The benefits of homemade yogurt are undeniable. Its taste is real, not cloying, shop-like, transfused. The presence of really living and beneficial microorganisms, and not dyes, thickeners and preservatives. Pasteurization, which is necessary for the preservation of the product in a manufacturer-packaged form, also adversely affects the vital activity of beneficial bacteria, so that you are unlikely to get the benefit that is claimed on the label.
For the preparation of yogurt you will need to purchase a culture of probiotic bacteria in the pharmacy, sterile gloves and a syringe are also useful. Specify, whether these bacteria are intended for ripening of milk in house conditions. You can do without yogurtnitsy - any warm place for ripening and development of bacteria is quite suitable, some are adapted to cook in a thermos, an oven. Or just close it in a blanket and put it on the battery if the heating season has not yet passed. On each kind of starter (they can be changed periodically) the exact method of preparation is indicated.
It is significant that home-made yogurt is a product with a lower acidity than, for example, kefir. And in domestic yoghurt it is really observed, as there is no added citric acid added by the manufacturer.
Milk for homemade yogurt need to buy pasteurized. Some (especially mothers of young children) prefer to boil milk, while others say that it will spoil the taste of the product.
Do not add sugar to home-made yogurt. This will lead to product degradation, since bacteria will ferment it, and the taste and quality of the product will change.
A little bit of zeal and patience - and at your disposal a useful, rich in microflora, essential home-made yogurt for children and adults. In yogurt, it is valuable that useful bacteria displace pathogenic bacteria, thus preventing some infections. And even, according to some reports, yoghurt cultures improve immunity, help in the prevention and treatment of allergies, tumors.
Cottage cheese is a product saturated with protein. And, among other things, contains iron, magnesium and phosphorus. Lipotropic substances favorably affect the liver. Cottage cheese is useful almost to everyone without exception and is not accidentally recommended even in children's and dietary food. Curd protein fully competes with meat, but it is better, easier and faster absorbed by the body.
Cottage cheese products, sold in stores, are usually made with a significant addition of sugar, and it, in turn, complicates the absorption of calcium. So home, you cooked cottage cheese can claim a real benefit to the body, and not just be another kind of dessert.
Sour milk for home curds (curdled milk) can not be boiled. In a saucepan, you heat the mass either on a water bath, or watch that the cottage cheese does not touch the walls and stick to them. You need to clearly grasp the moment when the curd mass begins to separate from the yellowish serum. Using a gauze bag, allow the resulting mass to drain - and the cottage cheese is ready.
Particularly tender is curd, if the milk was ripened with lemon juice. It is done this way: in the already heated milk, pour out a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice. The weight is changing before your eyes and you just have to catch it from the pan, separate it from the whey and squeeze it well.
It is enough to eat cottage cheese 2-3 times a week.
For domestic yogurt is suitable not only whole, but also pasteurized, melted, and even skim milk. Kefir high fats will be obtained if you add sour cream along with the leaven.
The leaven will serve 1-2 tablespoons of kefir, purchased in the store, only this should be a product that does not contain fruit filler. Pour it into the boiled and cooled to 20-22 degrees milk. If the desired yogurt is not available, the sourdough will be yogurt or even a crust of black bread. The pharmacy sells a lactic ferment, for example, lactobacterin.
Do not forget to mix the milk with the leaven. After 12-24 hours you will check the result and get the finished product. If you close the kefir mass in a thermos, ready kefir will be obtained after 6-7 hours.
Kefir is not only a useful dietary, but also a preventive and even curative product. It normalizes the microflora of the intestine, and lactic acidic kefiric medium promotes absorption by the body of calcium, phosphorus, vitamin D. Prepared at home, kefir more successfully performs these functions.
Homemade kefir, so dense, useful and fresh will be even more useful if you decorate it with berries or jam, or add fruit juice. In all cases, preparing home lactic products for yourself and your family, be attentive to the quality of the original dairy raw materials. Remember that whole milk is very fat, and products from it are not suitable for young children and those who watch their weight. Milk, not pasteurized, preferably boiled. Now you know about the properties of homemade yogurt, kefir, cottage cheese, which are so necessary for maintaining health.