Imereti cheese at home

1. Pour the milk into a saucepan, send it to the fire, warm it up to a warm state (38 degrees).

2. Add yogurt to warm milk (ideally, homemade fermented milk product, you can take sour cream or kefir), mix, leave for half an hour.

3. Meanwhile, pour boiling water over the cumin, let it stand for a little, 15 minutes, then drain the water.

4. The rennet enzyme is diluted in warm water at about 35 degrees, stirred, and left for 10 minutes.

5. Then add the rennet enzyme solution to the milk mass, mix thoroughly and leave for an hour so that the mass becomes dense.

6. We separate the cheese mass from the whey (just choose it with our hands) and transfer it to the mold (I use a colander with a flat bottom). The cheese mass is sprinkled with tomato and paprika flakes, as well as cumin (this time I made two types of cheese: with and without additives).

7. We place the colander on a pallet so that the liquid flows down, and leave it in this form for 10-12 hours.

8. The cheese ripens and is stored in a special brine: pour water into an enameled pan, pour salt and sugar, mix. In the resulting brine, spread the cheese head and cover with a lid.

9. In this position, we leave it for 3-4 days so that the cheese forms holes.

Here is such a delicious Imeretian cheese turned out, try it!