Cottage cheese

     Cottage cheese certainly is the favorite of the public and nutritionists. According to the universality of application, cottage cheese can be compared with those leaders in food, such as bread and milk. About useful qualities of the dairy product everybody knows - even babies in the diet of which pediatricians should enter cottage cheese, starting from 5-7 months. In addition, cottage cheese so organically is perceived by our organism that is present in almost every diet and helps to maintain the slender figure.

     

     This valuable dairy product is produced from the usual sour milk - clabber. Anciently it was putting in an earthen pot for several hours into heated oven, and then it was removing and transfusing in the linen bag, in order to filter serum. Then the bag with cottage cheese was putting under the press, and then people regaled oneself with a natural product or cooked baked puddings, cottage cheese pancakes from it, used as a filling for pancakes, dumplings and cakes.

 

     Discovered, that cottage cheese - perishable product, resourceful housewives learned how to dry it a little in the oven or to macerate in brine, thus continuing the "life" of capricious dairy product. Today, cottage cheese is produced mainly by industrial methods. Manufacturers supply in the distribution network with only its pasteurized version, cooked milk from the previously "cleared" from bacteria and soured by pure cultures of lactic-acid streptococcus. Calcined cheese (calcium chloride) is added to resulting thick sour milk for the most full curdling, and the medium is acidulated artificially to accelerate the process. Sometimes the solution of rennet is added to the curds for the full concentration of protein. But, as in the old days, to separate the serum, cottage cheese is wrung out under special pressure.

     

     The doctors, dieticians may be as long as you want to argue about the usefulness or harmfulness of different foods, but when it comes to the cottage cheese, they, following the famous physician Avicenna, who lived more than a thousand years ago, unanimously reckon it among the most valuable and nutritious. The value is determined, first of all, by high content of a well-balanced animal protein - from 14 to 20%. On the composition of protein, it is comparable to meat, poultry and fish, and is almost completely absorbed by our body. The reason is that cottage cheese has no tissue or cellular structure.

     

     In the process of its maturation it takes place the splitting of proteins in the sulfur-containing amino acids, which are necessary for a person better job of liver and kidney. Cottage cheese is especially rich in methionine - essential amino acid, which lowers the level of cholesterol in the body and, most importantly, prevents fatty liver, which can arise from exposure to the organism by powerful toxins or certain medications. The large content of animal fat - 20% - provides a high caloric content of the product. 100 g of eaten up cottage cheese gives the body "charge" in the 250-400 kcal. However, if you prefer fat-free sorts, you can always find them in the dairy department.

     

     But the main wealth of cottage cheese is its ideal for digestion by the body mineral composition, including phosphorus, calcium and even iron. 100 g of cottage cheese is almost completely satisfy the daily rate of man in the main "building material" of the body - calcium. When it is necessary to increase the inflow of mineral elements into the body, doctors urgently recommend to eat exactly cottage cheese.

     

     Looking at any food store, you can always find in the dairy department, several varieties of cottage cheese. Cottage cheese may be eaten only in raw form - without heat treatment. It is also used for cooking curds of different fat content and all kinds of pieces of sweetened and pressed cottage cheese. Dietary fat-free varieties also are produced.

     

     Of course, you can buy cottage cheese at the market, where it will be certainly checked by officials of corresponding service. True, cooked it will be as of old - from ordinary sour milk. This type of cottage cheese is called non-pasteurized. It is better to use for cooking a variety of dishes, which are subjected to heating. 
  

     Do not buy cottage cheese in the "uncontrolled" markets or from random street vendors, there is a risk of acquiring poor product. It is better to cook non-pasteurized cottage cheese at home using an ancient simple recipe:

     

     pour milk into enameled pot, Boil and let it cool to 30 ° C. Then sour it, using as a leaven the sour cream, clabber or kefir. The most importantly is to observe proportion: 3-4 tablespoons per 1 liter of milk. Thoroughly mix this mixture and put in warm place for 6-8 hours. Place received curd paste into fabric bag and hang over the empty pot to drain whey. Then put the paste on the strainer or colander, covered with gauze, folded in a half.

     

     Cottage cheese is being held "fire test" in the oven and turns, thus, into appetizing baked pudding or in a pan - into toasted curd fritters. And as a filling it is simply indispensable! Do you want to make a fat-free cottage cheese more fatty? Add the sour cream. You can add a little milk to fat cottage cheese, and it will become soft and juicy.

 

Comments Add Comment