We can safely say that cheese is a universal product. It can be eaten alone, with bread, added to various dishes, soup is made from cheese and, of course, it is impossible to imagine pizza without it. In terms of its nutritional properties, cheese is practically not inferior to meat, which is why it is an integral part of a vegetarian diet. There are a huge number of different types cheese, they all differ in fat content, composition and taste. It is the composition of the cheese that determines its type, variety and taste. Let's talk about what this popular product is made of. So, for starters, let's look at what cheese is generally made of.

What is cheese made from?

  • Milk. Milk is the main and most important ingredient of any cheese. Indeed, even according to legend, cheese appeared when milk was forgotten in one of the caves, and when they arrived, they found the first analogue of cheese. Today, cheese is made from the milk of cows, goats, sheep, and sometimes from combinations of milk from different animals. Depending on the content of milk, cheese differs in its fat content.
  • Leaven. The characteristics of this or that cheese differ in the use of one or another sourdough. It allows the cheese to ripen, giving a special taste to this product. To date, lactic acid bacteria, and sometimes propionic acid bacteria, are most commonly used.
  • Rennet element. It is needed in order to turn milk into cheese. The best option is an enzyme obtained from the stomachs of calves. But quite often it is replaced by various chemical analogues. In addition, calcium chloride, the common salt familiar to all of us, always complements the rennet element.

These are the main ingredients that make up the cheese, but most often you will not find a single mention of them on the label. On any of the purchased cheeses, you can read a fairly large list of ingredients. Let's dwell on them a bit:

General composition of cheese

Cheese production - difficult process. Therefore, you do not need to be scared when you meet words unfamiliar to you on the label. In general, in addition to pasteurized milk, cheese may contain: rennet powder, pepsin (food or beef) is an ingredient required to coagulate milk. As well as some enzyme preparations, here are the most common and permitted according to GOST:

  • Salt. Mandatory non-iodized, not lower than the first grade;
  • Annatto extract;
  • B-carotene, soluble in water;
  • Calcium chloride, necessarily dehydrated, not lower than the first grade;
  • Potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate;
  • Potassium saltpeter grades A, B, C, according to GOST.

It is worth saying that the composition of the cheese may contain various additives with the prefix E. Be sure to check their safety on the Internet, especially when it comes to processed types of cheese.

Chemical composition of cheese and nutritional value

If we talk about such a product as cheese, then we can not say about the various useful substances contained in its composition.

  • The nutritional value. It is determined by the fat content in cheese, in other words, its fat content. Each type of cheese has its own fat content, the type of cheese and its taste depend on it. For example, Alpine cheese has a fat content of 25%, and brynza cheese has a fat content of only 14%. Remember that the fatter the cheese, the more high-calorie it is.
  • Vitamins. Cheese is a product rich in vitamins. Most often, it contains vitamins of groups A, B and D, as well as patotheic acid.
  • Squirrels. If we take into account that cheese is made from milk, then, as you understand, it is quite rich in proteins. So, different types of cheese have different amounts of proteins.
  • Amino acids. Cheese, like no other product, is rich in various amino acids, such as valine, leucine, lysine and phenylalanine. All of them are very useful for the normal functioning of our body.

The composition of cheese also includes various useful substances, for example, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium. They are necessary for mental and physical activity. It is because of these elements that cheese is useful for the prevention of cancer, as well as tuberculosis. It should be noted that in this case we considered only the composition of hard cheeses. Processed cheese is somewhat different in composition from its hard counterpart, it is important to understand that not all processed cheese is equally healthy. Let's take a look at their composition.

Processed cheese: composition

Generally, processed cheese it is made on the basis of solid, with the subsequent addition of powdered milk, cream and butter. And for better thickening, various chemical melters are added. All processed cheeses can be divided into the following types:

  • Chunky cheeses. It is made from hard cheeses with a fat content of 50-70%. They contain a minimum of chemical additives, and the taste of such cheese is rich, difficult to distinguish from a solid counterpart.
  • Sausage cheeses. They are made from low-fat hard cheeses. Some chemical melters and thickeners can be found in the composition. Sometimes cumin is added.
  • Pasty cheeses. These cheeses have a very strong characteristic taste and are made from medium-fat cheeses.
  • Sweet cheeses. In their composition, you can find sugar or its substitutes, coffee or cocoa, honey, various syrups.

Modern manufacturers sometimes add various preservatives and colorants, as well as flavorings, to processed cheese to give the cheese a variety of flavors. Carefully read the composition of the cheese on the packaging, if you doubt it, then it is better to prefer hard cheeses. In addition to processed types, there are soft cream cheeses. The most famous soft cheese is Philadelphia.

Philadelphia cheese: composition

This type of cheese consists of skimmed milk and milk fat, a concentrate for turning milk into cheese, salt, and various stabilizers - guar gum or xanthan gum. In addition, vitamin A palmitate and sorbic acid are often used.

Now you know what cheese is made of. Remember that this product can bring both benefit and harm to your body. If you have a dairy intolerance, you should avoid eating cheese.

Is it possible to make cheese comparable to parmesan or mozzarella in Russia? Skeptics think not. It is impossible to make good cheese if the milk comes from cows that are fed silage. You can't make good cheese from reconstituted milk either. In addition, there are a lot of nuances in the production of elite cheese. For example, parmesan is cooked only from April 1 to November 11. And few people want to wait 36 ​​months until it matures. And real Italian mozzarella is made from black buffalo milk ...

The history of the appearance of cheese in Russia

In Russia, the word "cheese" for a long time meant "cottage cheese", and the taste of real rennet cheese was only known to us under Peter I. The beginning of domestic cheesemaking was laid by the brother of the artist Vasily Vereshchagin, Nikolai. In 1866, he founded the first cheese factory in the Tver region. Since then, the technology has hardly changed. Acid or rennet is added to milk, causing it to curdle. From the clot, using various technological methods and aging periods, cheeses that are completely different in taste are obtained.

What is cheap cheese made from?

The easiest way to reduce the cost of cheese is to replace part of the milk fat with vegetable fat. This technology was invented about 15 years ago. Thanks to it, the ripening period of cheese is almost halved, and the shelf life, on the contrary, is increased. True, such a product cannot be called “cheese”. According to the Technical Regulations "On the Safety of Milk and Dairy Products", it can only be referred to as a "cheese product". But on the label, in order not to scare off buyers, rarely anyone writes about vegetable fat.

How to calculate a fake?

This can only be done in a specialized laboratory. True, craftsmen claim that it is possible to reveal "vegetable" cheese if you leave it for a while on the kitchen table. The “correct” cheese will definitely dry out, and the “wrong” one will be covered with droplets of oil, it will “sweat”.

French paradox

The French, compared to the British, get sick less and live longer. This was usually explained as a love of red wine, but it's also about cheese!

✓ Germs vs germs

✓ More cheese - less sugar

Experts from Denmark and the UK, having studied the diet of 30,000 Europeans, came to the conclusion that eating cheese reduces the risk of type 2 by 12%. For a pronounced effect, it is enough to eat 55 g of this product per day.

✓ Uplifting

Cheese, like chocolate, improves mood because it contains the amino acid tryptophan, from which the joy hormone serotonin is formed.

The Dark Side of Cheese

Hard cheeses contain tyramine. In general, it is necessary, but in large quantities it can cause ....

Figures and facts

The fat content of hard cheeses is given in terms of dry matter. Since the cheese also contains water, its actual fat content is almost half the declared one. If on a piece of Russian it is written 45% , then in fact it contains about 25% fat.

With the help of a special device, British scientists determined the thickness of a slice of cheese for a sandwich, sufficient to fully experience the taste and smell of this exquisite product: 5 mm for cheshire cheese, 4.5 mm for cottage cheese and 2.8 mm for cheddar or other hard varieties.

Expert opinion

Tatyana ANOKHINA, head of the testing center HEAC "SOEKS" of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.

“This cheese (Russian) is produced at low temperatures using acid-forming and aroma-forming streptococci as part of starter cultures, as well as lactic acid sticks such as L. casei, L. plantarum - this product owes its pleasant sourness and slit-like pattern.

Six samples have been tested in our laboratory Russian cheese. No toxic elements, antibiotics, pesticides, radionuclides, GMOs of plant origin were found in them. Nevertheless, one of the contestants, namely the cheese of the Russian young trade mark (TM) Savushkin, turned out to be not cheese at all, but a cheese product - vegetable fats were found in it. Moreover, the manufacturer hid this fact! Cheese TM Schonfeld was recognized as the best in terms of organoleptic properties (appearance, taste, smell, texture), silver was awarded to TM Prosto, and bronze went to TM Valio.

Surely everyone saw on the shelves of shops unusual in their own way. appearance cheese woven into tight braids. This is the national Armenian dish - smoked cheese Chechil. It is especially valuable for being handmade, and its bright taste makes the product an excellent snack for any drink, be it wine or beer.


What it is?

Chechil is a pickled draft cheese, its closest relative is a similar Armenian cheese called Suluguni.

The name "Chechil" literally translates as "tangled", which exactly reflects its main feature - the shape. A tight tourniquet is formed from the elongated cheese threads and a pigtail is woven. This cheese also happens in simpler interpretations - in the form of straws or twisted into a ball.

The taste of Chechil is bright, slightly spicy, with pronounced smoked notes. It does not have a pronounced smell that distinguishes it from other varieties of cheese. Compared to Suluguni, it has a stronger stratification and sour-milk flavors.


Composition and expiration date

Chechil cheese can be made from the milk of goats, cows or sheep. As a rule, low-fat milk is used for its production, which makes it possible to make cheese with a fat content of 10%. Due to its low fat content, this cheese is an excellent substitute for fatter varieties for people seeking to lose weight. The calorie content of Chechil is on average 2 times lower than that of classic cheeses, and is about 300-350 kcal. At the same time, this type of cheese contains practically no carbohydrates, but a lot of protein, which makes it an extremely valuable food product.

Chechil contains a large amount of salt (from 4 to 8%), which, in turn, means that overuse eating it can harm the body. This is especially true for people who have problems with diseases of the urinary and cardiovascular systems. It is also worth considering that salt retains fluid in the body, which can provoke unwanted swelling.

When buying cheese, you should take an interest in its composition, since there is now a huge amount of Chechil on store shelves, which is not smoked by the classical method, but is processed with chemical smoke substitutes, dyes and preservatives are also added there. All these additives make the cheese less tasty and healthy, but it is stored longer. The maximum shelf life of a quality Chechil is 60 days, and a smoked one is 75 days.



Varieties

The classic form of Chechil cheese is a tightly braided braid of long threads. This form is patented and created not just for beauty - weaving allows you to preserve the properties of the cheese and the juiciness of the product.

On sale you can find Chechil in various forms - straws, twisted tourniquet, ball or wreath. For example, to use this cheese in fried It is best to use thick sticks. On store shelves, this form is most often used by the Umalat cheese manufacturer, which has won many positive customer reviews. The Spaghetti shape is also common.


Classic Chechil has a standard color scheme - from white to yellow. Priority is to buy cheese white color, since yellowness may indicate the addition of dyes to the product. As for smoked Chechil, its color will range from beige to brown. You also need to pay attention to the uniformity of color - with natural smoking, the color of the cheese will be transitional.

If Chechil is of a uniform color, then, most likely, liquid smoke was used.


How and from what is it prepared?

How is this traditional Armenian cheese made? Chechil cheese is based on milk, which should turn sour in natural conditions. To speed up the process, sourdough is often added to milk, for example, an already sour product and rennet, while heating them. After souring milk, it is curdled under the influence of temperature. Flakes are formed, which are strips up to 10 cm long. They are taken out of the whey, cut into thin strips and shaped. After that, the cheese pigtails are sent to special smoking chambers.


How to make at home?

It takes a lot of time and effort to make this cheese, but the result will be worth it.

Ingredients you will need to make Chechil:

  • milk (to prepare 1 kg of cheese, about 10 liters of milk are required);
  • rennet or pepsin;
  • sour milk, whey or sourdough;
  • salt.



Milk is left to sour room temperature, if time is limited, you can add a little sourdough to it (under such conditions, 12 hours will be enough for souring). When the milk is ready, it is put on fire and heated until curdled. At this point, pepsin or rennet should be added. Thanks to these substances, a clot forms in the pan.

The mixture is boiled to a temperature of 50-60 degrees, stirring constantly. The flakes are crushed with a spoon, and gradually a long ribbon is formed by pulling, which must be removed from the pan when it reaches desired temperature. The tape is placed on a convenient surface and cut into thin strips no more than 5 mm thick. A pigtail is already forming from these strips. Next, the cheese is placed in cold water for washing, and then in brine for salting. The salt concentration in the brine should be about 15%.

After a few days, you can get Chechil and eat it or smoke it.

During the entire time of storage at home, it is better that Chechil is in brine.


You will learn more about how to cook Chechil cheese at home in the following video.

Recipes with "cheese pigtail"

If you love Chechil, but want to try something new, then you can easily cook interesting dishes based on this cheese with your own hands.

Fried Chechil

One of the most simple snacks is fried Chechil. To do this, the pigtail is untwisted into individual fibers, or you can immediately take the straw.


Smoked cheese should not be taken, as it will not lend itself to frying, having a rather dense smoked crust on top.

Now in shops and markets you can find and buy almost any product, even the most exotic, and it is not at all necessary to spend time preparing your favorite delicacies. This is the opinion of most people, and it can be understood: time is money, after work you just want to get the package out of the refrigerator and not think about where and how its contents came from. Attentive buyers, in addition to paying attention to prices, also read the composition and compliance with production standards (GOST, TU). And thoughtful and wise buyers learn more about what they eat, after which they seriously think about switching at least partially to own cooking food. Homemade cheese, in addition to having an interesting and fresh taste, guarantees that it was “produced” in accordance with all the rules and without unnecessary unnecessary components. That your cheese will be very different from store analogues for the better and is the main reason for trying.

There is a little peculiarity in the preparation of cheeses. good cheeses obtained from large quantities of milk. By making a test sample of a liter volume, you can get a similar, but far from good quality homemade cheese.

Cheese is essentially milk concentrate. So, a pound of hard cheese contains as many useful substances as they are contained in 4.5 liters of milk. Having eaten in the morning fragrant piece bread and cheese, you can say you drink a glass of milk with all its useful substances: riboflavin, calcium, vitamins. During the maturation of the cheese, the content of B vitamins increases, so that the cheese carries additional benefits.

Cheap cheese (up to 200 rubles/kg) is usually made from dry mixes. In stores, such cheese is usually already sliced, and information about the composition and production standards is not available to the buyer. When making homemade cheese, you can be calm about the quality, because you will buy milk for this yourself. The best option when you live outside the city and have the opportunity to buy fresh real milk or keep a cow yourself. If milk has to be bought, it is important to choose the right supplier. Milk should be clean, without foreign unpleasant odors, maximum fat content and, of course, fresh. Such milk can be bought in the markets, it is sometimes brought from the surrounding villages to the railway station areas, sold in places where electric trains stop. If you can’t find rustic, you can get by with the fattest store-bought milk (shelf life should be minimal) or use ready-made cottage cheese. The last option for the first time is even preferable, as it will save time, but it will give a general idea of ​​​​the process, and you can decide whether homemade cheese is needed on the farm or not for you.

Cheeses come in varying degrees of hardness (or softness). Homemade cheese is usually soft. It can reach a solid state after a long exposure. Hard cheese is prepared on the basis of cottage cheese separated from whey under pressure. The harder the pressure, the better the whey is squeezed out, and the harder the cheese becomes. Hard cheese can be stored a little longer than medium and soft cheeses. Aging hard cheeses greatly improves the taste. Soft cheese is not aged for a long time under pressure, therefore it has the structure of dense cottage cheese, is stored for a short time and has a delicate, mild taste. Soft cheese is no worse than hard cheese - it's just different. It all depends on your taste preferences and patience.

In the cheese business, it's rare to get it right the first time, so please be patient. If the preparation is serious enough, then perhaps delicious cheese succeed the first time. For cooking, you will need an impressive list of tools. Some tools can be replaced with improvised means, and the main ones can be made independently.

You will need:

Choose the shape according to your needs. The optimal diameter is 20 cm - not too big, but not narrow. In the future, you can make cheese molds of different sizes. If you have not yet finally decided whether to make cheese or not, try to make the simplest shape from any tin can large diameter with a volume of about a liter. Cut off the uneven edges at the top so that they do not interfere with the piston entering, and make holes in the bottom of the jar from the inside to drain the liquid. The torn edges of the holes should be on the outside so as not to damage the future cheese.

The piston is the part of the press that is equal to the diameter of the mold. The piston should freely enter the mold and not have large gaps at the edges. The purpose of the piston is to press and squeeze out excess moisture.

Press. This device can be made independently or bought. The simplest press, and at the same time a piston, can be considered two buckets, one of which is smaller. Small and will be a piston at the same time. In a larger bucket, make holes in the bottom for whey to flow out.

You will need pots to collect skimmed milk (liquid left over from milk). It is better to have several pots of different capacities ready.

A colander is required to separate the liquid part of curdled milk (skim milk). As a rule, gauze will work with a colander in pairs, retaining solid parts and letting liquid through.

The harder you want the cheese to be, the heavier the weight should be. It is optimal to have a main load weighing about 10 kg and several additional 5 kg each. It is convenient to use ordinary bricks as a load.

Paraffin or wax is required if you want to make hard cheese. Paraffin is used to preserve the resulting cheese. The easiest way is to melt a few household colorless candles.

The spoon should have a handle long enough to reach the bottom of the container in which you will stir the milk. It is better if it is wooden. Don't use aluminum.

The easiest way to make cheese from cottage cheese. Less time and effort will be spent, and an enzyme will not be needed to coagulate milk. Throw the cottage cheese into a colander lined with a cloth so that the whey is glassed, sprinkle with salt (1 tablespoon per kilogram of cottage cheese) and grind thoroughly so that the salt is evenly distributed and there are no lumps in the cottage cheese. Ideally, you should get a plastic curd mass. If the cottage cheese is dry or fat-free, you can add a little sour cream or cream. After that, transfer the curd mass into a mold, lay the bottom of it with gauze folded in several layers and put it under a press for 10-12 hours. Make sure the cheese doesn't get too dry. The resulting cheese is not stored for a long time, it should be eaten within a few days.

The second method is that the cottage cheese is ground with salt and left for 5 days in a dry place. Mix the dried and yellowed cottage cheese again, transfer to a greased pan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until a liquid homogeneous mass without lumps is formed. Pour the prepared mass into containers and refrigerate. Ready cheese can be eaten in a few hours. Sometimes with this method, an equal amount of milk is added to the curd, heated and allowed to cool in the forms. Cheese obtained by these methods is also not stored for a long time.

Cottage cheese will not produce hard varieties that can be aged and stored for a long time. real cheese can only be obtained with whole milk and a fermenting agent. The most widely available enzyme is pepsin. Since, due to the specifics of its preparation, pepsin is quite difficult to obtain in its pure form, the acidin-pepsin drug, which is freely sold in pharmacies, is suitable instead. Preparations containing pepsin should not be feared. Pepsin is just an enzyme produced in the stomach of animals, it folds protein well. In its pure form, pepsin is a medicine for certain types of gastritis and for poor digestion of food. In the case of cheese, pepsin acts as an enzyme that quickly turns milk into the necessary thick mass. By the way, you can use pepsin only once, later you can use sourdough. Another option is natural abomasum. This is the same gastric enzyme extracted from the stomachs of animals. This is why vegetarians don't eat rennet-based cheeses. Instead of rennet, you can use sour milk, live yogurt, or a couple of cups of curdled milk. home cooking, but in this case the process will be somewhat stretched in time.

Remember that from 4 liters of milk you will get about 0.5 liters of finished cheese. Cheese is best obtained from large volumes of milk (from 7 liters). Salt is an important ingredient in making cheese. Avoid overdoing. On average, from one teaspoon to one tablespoon of salt is spent for every liter of milk. The degree of salinity is selected individually.

Steps for making cheese.

1. Ripening.

Heat the milk to 32 degrees (use a thermometer) and add the starter. If it is sour milk, then it needs about 500 ml per 10 liters of fresh milk. Mix thoroughly and cover. Leave in a warm place overnight. The temperature of the container must not rise.

2. Adding abomasum.

Add to milk (at 25 degrees) ½ teaspoon of rennet or a solution of one tablet of "acedin-pepsin" per 100 ml of water. Stir the resulting mixture thoroughly and cover with a lid or cloth. Wait 30-40 minutes for the milk to curdle.

3. Cutting.

The curdled milk should thicken and the whey should separate. With a long knife, cut the mass into equal pieces with a 3 cm edge, cutting vertically, and then, tilting the container, cut horizontally. Stir the pieces with a large wooden spoon.

4. Heating.

Place the curd mixed mass in a smaller container, which you put in a large one. Pour water into a large one and heat in a water bath, slowly raising the temperature (by 2 degrees every 5 minutes). Bring the temperature to 38 degrees and keep at this level, stirring the curd mass for about 30-40 minutes. Stir gently to keep the cubes from sticking together and check periodically for tightness by gently squeezing and releasing quickly. The state is considered ready when the cubes break in the hand and do not stick together. This condition can occur 2-2.5 hours after the abomasum has entered the milk. This is an important point, you need to wait for the required density of the curd cubes, otherwise a bad aftertaste may appear.

5. Spin.

Filter the serum from curd mass. To do this, you can use a colander lined with a cloth. After that, transfer the mass into a fairly flat container and turn it from side to side so that the remaining whey comes out completely. From time to time, loosen the mass with your hands or a fork so that a lump does not form. Control the temperature. At 32 degrees, the curd should be rubbery, creaking when chewed.

The amount of salt is chosen experimentally. For the first time, take a little less salt than seems sufficient. For the initially selected proportions, the guideline will be from 1 to 2 tablespoons. Spread the salt evenly and mix thoroughly. When the salt dissolves and the mass cools down to 30 degrees, it can be transferred to a mold for pressing.

Line the mold for pressing inside with a cloth and fill with cheese mass. Swaddle the mass on top with the free ends of the fabric and place under the press. To begin with, load the piston with a load of about 15 kg (3-4 bricks). Gradually add one brick at a time, bringing the total weight to 40 kg (8 bricks) and wait until the whey stops draining (about an hour).

8. Wrap.

Remove the oppression, remove the piston, take out the cheese, wash, wipe, to come off upper layer fat, even out bumps and folds. Cut off a piece of fabric so that it overlaps a piece of cheese by 5 centimeters. Cheese should be tightly and securely “wrapped”. Put it back into the mold for the press (after washing and wiping it dry) and place it under pressure for a day (40-50 kg).

Take out the cheese, remove the cloth, wipe it with a dry clean cloth. Rinse with warm water, at the same time smooth out cracks and bumps (with your fingers or a table knife). Wipe the cheese with a clean cloth and place in a dark, cool place. The best storage place is a wooden cabinet. Rub and turn the cheese daily for 4-5 days until a crust forms on the surface.

10. Paraffin.

If the cheese turned out to be hard enough, then for the best result, you can cover its surface with paraffin. Heat 250 grams of paraffin in a water bath until liquid. The container should be larger in diameter than the head of cheese. Dip the cheese in paraffin for a few seconds and let it harden for 2-3 minutes. Make sure that the entire surface is covered with paraffin evenly.

11. Ripening.

Turn your cheese every day. Every week, wipe the closet, ventilate and dry it. After 6 weeks, the cheese will acquire a density, its taste will be soft and tender. The storage temperature should not exceed 15 degrees. If you want to wait for a sharp taste, then you should withstand the cheese for 3-5 months. At the same time, lower the storage temperature to 5-7 degrees. The lower the storage temperature, the longer the cheese can be aged, and the more elegant and sharper its taste will be. For the first cheese, it will be enough to withstand it for several weeks. You can divide the cheese into several parts before filling with paraffin and test one part for taste. But many believe that only a whole head is able to mature qualitatively.

These recommendations are intended to give a guideline in the manufacture of cheeses, to show the reality of their preparation at home. Detailed recipes There are quite a lot of cheese preparations, and all of them will differ to some extent from this. In the production of cheese, each of the described stages affects the taste, aroma and structure. By experimenting and trying, you can get your own "signature" variety and call it whatever you want.

CHEESE
a dairy product usually obtained from cottage cheese. Milk is a natural aqueous suspension of many substances, which coagulates when exposed to precipitating factors (heat, lactic acid and rennet) and is separated from the watery whey in the form of a curd mass, from which different ways and make cheese. Cow's milk is most widely used in cheesemaking, but cheese is also made from the milk of goats, sheep, horses, and reindeer. At the dawn of history, people invented cheese, probably as a food product with a long shelf life. Today, cheese is valued for its taste and nutritional qualities. Cheese made from whole milk is a high-calorie product with a rich content of proteins, calcium, vitamin A and B vitamins. The ratio of fats and proteins in it is very well balanced. Moreover, in mature cheese, i.e. aged for at least 20 days, there is absolutely no lactose left - milk sugar, which adversely affects the well-being of many people.
see also DAIRY INDUSTRY .
Cheese classification. Cheeses differ in hardness, degree of maturity and manufacturing technology (primarily by the type of microflora used). By hardness, they are divided into very hard, or grater (like Pecorino Romano and Parmesan), hard (like cheddar), semi-hard (like Munster) and soft (like Limburg or Camembert). More than 2000 types of cheeses are registered, but their number continues to grow. Cheese is usually named after the area where it was first made. Sometimes the same type of cheese has different names. For example, Emmental cheese (or Emmentaler, which was first made near Emmen in Switzerland), is called Swiss cheese in the United States. However, behind all the many names of cheeses, only about 25 of their main types are hidden. Cheeses are also divided into natural and processed. Natural ones are made directly from milk; they are of two types - fresh (they are also called young) and mature. Fresh cheese (such as homemade or cream cheese) is made from cottage cheese and is not aged after that. Cheese, which must mature in order to acquire its inherent structure and density, aroma and taste (for example, cheddar), is aged in storage at a certain temperature and humidity for a specified time, during which chemical and microbiological processes take place in the cheese dough. Processed cheeses are made from various combinations of natural cheeses that are ground, heated, and melted; the molten mass is mixed and various salts are added to it.
Unusual types of cheeses. In various parts of the world, many unusual cheeses. So, in France, cheeses are made from goat's and sheep's milk with a very peculiar taste and smell, the surfaces of which are painted in various colors. Cheese heads are made in the form of a bar, cone, cylinder, round cake, heart, etc. The USA also has its own original cheeses- brick, leaderkranz, monterey, etc. Queso d "Autin cheese is produced in Venezuela - a cylinder, the surface of which is coated with a mixture of cow's butter with ground coffee, black pepper and spices. In Mexico, they make queso enchilada cheese, the dough of which includes a sauce of hot red chili peppers. In Latin America, there are many similar cheeses with other names.
Cheese making. Cow's milk, from which most cheeses are made, contains 12-13% dry matter, the main component of which is the milk protein casein. Under the influence of precipitating factors, milk proteins, fats and almost all other liquid-insoluble components of milk stick together, forming a curd clot. At cheese-making enterprises, after pasteurization, as a rule, milk is poured into sourdough - a special bacterial culture that produces the amount of acid necessary for coagulation and prevents the reproduction of undesirable microorganisms. Then rennet is introduced into the milk, which speeds up the curdling process. Rennet is extracted mainly from the 4th section of the stomach of a slaughtered calf, and it is this enzyme that acts as a precipitating agent, contributing to the rapid formation of a clot.
Fresh cheeses. Fresh cheese is made from either skim milk (house cheese) or whole milk (cream cheese). Milk is curdled with lactic or some other acid. The main components of fresh cheese - water, fats, casein, mineral salts and milk sugar - are the same as in the cheese mass for mature cheeses, but there is more water in it and almost all of the casein is not converted, and there is little fat and milk in low-fat homemade cheese. Sahara. Typically, 45 kg of skimmed milk yields approximately 7 kg of skim milk. homemade cheese. In the manufacture of ricotta cheese, made from whole milk, it curdles under the influence of acid and heat (when heated to 80 ° C); the resulting curd clot contains not only casein, but also quite a lot of albumin and globulin. As a result, from 45 kg of whole milk containing 3% fat, you can get 9-10 kg of cheese with a high moisture content. The production of fresh cheese is usually carried out in 7 stages. When producing, for example, homemade cheese, the following occurs: pasteurization of skimmed milk; introducing into it, together with lactic acid, microbiological cultures of Streptococcus lactis and S. citrovorus; whey heating up to 52°C; decantation of the liquid part of the serum; washing the cheese mass; the introduction of salt into the cheese mass; adding cream to it. cooking cheese- a kind of fresh cheese with a high moisture content - is produced from skimmed milk, like homemade cheese, but, unlike the latter, it is not heated during manufacture. Its dough is homogeneous, like that of cream cheese, but has a coarser grained appearance.
Mature cheeses. Cheeses to be matured are made from whole or partially skimmed milk. Usually, 45 kg of whole milk produces 4.5 kg of finished mature cheese. The initial stages in the development of mature cheeses are almost the same as for fresh cheeses; the main differences in the technology of their manufacture lie in the methods of curdling milk and introducing specific microflora into the cheese mass before or during the ripening stage. In order for young cheeses to mature, they are placed for a certain time in storage with controlled environmental parameters. So, some types of cheddar are aged from 9 to 22 months in a room with a temperature of 4 ° C and a relative humidity of 85%. All mature cheeses are made from milk curdled with rennet; at the same time, the cheese mass is more homogeneous, soft and tender than under the influence of lactic acid alone (as in the production of fresh cheeses, which have a characteristic sour-milk taste). During the development of cheddar, milk is heated to 32 ° C, then fermented milk is poured into it, and after 15-30 minutes rennet is introduced. Curdling occurs after another 30 minutes. The curd clot is crushed and heated again to 37 ° C. The resulting cheese grain is thoroughly and continuously mixed, separated from the whey and compacted. The compacted cheese mass is cut into blocks, which are sent to the vat for about two hours. During this time, whey is removed from the cheese mass, and due to the action of increasing concentration of lactic acid on casein, the cheese mass becomes even more homogeneous. Then the blocks are finely ground, this grinding is salted dry and heads are pressed from it. After pressing, the heads of young cheese are placed in storage for maturation, during which the cheese acquires the desired taste and texture.
Melted cheeses. These cheeses are made from natural rennet cheeses with appropriate taste properties, which are ground and heated in melting pots to a temperature of about 80 ° C. etc.), can also be added food colorings(for example, a red or yellow extract from the Bixa orellana plant), sodium chloride (common salt), cream, and water. Technological salts reduce the acidity of the melt and prevent the separation of fats and proteins; thanks to the interaction of the ions of these salts with the proteins of the cheese mass, homogeneity is ensured cheese dough. A few minutes after the introduction of salts, the hot cheese melt is poured into molds that are sealed, or merges in a thin layer onto a moving canvas; then this cheese layer is cut into slices, which are packed. In terms of fat content and moisture content, processed cheese should not differ from the original natural one, and its taste properties are distributed evenly throughout the dough.
Historical information about cheese. Cheese appeared a very long time ago - around 5000 BC. It seems that it was first made in southwest Asia, in the mountain valleys of Iran, Iraq and Turkey. Most likely, the first cheese was soft and produced from goat milk. Then cheesemaking spread to the Mediterranean countries, where the Greeks traded mature white pickled cheese, transporting it in brine. Through the Romans, cheesemaking reached the limits of Western Europe.

MAIN TYPES OF CHEESE
American cheese. This name refers to natural cheddar produced in the USA. It is sometimes confused with processed cheese. Bell paese, soft italian cheese with a mild sweet taste. Blue (blue) matures with mold developing inside it; produced in the USA, Denmark, France and other countries. Its soft or crumbly dough is white to cream in color and contains particles of the bluish-green mold Penicillium. brie, french cheese, the maturation of which goes from the surface inward; it has a delicate buttery dough and a soft whitish crust of mold. Traditional brie in the form of large round loaves is made at several farms in the Brie district near Paris; modern types of brie are produced by many cheese factories in France. Brik (brick) is produced in the USA in the form of a brick-like bar with a tan crust, and its semi-hard dough is straw-colored. Gouda, a cheese of Dutch origin (now produced in many countries), comes in a variety of densities ranging from almost soft to hard; dough it good taste, like Edamese, but fatter. Gorgonzola, a northern Italian cheese streaked with bluish mold. Gruyère ("crane"), Swiss cheese, with its very pleasant and piquant taste resembles Emmental, but has a denser and less brittle dough with very small eyes. Homemade cheese, sometimes called stewed curd, a soft fresh cheese first made at home by the rural people of Central Europe; now it is very popular in USA, Canada and UK. This cheese is made from skimmed milk, and its dough consists of many tender - small and large - curdled grains. Camembert is a soft cheese with a light yellowish dough and a white rind. In 1791, the technology of its production was improved by M. Arel from the Norman village of Camembert. Colby, a type of cheddar cheese, but with a softer and more delicate dough in texture and taste. Peasant cheese, a type of homemade cheese that was first made by the peasants of France; sometimes it is pressed into various shapes. Liedercrantz, a small, aromatic American cheese that ripens from the surface inwards; his birthplace is New York State. Limburg cheese, originally from Belgium; it has an almost soft buttery dough with a pungent taste and a very pungent smell. Mozzarella, an Italian cheese, is widely used in pizza and other Italian dishes; when heated, it stretches to incredible sizes. Monterey Jack, a high-moisture cheddar-type cheese, was first developed in Monterey, California, USA. Münster, a cheese that ripens from the surface inward, is usually salted in brine, and its shell turns orange; it resembles Limburg cheese, but not as spicy. Neuchâtel, a soft fresh cheese containing only 20% fat and made in the same way as cream cheese; his homeland is Neuchâtel-en-Bray (northern France). Parmesan is a very hard, dry cheese that matures for up to two years. This cheese of Italian origin has a sharp, slightly rancid taste; it is used in grated form as a seasoning for dishes from pasta including spaghetti. Pontlevec, a soft cheese that ripens from the surface inward, is produced in Normandy (France) in the form of small rectangular bars with a uniform dough of savory taste. Pordyusalu, a semi-soft cheese with delicate taste, was first made in France by the Trappist monks. Provolone, a hard Italian cheese produced in the form of a pear, sausage, ball, etc.; it is usually smoked. Ricotta, a soft fresh Italian cheese, is made from lightly salted curdled milk. In some places it is made from sour whey and skimmed milk, and then dried to a state of grating cheese. Roquefort, a French cheese with bluish-green streaks of mold, is made only from sheep's milk. The cylinders of its cheese mass are filled with spores of the mold fungus Penicillium roqueforti, after which they are sent to mature for 6 months in natural caves near the village of Roquefort. Ripe cheese heads are packed in parchment and then wrapped in foil. Romano, a very hard, mature grated cheese, was first made in the area of ​​Rome (Italy). Cream cheese, fresh cheese with dough in the form of a homogeneous mass without releasing particles; fat content not less than 33%. Stilton, a soft blue-veined English cheese; first made in 1750; it is fatty and juicy, with a very piquant taste. Feta, a white pickled cheese (a type of brynza) of Greek origin, is now produced in large quantities in Denmark. Fontina, cheese from almost soft to hard texture, yellowish color, with a delicate piquant flavor and pleasant smell; is made in its homeland (in Italy) from sheep's milk, and in the USA - from cow's. Cheddar, a hard mature cheese, is the most consumed in the world; named after the village of Cheddar in the Somerset Valley in England, where it was first developed; differs in the plastic homogeneous test with color from white to orange. The necessary organoleptic properties of this cheese are achieved by repeatedly turning its heads in a vat during the primary stages of cheese processing, when a process called cheddaring takes place. Cheshire, sometimes referred to as Chester, is an English cheese, similar in hardness to cheddar, but with a less firm and more crumbly dough that may be white but is usually a deep yellow. Swiss cheese- so called in the US emmental; in Europe and other parts of the world, it is any cheese of Swiss origin. Produced in the form of large bars with soft and elastic dough containing large eyes. The main characteristic features of high-quality emmental are its savory organoleptic properties. Edam, a mature cheese with a pleasant taste, has long been made in the Netherlands (near the city of Edam, near Amsterdam). It usually comes as spherical heads in a bright red shell; its dough is dense, elastic, with small round eyes. Emmental cheese, (originates from cheese from the Emmen Valley in Switzerland), is produced in the form of thick discs or large bars with a dense dough, dotted with large (average diameter 2.5 cm or more) eyes.
LITERATURE
Dilanyan Z. Kh. Cheese making. M., 1973 Begunov V.L. Cheese book. M., 1974

Collier Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .

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    cheese- cheese/ … Morphemic spelling dictionary

    CHEESE- one of the most complete and nutritious foods; contains in the edible part up to 32% fats, up to 26.8% proteins, up to 3% organic acids, up to 4.5% mineral salts, up to 2.5% salt, vitamins A and group B. Protein substances of cheese in the process ... … The Concise Encyclopedia of the Household