do this, 2 teaspoons of calcium chloride must be diluted in 1 liter of milk. It is better to do this before fermenting the milk. Calcium chloride can be purchased at any pharmacy: a product enriched with it will be even more useful.

There is a recipe for making baby cottage cheese, which is good as complementary food for babies. It is prepared from kefir according to the classic recipe with heating, only instead of sour milk you need to take any children's kefir.