How to check the quality of cottage cheese at home?

Cottage cheese is a fermented milk mass, which is obtained by souring milk with further extraction of whey.In search of revenue, many manufacturers mix it with starch and palm oil, and do not consider it necessary to advertise this fact, and, accordingly, do not indicate it on the product packaging.

Cottage cheese should have the following indicators of fat content in percent: fat - 18, bold - 9, light, low-fat, for diets - 4, 9 and 11.

In the domestic environment it is quite possible to determine the product that does not correspond to the quality. Identify the quality you need immediately upon purchase.

• The cost of the product should not be too low.
• The storage period should not exceed 72 hours. In the case when the product has a shelf life of three days or more, it is better to refuse this purchase.
• Container from the manufacturer must be sealed. Need to have no water. The mass itself must keep its shape and not blur.

The composition of high-quality cottage cheese includes:

• quality milk;
• leaven;
• butter;
• cream.

You can add products such as raisins, vanilla, cocoa powder and other flavoring additives. All ingredients must be indicated on the packaging.

Quality is determined by the consistency:

• real cottage cheese has a grainy state;
• fake most homogeneous;
• too smooth composition is justified by the presence of palm oil.

These goods come to market objects in cans or pans, then the responsible owners put them on the shop window, and people who want to make a profit in addition deliver the expired product, which they hide under the counter. It can be sold to inattentive consumers.

• In such places, cottage cheese should be checked for taste and smell. If something does not like, for example, color or smell, then you need to go to another seller.
• Before you buy a product, you need to make sure that the cottage cheese is put from the same container from which the sample was made - otherwise you can get the goods from under the counter.
• You can also consult with other customers on the quality of the product - there are people who are happy to share their opinions.
• You can ask about the naturalness of the curd and the seller. By his behavior it will be clear whether he is deceiving or not.

At home, quality can be checked in the following way:

• put in the open air a small part of the curd at a temperature above 20 degrees;
• if yellowing appears on the curd and a dense crust is formed, then this product contains unknown additives;
• if the curd product remains the same color as it was, the film did not form, began to smell with sourness, signs of fermentation appeared - you can be confident in purchasing a natural product.

Many have adapted to add different oils to cottage cheese: palm or coconut. To determine this fact, you need to break off a small piece of the entire mass, put in a plate, pour boiling water and stir. The natural product will collapse into a strong lump. Fake cottage cheese (with the addition of oils) is simply dissolved in boiling water, divided into small clots.

When left in a room, a natural product turns sour and becomes white or cream-colored, that is, it remains the same as before, and the version with an admixture of vegetable oils acquires an unattractive yellowish color. In addition, having tasted such a product, an aftertaste of oil will remain in the mouth. This effect occurs if an excessive amount of palm oil is present.

There are times when the admixture of extraneous constituents in the production of cottage cheese is carried out so unnoticed that even a product expert will not feel this. Check the purchased products for naturalness and quality at home is possible with the help of iodine, which makes it possible to determine the presence of starch in the curd - it is added to the mass to increase its weight. This is not done to increase the taste of the product - manufacturers include in the starch only to extract financial gain.

In order to check the quality of the product, you only need to take a small piece of cottage cheese - one teaspoon will be a sufficient portion. Then you need to put the products on a small plate and add just two drops of iodine to it. If the curd gets a bluish color, this means that the composition of the product contains starch. If, after iodine drops, it remains the same (the color will not change), then you can be calm as a natural product is purchased. Cottage cheese without admixture of starch in the area of ​​added iodine can only acquire a yellowish color.

Such inorganic substances are added in the production of cottage cheese with the same purpose as starch - they increase the final mass of products, and the cost price remains the same. For the body, such compounds will not bring harm, but will reduce the presence of beneficial substances. You can also check for the presence of these ingredients yourself. To do this, mix a small portion of cottage cheese with drinking or distilled water and vinegar. Considered compounds are salts, therefore, entering into interaction with water, emit carbon dioxide, which manifests itself as bubbles.

If the quality of the product is very important, it is necessary to pay attention to the inscriptions on its packaging. Cottage cheese with a shelf life greater than a week is likely to contain any additives. Before purchasing, you do not need to be lazy and you should carefully inspect the type of product - a product with too liquid or dry consistency indicates that there are irregularities in the manufacturing process. When you make sure of the quality of the purchased curd, and it has 100% passed all checks, it is advisable to remember the place of its purchase, as well as the brand of the manufacturer, in order to know in the future where and what product should be purchased.

The difference between homemade cottage cheese from the store. If it is not possible to determine which cottage cheese has the highest quality (shop or home), then below is a useful recommendation.

The bitterness of cottage cheese. There is one thing that causes trouble to the hostess - the appearance of bitterness of cottage cheese. This fact can occur for several reasons.

• Because of the bitterness in the milk that was used in the production of cottage cheese. If there is such a problem, then you should not consider spoiled products. This may occur if the cow eaten bitter grass before milking, or milking was performed in the period before calving.
• Due to violation of the rules of storage.
• With improper cooking.
• After the expiration of the expiration period.

The most common cause of bitterness in the product is spoiled cottage cheese and the wrong method of manufacture. In such cases, other unexpected consequences are possible:

• unpleasant smell;
• sour taste;
• loss of natural color.

If it is a pity to throw out spoiled products, then before using cottage cheese, it is necessary to subject it to heat treatment, that is, to prepare dishes containing this ingredient: cheesecakes, baked puddings, buns, dumplings and other products.

In order to more or less get rid of bitterness, before using cottage cheese for cooking, you need to carry out some culinary activities:

• hold the cottage cheese for half an hour in milk, then you need to filter it;
• sometimes you can do it differently: wrap the mass in gauze (it is advisable to use not one layer) and rinse it well three times in the cooled boiled water, and after each washing procedure - wring out the mass.

Finding out the cause of the bitterness of cottage cheese, you can distinguish a quality product from a spoiled one. If you know how to check the quality of cottage cheese in the domestic environment, you can exclude the purchase of low-quality cottage cheese.

On how to check the quality of cottage cheese at home, see the following video.