Kefir cottage cheese at home - 8 common methods for producing fermented milk product

It is absolutely easy to prepare cottage cheese from kefir at home. A little time, a minimum of effort, and you will get a very useful fermented milk product. You can safely give it even to children, because you can be quite confident in its freshness and quality.

How to create cottage cheese from kefir?

Cottage cheese from kefir is very simple and quick to prepare. But in order for the final product to be tasty, you need to know some ordinary rules. The tips below will help you create homemade cottage cheese that is very tasty and healthy.

Under no circumstances should the kefir mass be brought to a boil, otherwise the curd will turn out rubbery.
The heated mass must first be cooled and then strained.
Cottage cheese made from kefir is the most sour. And if you use milk and a drink, the taste of the initial product will be more delicate.
The fattier the drink used, the softer and more tender the cottage cheese will be.

Homemade cottage cheese from milk and kefir - recipe

Even a beginner who is just learning the basics of culinary art can make cottage cheese from milk and kefir. It is most convenient to start preliminary activities in the evening. Then the milk and kefir will infuse until the morning, and all that remains is to warm the mixture and strain the curd. From the indicated amount of components you will get about 300 g of cottage cheese and 1 liter of whey.

homemade milk – 1 liter;
drink – 350 ml.

Milk and drink are poured into the pan and left overnight (that is, in the dark) .
During the day, place the pan on low heat and stir until the snow-white flakes begin to separate from the whey. With all this, the contents of the pan should not be hot, but warm.
Cover a colander with gauze, pour the resulting mixture into it and leave to let the whey drain. This will take about half an hour.

Kefir cottage cheese in the freezer

Cottage cheese from frozen kefir is probably the easiest to prepare. The finished product comes out very plastic and tender. There are no grains in it. It is not dry, but moderately wet. The mixture of such cottage cheese resembles a thick cream. From 3 l. kefir, the output will be about 600 g of cottage cheese and 2 liters. serum.

drink – 3 liters.

The drink is poured into containers with a lid or into bags and placed in the freezer until the drink is completely frozen.
The kefir ice is removed, placed on thick cotton fabric (a medical system of cells and intercellular substance united by a common origin, structure and functions) and tied.
The resulting system is hung, and a bowl for the serum is placed down.
In about a day, cottage cheese from frozen kefir at home will be ready.

Cottage cheese from sour kefir

If it happens that a drink has stagnated in the refrigerator and it has turned sour, there is no need to be upset and, especially, you should not throw it away. You can create excellent cottage cheese from expired kefir. The only thing is that its taste may be slightly sour, but this is not a problem. This point can be corrected by adding sugar, honey or jam to taste.

sour drink - 2 liters.

The drink is poured into the pan and placed in another huge pot of water.
Place the system on low heat and heat it up.
When the water in the bottom pan boils, the drink will begin to curdle.
Once the whey has separated, the smallest pan is removed and its contents are poured into a colander lined with gauze.
Once the whey has drained, kefir cottage cheese will be ready for use at home.

Kefir cottage cheese in a yogurt maker

Homemade kefir cottage cheese is very easy to prepare using a yogurt maker. It's very fast and comfortable. One thing - the power of all devices is different, therefore it is difficult to find a clear time that will be needed for the drink to curdle. Here it is important to watch the action - how the snow-white flakes begin to rise to the surface and the whey appears, which means the mass is ready for filtering.

low-fat drink – 1 liter.

The drink is poured into the containers of the device and left for 1-2 hours.
As the whey begins to separate, the contents of the jars are poured into a colander lined with gauze and left until the whey drains.
After this, cottage cheese from low-fat kefir will be completely ready for use.

How to create cottage cheese from kefir in the microwave?

You can prepare cottage cheese from kefir in the microwave in a matter of minutes. There is no least troublesome and fast method of making cottage cheese. You just need to focus on the technical properties of your own device. If the microwave is powerful, then the heating time of the kefir can be reduced, because it is important that the mass does not boil.

drink – 500 ml.

The drink is poured into a container and sent to the microwave, set to the highest power, for 10 minutes.
During this period of time, snow-white flakes will rise to the surface and the whey will separate.
Pour the resulting mixture into a colander with gauze, and when the whey drains, the kefir cottage cheese in the microwave at home will be ready.

Kefir cottage cheese in the oven

Making cottage cheese from kefir and milk using the oven is an old recipe. Only earlier for these purposes they used not an oven, but a Russian stove. The products are moderately heated in it, and the output is indescribably delicious cottage cheese. You can prepare it simply from kefir, but with the addition of milk, the product turns out tastier.

drink – 2 liters;
full fat milk – 1 liter.

The drink is poured into a huge saucepan, poured there for 40 minutes, and then removed and infused for 20 minutes.
The gauze is folded into 2 layers, the contents of the pan are poured into it, tied, hung and a container for the whey is placed.
After 8-10 hours, your own cottage cheese made from kefir will be ready to serve.

Cottage cheese in a multicooker made from kefir

With the help of modern kitchen appliances, cooking cottage cheese has become much more convenient, faster and easier. Even a child can make cottage cheese from milk and kefir in a slow cooker, because it’s completely easy. From the quantity of ingredients indicated in the recipe you will get about 400 g of very tasty homemade cottage cheese.

drink – 100 g;
milk – 2 liters.

The milk is poured into the bowl of the device and heated in the “Baking” mode for 4 minutes.
Pour in the drink and stir.
Leave it overnight (that is, in the dark) .
Turn on the multicooker on “Heating” for 2 hours.
After this time, the bowl is removed from the device and placed in a container with cool water so that its contents cool down.
Later, pour the mass into gauze folded 2-3 times and leave until all the whey has drained.

How to create cottage cheese from kefir for a baby?

Cottage cheese, which is introduced into complementary foods for children, must be very fresh and of high quality. Therefore, it is best to prepare it without the help of others. Kefir cottage cheese for babies comes out tender and soft. And so that it comes out with a creamy structure, you can later rub it through a sieve.

drink – 300 ml.

The freshest drink is poured into a saucepan and heated in a water bath until it curdles.
Later, the mass is cooled, poured into a colander lined with gauze, and as the whey drains, kefir cottage cheese will be ready at home.

Recipes for making cottage cheese from kefir at home

Cottage cheese made from sour milk or kefir is definitely healthier and more tender than the store-bought version. An article about how to create cottage cheese from kefir at home using various methods.

Manufacturing principles

Before you cook cottage cheese from kefir, you need to understand some of the features of making this product.

Firstly, it is best to use the drink at home. It can be prepared from milk and a special starter.
Do not under any circumstances bring the kefir mass to a boil. In this case, homemade cottage cheese will turn out rubbery.
The heated mass is first cooled and then filtered.
It doesn’t matter what you cook from: both cottage cheese from milk and kefir requires completely clean gauze, because harmful bacteria multiply in a fermented milk environment even faster than necessary ones.
The homemade product comes out sour. That is why it must be prepared from milk and kefir: milk will make its taste more tender.

The tenderness and softness of the taste is also affected by the fat content of kefir: the higher it is, the better.

Basic kefir recipe

For production we will need only three liters of kefir. The sequence is:

Pour the freshest drink into a deep saucepan and leave it warm for 8-10 hours: this will still be enough for the proliferation of lactic acid microbes and the coagulation of milk proteins.
Place our pan on low heat and heat very slowly. The temperature should reach 50-60 degrees maximum. If you heat the mass too much, you won’t get much product and it will be sticky. Once the appropriate temperature is reached, turn off the heat and let the mixture cool in the pan itself.
It is necessary to turn it off when pieces of cottage cheese appear in the curd mass with small inclusions of kefir, which has not had time to curdle, and the whey turns yellow.
Cool the pan. Cover the colander with gauze (the thickest one or folded in half).
Place a colander over a deep saucepan and pour the entire mixture onto cheesecloth.
In order to remove the remaining whey, we tie the product in gauze and put it in the sink. A kitchen board will also work. We put a press on top, so that it is distributed moderately. You don’t have to use a press: just hang the cottage cheese and hold it there for 5-6 hours.

Fundamentally! The whey does not need to be poured out. It is suitable not only for okroshka, but also for baking, marinade and even cosmetic purposes. From 3 l. kefir you will get approximately 500-600 g of finished cottage cheese.

Recipe in the freezer

Even the laziest housewife can create cottage cheese from frozen kefir. It is important to take a fairly fatty drink - about 3.2%. Pour it into a food container and put it in the freezer. The product must be frozen. Now we remove the ice and place it on dense fabric (a medical system of cells and intercellular substance, united by a common origin, structure and functions) (cotton), and tie it. We hang it and put a bowl (basin) down for the whey. The drink in the freezer will be ready in a day. The melting temperature must be room temperature.

If the room is very hot, place the mass in a cooler space. We recommend a video recipe for kefir cottage cheese using the freezing method:

Cottage cheese from milk and kefir in a slow cooker

Using this kitchen device, you can prepare cottage cheese from kefir and milk, while the first requires 100 grams, and the second - 2 liters. It is done like this:

Pour the milk into the multicooker bowl and set the “baking” mode;
Warm up for 4 minutes;
Pour in the drink, stir;
Leave for one night (that is, in the dark) ;
During the day, turn on the “heating” mode and heat for two minutes;
Remove the bowl from the multicooker and place it in cool water to cool;
Pour the mixture into cheesecloth (fold it in two layers) and allow the whey to drain.

Watch the video recipe in a slow cooker:

If you haven’t taken care of the dairy product and it has turned sour, don’t throw it away: homemade kefir cottage cheese will turn out delicious even if it has turned sour. We need two liters of it. It is prepared in the same way as the regular one, but faster: after cooking, it cools for only two hours and drains in 30 minutes.

In the yogurt maker

With this manufacturing method, the result depends on the power of the yogurt maker, therefore the time during which the product curdles will vary and this must be monitored without the help of others. Let's prepare it like this:

Pour a liter of kefir into the container of a yogurt maker and leave for a couple of hours;
When the whey begins to separate, pour the mixture into a colander lined with gauze and allow the whey to drain;
Ready.

Children's version

Suitable for first feeding. To make it, you only need 300 ml of fermented milk drink, but it must be of high quality. Pour it into a small saucepan and heat until curdled in a water bath. Once cooled, pour into a colander lined with gauze and allow the water to drain. After this, you can rub through a sieve to form a gentle mixture.

In the oven

Previously, this was a recipe made from sour milk and a Russian oven was used. Time has made its own adjustments, but the oven is still fully operational. To make it you need one liter of high-fat milk and two liters of fermented milk drink. Let's prepare it like this:

Pour both drinks into a huge saucepan and keep in a preheated oven for two-thirds of an hour. Temperature is about 180 degrees.
We extract and leave for another third of an hour.
Fold the gauze into 2 layers, place the entire mass in it and tie it. After hanging it, don’t forget to place the basin at the bottom.
The product will be ready in 8-9 hours.

The product prepared using this method has a slight taste of baked milk!

How to store cottage cheese

How long a fermented milk product prepared at home will be stored depends on almost all reasons:

from the freshness of the ingredients from which you prepared it;
on how damp the air is in your home;
on the temperature at the storage location: the lower it is, the longer it will be stored.

How to create homemade cottage cheese from milk or kefir. 6 common methods

You won't find such delicious cottage cheese in the store.

11 basic rules for delicious homemade cottage cheese

1. Cottage cheese can be created using 2 methods: with and without heating. This is a matter of taste and convenience. But cottage cheese without heating comes out slightly more tender.

2. If you make cottage cheese from milk, use rustic milk. Especially if the recipe calls for it to turn sour. But you can also use store-bought milk of any fat content. The fatter it is, the fattier the cottage cheese will be, accordingly.

3. You can also take the drink with any fat content. An expired drink can only be used in this case if you heat it.

4. The quantity and taste of cottage cheese depend on the properties of the initial product. So, when buying milk or kefir, you shouldn’t skimp.

5. You can cook cottage cheese either in a saucepan or in a water bath. This is again a matter of convenience. You will find a description of the manufacturing process in a water bath in the recipe for kefir cottage cheese.

6. It is better to heat milk products in an aluminum or stainless steel pan with a thick bottom. Enameled dishes are not suitable: everything in them can burn.

7. Place the cottage cheese in a colander lined with several layers of gauze. Place a saucepan or some other container under the colander so that the whey can drain into it.

8. If you leave the cottage cheese in a colander for a couple of hours or even less, it will turn out soggy.

9. To make the cottage cheese dry and crumbly, you need to tie the ends of the gauze and hang the knot over the sink or pan for several hours or even all night (that is, in the dark) . The time depends on your preferences: the longer the whey drains, the drier the curd will be.

10. To keep the cottage cheese in shape, you can put it under pressure.

11. Homemade cottage cheese can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than four days.

1. Homemade cottage cheese from milk

This is the usual method of making curd.

Ingredients

2 liters of milk.

The indicated amount will yield about 400 g of cottage cheese.

Manufacturing

Leave the milk in a warm place for 1–3 days. Don't stir it. The time depends on the temperature in the room: the warmer it is, the faster the milk will sour. To speed up the process, you can add 2 tablespoons of sour cream or a piece of black bread to the milk.

Milk does not have to sour in the refrigerator. There it will acquire a nasty smell and may begin to taste bitter. If you see that the milk in the refrigerator is starting to sour, it is better to take it out so that it sours in suitable conditions.

The sour milk will look like a soft, thick jelly, and whey will begin to appear around it. Place the milk in a saucepan and place on low heat.

Cook, stirring occasionally. Do not overheat the milk; it should be slightly warm. After 10–15 minutes from the start of cooking, clots of cottage cheese will begin to form in the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and let stand for the same amount of time. Then transfer the cottage cheese to a colander and leave to drain.

2. Homemade cottage cheese made from milk without heating

The finished cottage cheese will be more tender than in the first case.

Ingredients

2 liters of milk.

The indicated amount will yield about 400 g of cottage cheese.

Manufacturing

Let the milk sour as in the first method. Do not heat the thickened mass, but immediately discard it on cheesecloth.

3. Homemade cottage cheese made from milk and lemon

Thanks to lemon juice, the milk will sour even faster.

Ingredients

2 liters of milk;
1 lemon.

The indicated amount will yield about 350 g of cottage cheese.

Manufacturing

Pour the milk into the pan. If you use country milk, then you need to bring it to a boil and reduce the heat. If the milk is already pasteurized, then simply heat it, but do not boil.

Squeeze the juice out of the lemon - you should have approximately 60 ml. Then pour lemon juice into the milk in a thin stream and stir. In fact, the whey will immediately begin to separate and curd clots will appear. Once this happens, remove the pan from the heat.

Leave it for a couple of minutes so that the mixture cools slightly. Place the curd in a colander and let the whey drain.

4. Homemade cottage cheese made from milk and kefir

The drink also promotes quick curdling of milk. This consistency produces a very soft and gentle product.

Ingredients

1 liter of milk;
1 liter of kefir.

The indicated amount will yield about 300 g of cottage cheese.

Manufacturing

Heat the milk until almost boiling. When the first bubbles appear, remove the pan from the heat and pour in the drink. Stir and leave until completely cool.

After this, whey and curds will appear in the pan. They need to be placed literally in the same way as in all other methods in a colander covered with gauze.

5. Homemade cottage cheese from kefir

Heated kefir produces fairly dense and crumbly cottage cheese.

Ingredients

1 liter of kefir.

The indicated amount will yield about 200 g of cottage cheese.

Manufacturing

You will need two pans of different diameters. One of them must fit freely into the other. Fill a large saucepan halfway with water. Bring water to a boil over high heat.

Pour the drink into another pan. After boiling, place a small saucepan in a large one and heat the drink over low heat.

The drink should break down into curds and whey. When this happens, remove the pan from the heat and leave for 10 minutes. Place the curd in a colander and let the whey drain.

6. Homemade cottage cheese from frozen kefir

And from frozen kefir you will get the most delicate airy curd, reminiscent of cream cheese. It can be mixed with herbs, salted and used to make sandwiches.

Ingredients

1 liter of kefir.

Manufacturing

It is best to take the drink in a bag: the bottle may crack when frozen, and the petrified drink will be difficult to remove from it. If you only have a bottled drink on hand, simply pour it into a plastic bag and tie it very tightly.

Place the bag in the freezer overnight (that is, in the dark) . The drink should become like a piece of ice. If after 10–12 hours the drink still does not become hard as granite, it means it is bad. From such a product you will get a watery cottage cheese, reminiscent of sour cream.

Carefully cut the bag, place the contents in a colander and wrap in gauze.

Leave the drink at room temperature until completely defrosted.

We prepare homemade cottage cheese from kefir using different methods

The first time I was able to make cottage cheese from kefir, I was “unfortunate” because of pathological thriftiness and girlish forgetfulness. As I understood from the story of “my” thrush, the creation of this product is an unrewarding, labor-intensive and hopeless process. “Just imagine,” she reasoned, gesticulating wildly and dramatically rolling her eyes, “you cook, strain, and weigh out the whole day. But you won’t notice something... And you’ll end up with a pile of foam plastic. And where to put it later. A.,” she waved her hand and handed me a bag with a kilogram of tasty, slightly sweet cottage cheese. And after this sensual monologue, I was afraid to delve into the sour-milk wisdom. Well, I was completely satisfied with the quality of the milk I bought.

Until the day when I had to urgently dispose of a liter of kefir. It was unclear why it was purchased for a week ago and “hid” from me for these 7 days behind an open jar of pickled cucumbers. The expiration date of the product eloquently indicated that it needed to be used somewhere. But I didn’t want to drink the fermented milk product in its pure form. Bake a mountain of pancakes or pancakes too.

And here I remembered that you can create cottage cheese from kefir at home. On occasion I tested the simplest recipe. And they don’t lie! The cottage cheese comes out good! Since then I have tried several methods of making it. Here they are.

Yield: approximately 200 g final product from 1 l

Making homemade cottage cheese from store-bought kefir in a saucepan

The most accessible method. Basic. I suggest starting with him.

Ingredients and utensils:

drink of any fat content - 1 l;
gauze or compacted, unstained tissue (medical system of cells and intercellular substance, united by a common origin, structure and functions) ;
iron sieve or colander;
pot;
Bowl.

Manufacturing method:

Take a small saucepan. For 1 liter of product, a two-liter container is useful. So that the drink not only fits in it, but also has room for it to “accelerate” when boiling.

Place the saucepan with the fermented milk product on the hob. Turn the heat to moderate. Right before your eyes you will see how the snow-white flakes will separate from the green whey. Bring the mixture to a boil. Turn off the fire. Cool.

Separate the curds from the whey. Take gauze, folded a couple of times, or a piece of unstained organza. Place it on a large sieve or colander. Place a sieve on a bowl so that the liquid flows into it. Pour out the curdled drink. Most of the whey will drain right away. Squeeze out the curd by twisting the loose ends of the gauze.

If desired, hang gauze with curd. Leave it in this position for an hour or two. All the liquid will drain completely. And you will get a tender cottage cheese.

"Lazy" method of making cottage cheese in the freezer

Another most common option. One might even say passive. Everything will be done by temperature differences, physics and chemistry. But elements of your role in the fermented milk culinary “trick” will still come in handy.

Take:

drink - 1 l;
freezing bags with zip-lock fastener - 2 pcs.;
gauze'
Bowl;
colander or sieve.

Cooking process:

In principle, you can freeze the drink directly in its “original” container. But the packaging of modern fermented milk products is not designed for such extreme temperatures. Therefore, it is better to pour the product into a special package. Especially if you plan to give this cottage cheese to an infant or an older child. And to insure yourself against laundering of kefir ice, place the freezing container in another one. For convenience, place the bag in a bowl. Pour in the product. Close.

Place in the freezer. I usually do this at night (that is, in the dark) .
But I think 5-6 hours will be enough for the drink to turn into cottage cheese. More precisely, into curd ice. It must be placed in a colander lined with gauze. And leave it to thaw for a couple of hours. Once the liquid has drained, squeeze out excess water from the curd. Done, you can try.

Microwave recipe

Another lazy recipe. Cottage cheese in the microwave also comes out tender, tasty and not harmful (skeptics and opponents of microwaves will not be able to convince me otherwise).

What will be needed:

drink - 1;
microwave dishes;
colander;
gauze;
bowl for whey.

Step-by-step instruction}:

As in the first recipe, to create cottage cheese from kefir, you need to heat it up. Pour the product into a special container and place in the microwave (microwave radiation, ultra-high frequency radiation - electromagnetic radiation, including the decimeter, centimeter and millimeter range of radio waves) oven. Power is the greatest. Time - 7-10 minutes.

The mass will curdle. Cool it down.

Strain off the whey. Weigh out the curd (optional). After a couple of hours, you can bake various goodies (or savory varieties?) with tender cottage cheese. Or eat it just like that.

Processing kefir into cottage cheese using a multicooker

Do you have a slow cooker? Why not “pull her up”? Let him work for the benefit of a healthy home diet.

For production you will need:

drink from any manufacturer and fat content - liter packaging;
clean compacted tissue (medical system of cells and intercellular substance, united by a common origin, structure and functions) (gauze);
whey collection container;
sieve or colander.

How to create:

Making cottage cheese at home using a multicooker is not much different from previous recipes. I will focus on the main points. Pour the drink into the cup.

Bring it to a boil on any comfortable setting. “Multi-cook” or “Frying” will do. Heat until the whey becomes clear.

Cool. Pour onto cheesecloth placed in several layers in a colander.

Squeeze out the whey. If you need drier curd, hang it over a bowl for several hours. Try it.