Imereti cheese: what is, calorie and cooking recipes

Sheep cheese appeared in the Arab East about eight thousand years ago.Its discoverer is considered to be the Arabian merchant Kanan. Having loaded the goods on a caravan of camels, he set off on a long journey through the Arabian desert, taking dough cakes, earthenware jugs with fresh water and a sheep stomach, into which he poured cream, fresh milk and added sour cream for fat content.

Once he discovered a thick cheesecake in the skins with a characteristic fermented milk smell that swam in a cloudy serum. Cheese really liked the taste of Kanana - that was how the first acquaintance of a person with brinza took place.

National Georgian cuisine is known far beyond the Caucasus Mountains. Georgian meat dishes, soups in meat broth without vegetables, hard milk cheeses, various sauces from local herbs and natural products leave an indelible impression in the memory. A tourist who has visited Imereti will certainly mark historical sights, Caucasian hospitality, natural grape wines and real Imereti cheese or Brynza.

In the "House of Cheese" in the city of Tbilisi you can see the dishes that were used for the production and storage of hard cheese more than eight thousand years ago. Historical findings related to the production and storage of this fermented milk product in other countries are half younger: they are no more than four thousand years old.

Cheese is made from fresh sheep or cow's milk, its consistency is slightly denser than ordinary cottage cheese and has a salty taste. Such a product from sheep's milk has a characteristic smell and a specific taste. Brynza is considered real if its nutritional value is much higher than that of cows. A head of cheese is stored in brine containing salt and sugar. When it is made, rennet is used to ferment milk, pepsin, and dry leaven for pickled cheese. Imereti cheese is a time-tested food product. It can eat adults and children.

The energy value of Imereti cheese and calorie per 100 grams:

• proteins - 18.5 g;
• fats - 14 g;
• carbohydrates - 2.4 g;
• Calorie content - 240 Kcal.

Imereti cheese is a high-quality fermented milk product, which by its smell and taste is very similar to Suluguni. For its manufacture, whole cow's milk, leaven, rennet or vegetable renin, water, salt, cumin, paprika, tomatoes, calcium chloride are used. In Georgia, 80% of the total amount of Imeretinsky and Suluguni cheese is produced.

For the manufacture of Imereti cheese you need to take:

• 1 liter of natural cow's milk;
• 60 milliliters of rennet;
• 1 liter of clean water;
• 20 grams of fine salt;
• 20 grams of granulated sugar.

Popular recipe for Cheese:

• milk is heated to 38 ° C, pepsin is added, evenly mixed with a wooden spoon and kept in a water bath at 38 ° C for half an hour;
• the cheese lump formed at the bottom of the pan is cut into a 1x1 centimeter cubes with a sharp narrow knife and carefully moved with a slotted spoon until the liquid is completely separated from the curdled mass. The smaller the size of the cube, the harder the resulting Cheese will turn out;
• after cutting the lump of cheese into pieces, warm the pot again so that the product is completely separated from the whey;
• after separating the cheese lump, it is transferred to a colander, sprinkled with salt on top and left to drain the whey;
• put the colander on a tray, cover it with gauze or natural white cloth and leave for 12 hours;
• after the whey is drained, the cheesecake is soaked, transferred to maturation in a saucepan, and cathi are poured.

Tsathi's Recipe:

• For the preparation of "tsatkhi" in a liter of water dissolve a tablespoon of salt and the same spoon of sugar;
• Cover the pan with a lid and put in a warm place for 3-4 days.In the process of ripening, the cheesecake hardens, acquires a light yellow color and a characteristic cheese smell. From the gases formed during fermentation, holes are formed in the head of the finished product.

Sometimes, when guests are already traveling on a train and need to cook "Caesar salad with olives and natural cheese" in a few hours, they can help out a five-hour cooking homemade cheese recipe.

Boil 1 liter of homemade milk, and when it boils, pour in a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, half a cup of fresh kefir, 50 grams of apple juice, add chopped processed cheese into small pieces.

In a liter of cold water, dissolve two tablespoons of salt and tea baking soda. Pour the curd with this solution, put the press on top and leave for 2-3 hours. At the end of time, remove the cheese from the water and put in the fresh milk. After soaking in it for 2-3 hours, the cheese is ready. It is better to store it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, immersed in milk or whey.

Liter of fatty milk, pour into the pan, add three tablespoons of 20% sour cream, two tablespoons of lemon juice and heat to 65-70 ° C. The resulting cheese clot squeeze through double gauze and put under pressure for 45-60 minutes.

This recipe for making hard cheese is available for everyone. It is very simple and does not require special skills or knowledge. Cheese according to this recipe can "concoct" even one who is familiar with cooking only from a book or from ready-made dishes at the dinner table.

To get Cheese on this recipe you need:

• 2 liters of farm milk;
• 1 glass of fresh kefir;
• 2 cups fat sour cream;
• 8 one-day chicken eggs;
• 50 grams of fresh herbs - parsley, dill, celery, arrows of young garlic, basil;
• 40 grams of salt.

Cook cheese in a thick pan. Pour milk into it, add salt, set on fire and heat to boil. We beat the chicken eggs with a skimmer until the formation of a homogeneous mass, pour in kefir, add fat sour cream.

As soon as the milk starts to boil, we add the prepared mass to it, we mix well with a skimmer, preventing the formation of lumps. As soon as the product is divided into cheese flakes and whey, the pan is immediately removed from the heat.

In most cases, recipes Cheese can be replaced by cheaper cheese - feta. This Greek variety is made from sheep and goat milk. It matures in sea water, is preserved in olive oil. According to external signs, feta is very similar to fresh pressed cottage cheese. It can be spread on bread instead of melted cheese. On the cut, it is smooth, without the characteristic holes for the sheep cheese, the taste and smell are piquant, and contain a lot of lactic acid.

According to gourmands, feta cheese can be replaced with Caesar salad and other culinary recipes, but according to experts, in their chemical composition, production technology and taste are completely different cheeses. The possibility of replacement depends on the particular dish and on the taste preferences of the person.

On the traditional Georgian cheeses described in the next video.