Cow's milk cheese
Making delicious cheese at home? Easy! Brynza is a brined cheese, one of the soft varieties. It's made from cow's or goat's milk and has a delicate, slightly salty flavor — perfect for salads, pie fillings, or eating on its own. Making brynza at home is no trouble at all; all you need is milk, salt, and an acid to set it. You can use table vinegar or lemon juice for that.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
Gather the ingredients. The table vinegar is 9% strength.
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Step 2:
Put the milk over high heat and bring it to a boil.
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Step 3:
As soon as the foam starts to rise, pour in the vinegar and add the salt. The milk will curdle right away. Stir with a spoon and watch — the curds should grow large and the whey turn greenish. Keep it on the heat only briefly, about two minutes. The longer you cook it, the firmer the cheese will be.
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Step 4:
Pour the mixture into a colander lined with cheesecloth. It's best to fold the cloth into several layers so the curds don't slip through. Be sure to save some of the whey — we'll store the cheese in it.
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Step 5:
Gather up the ends of the cheesecloth, set a dish on top, and place a weight on that. Leave it like this on the counter for two hours. After two hours you'll have a still-warm but fairly firm homemade brynza. I left mine like this overnight, moving the whole setup into the refrigerator.
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Step 6:
Store the finished cheese in the whey you set aside. You can add a bit more salt to it and bring it to a boil first — then the brynza won't dry out in storage and will pick up even more flavor.
- The key ingredient for homemade brynza is the milk, so choose it carefully. Natural cow's or goat's milk is best — it's rich and full-flavored, which carries through to the finished cheese. Store-bought works too, but the result won't be as tasty. I'd recommend using at least three liters of milk. My first batch was from one liter of store-bought milk, and the brynza came out as thin as a pancake. The second time I used three liters of farm milk and got about 400 grams of cheese. The store-bought version is noticeably inferior to the farm one. Adjust the salt to taste. With this recipe the cheese comes out lightly salted, almost mild — but I expect it'll get saltier over a few days as it sits in the salted whey.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Whole cow's milk - 68 kcal/100g
- Milk 3.5% fat content - 64 kcal/100g
- Milk 3.2% fat content - 60 kcal/100g
- Milk 1.5% fat content - 47 kcal/100g
- Concentrated milk 7.5% fat content - 140 kcal/100g
- Milk 2.5% fat content - 54 kcal/100g
- Salt - 0 kcal/100g
- Table vinegar - 11 kcal/100g
