Pepsin for cheese is used in the production of hard and soft dairy products. There are several types of this substance for accelerating milk fermentation. It is taken from animals, produced by a chemical method. Sometimes of plant origin, available commercially.

Types of additives

Before the advent of the chemical variant, the enzyme for cheese was used in the form of a dried chunk of the stomach of domestic animals, usually a calf. A natural product is obtained in this way. However, by making one recipe, several people get completely different tastes of the product. You can prepare a pleasant dairy product with an artificial version of the additive.

By origin, a natural enzyme is secreted, taken from the intestines of domestic animals. It happens of a plant nature, which has a low cost with its simple extraction. Homemade dairy can be prepared with several flavors. Pepsin for cheese is produced in the following forms:

• Option of selling the substance in pharmacies.
• Acidin is a drug for the treatment of gastritis, dyspepsia.
• Part of the stomach of domestic animals: calf, lamb, chicken.
• The chemical product is chymosin.
• Supplement production from plants.

Cheese additives differ in cost, dissolution time, and slight taste differences. For the first home experiments, the most affordable option purchased from pharmacists is suitable. Without an enzyme, a real solid product will not work; at best, it will be possible to cook feta cheese.

Medicinal supplement option

To find an enzyme for cheese, you will have to bypass more than one pharmacy, most types are dispensed with a doctor's prescription. In comparison with other types of pepsin in the form of a drug, it has an official confirmation of safety. These include:

• "Acidin-pepsin" is available in the form of tablets, before use in the dish you will have to crush it. There are analogues: Acipepsol, Betacid, Pepsamin. The active ingredient is hydrochloric acid. It is she who forms specific micro-clots when added to milk.
• Pepsinum comes in powder form and is much easier to dilute in milk. The composition includes powdered sugar, the mixture itself has a yellowish tint.

An artificial additive is often used in production, there is no official confirmation of the product's harmlessness. But in order to save money and time for its manufacture, the concentration in finished products is off scale. If the drug cannot be found on sale, use other options sold in grocery stores.

Natural remedy

This pepsin for cheese has a short shelf life, but there is no doubt about its origin. It is important not to exceed the prescribed dosage when added to dairy products. An excess of the enzyme gives the product an unpleasant bitter taste.

When buying, you should check the expiration dates and pay attention to the storage conditions. A natural product instantly deteriorates in the hot season during transportation.

Cheese pepsin is also produced by foreign manufacturers from Japan. It can be ordered by mail from Meito Sangyo. The additive is of vegetable origin and has a decent shelf life. A successful dish is obtained on one condition: the powder must be added to hot milk.

Recipe number 1 for home cooking

For the preparation of the product were used:

• Form for making a classic round shape with a volume of more than 10 liters.
• Press from any available materials.
• Milk in the amount of ten liters: goat, cow. They found homemade for a real taste. A kilogram of product was obtained from the volume taken.
• Natural pepsin for cheese.

The enzyme dissolves in water in a ratio of 1:10. To add to milk, use 100 grams of additive, poured into hot milk, stirring for more than 3 minutes. The resulting mixture will take on a curdled look and begin to solidify in half an hour.

At this moment, large cheese is cut into small pieces with a long knife. Next, the mixture is kept for 2 hours over low heat, stirring. The heating temperature should not be more than 40 degrees. As the mixture squeaks on the teeth, turning into jelly, the liquid is drained.

The resulting product is placed in a gauze cloth and the remaining liquid is allowed to drain. Homemade cheese with pepsin is kept hanging until ripening. A solid form is obtained by placing it under a press. Shelf life - no more than 7 days in a cold place.

Recipe number 2

A variant of cooking the product without using fire, you get cheese with pepsin. The recipe is similar: the warmed milk is mixed with the additive at a temperature of no more than 40 degrees. The resulting mixture is left covered for 7 hours.

After the formation of a jelly-like appearance and hardening of the curd mass, the liquid is drained. It is not a waste of cooking, great for adding to pancakes. The remaining mold is placed to drain in a gauze cloth. It is recommended to cut into pieces before drying. To harden, place it under a press. After that, you will need to re-dry in a cold place for about 5 days. To prevent it from drying out, wrap it in paper.

- a very tender and tasty miracle that is easy to cook with your own hands, really, really. All you need to make hard cheese at home is milk, sourdough, and simple kitchen utensils. You don't have to make the cheese hard, but eat it right away, sprinkle it with salt and your favorite herbs. If you like hard cheese, you will have to be patient and wait 5-10 days until it ripens and acquires a characteristic cheese taste, tart and spicy.

The recipe for homemade cheese made from milk is good because it assumes almost no waste production: a lot of whey remains, which makes wonderful pastries, pancakes and awesome okroshka. The cheese itself is universal: it is good for tea-coffee and behaves well in pizza and any other dishes that require its presence.

• Whole milk - 4 l
• Acidin-Pepsin (available at the pharmacy) - 6-8 tablets
• Salt - 1 tsp

Of course, homemade cheese is best made with homemade milk. Not everyone can afford such a luxury in the city. Therefore, you can buy regular milk, better with a short shelf life and a high percentage of fat content (the lower it is, the lower the cheese yield).

Acidin-pepsin is taken at the rate of 1.5-2 tablets per liter of milk (pepsin should be stored in the refrigerator). First, crush the tablets and dissolve them in half a glass of boiled water at room temperature. At this time, we heat the milk to a temperature of 35 ° C. Pour water with pepsin into the milk. Stir the milk well for two or three minutes and leave it alone.

After about an hour, the mass will begin to resemble jelly with separated whey. We take a long knife and, holding it vertically, cut the mass to the very bottom into strips about 3-4 cm wide.Then we tilt the knife at an angle and, holding it as horizontally as possible, cut the jelly mass into cubes with a side of about 3-4 cm.

Now the temperature should be slightly increased. To do this, put the container in a basin with water heated to 39 ° C. We maintain this temperature and periodically stir the mass every half hour so that the pieces do not stick together. After two to three hours of manipulation, the cheese becomes viscous, rubbery, creaking on the teeth.

We drain the whey and put it in the refrigerator for storage. Throw the cheese mass in a colander and let it drain. When the cheese has cooled to room temperature, salt it (1 tbsp. L. Without a slide for 1 kg of finished cheese) and hang in cheesecloth to ripen. In a few hours, soft homemade cheese is ready. We put it in the refrigerator and do not forget about the shelf life, which for soft cheeses is about a week. Just at this stage, you can sprinkle it with any grass-ants and eat it. I think that he will not stay in the refrigerator for more than three days.

To make hard cheese at home, you just need to put it under a press. Usually, enamel mugs lined with gauze are used for these purposes. It is clear that the size of the mug should correspond to the size of the cheese. So, in a mug of cheesecloth, cheese on cheesecloth, a lid on cheese (saucer, wooden circle), a mug in a saucepan, on a lid some kind of support (glass or bowl) on which you can install a press (most often it is a saucepan of water, so that it did not fall, it should be fixed, for example, with rolled up newspapers or towels, sticking them between the walls of a large saucepan in which the mug stands, and a smaller one filled with water).

After five hours, we disassemble the structure, take out the cheese, wash the mug and the pan from the leaked whey, wipe it dry, spread the clean gauze and send the cheese under the press again, increasing the weight (you can put a weight or bricks on the upper pan by removing the lid from it and putting it on board or plywood). The heavier the load, the drier the cheese and the longer its shelf life.

We keep the cheese under pressure for another day. This is already quite ready-to-eat, but not yet ripe cheese. To ripen, it is placed on a wooden board or glass plate lined with cotton cloth. Now the cheese should spend 1-2 weeks in the refrigerator, there it will ripen, cover with a crust and round up a little (these are holes from carbon dioxide). Turn the cheese once a day for uniform ripening.

Short description

The stomach of ruminants is divided into four sections: rumen, mesh, book, abomasum. Abomasum is the last part of the stomach of ruminants. This department produces an enzyme that is widely used to make cottage cheese and cheese. The rennet is used as a catalyst, i.e. a substance that accelerates the formation of final products.

This protein enzyme is composed of pepsin and chymosin. With the help of chymosin, the primary breakdown of milk is carried out. Further, the reaction proceeds under the action of pepsin. The milk is stratified into curd and whey.

Pepsin also helps the body metabolize proteins better. This is very important, because protein is one of the main components of a healthy human diet. The rennet gives the most delicate flavor and density to the cheese. The substance is in two ways: artificial and natural. The natural method involves obtaining a reaction accelerator from the digestive system of ruminants. An artificial method is obtained from fungi or microorganisms. The enzyme obtained by an artificial method can be used by vegetarians. Since there are many vegetarians, the artificial rennet accelerator cheese is very popular.

Curd can be made at home from pepsin and milk.

• pepsin 0.03 g
• milk 1 l (preferably homemade)
• calcium chloride 0.01 g

Cooking process:

The result is a curd-like mass that tastes good and will appeal to even small children.

The use of abomasum for making cheeses

The rennet catalyst is actively used to make cheese. These cheeses include: parmesan, cheddar, maasdam, emmental, roquefort, adyghe, feta, suluguni. Stages of making cheese from rennet catalyst:

Cheese at home

Cooking ingredients:

• milk - 2 l
• rennet - 0.01 g
• salt - half a tablespoon
• water - 15 ml

Cooking steps:

1. Heat fat homemade milk to 35 degrees.
2. Add 0.01 g of pepsin to 15 ml of boiled water.
3. Add the solution to the milk and stir.
4. Insist for 20-30 minutes.
5. We cut the resulting mass into pieces so that the whey flows out.
6. Drain off the whey after 15 minutes.
7. We put it under the press. Let stand in gauze for 2 hours.
8. Ready cheese can be salted to taste.

Where to buy?

You can buy the rennet enzyme in online cheese stores or pharmacies. In the latter case, difficulties can arise, since pharmacies sell the enzyme by prescription. Abomasum is sold as a solution or powder, whichever is easier for you to use.

Abomasum substitutes

There are several substances that can replace rennet: milase and maxilact - fermentation products of milk mushrooms; chymosin obtained by fermentation of molds. Also for the manufacture of cheeses and cottage cheese, fig juice, dried green grapes, leavening herbs, a decoction of nettle paste with salt, ready-made sourdoughs are used.
Recommended video recipe:

A novice cheese maker will sooner or later have to deal with such an ingredient as pepsin.

Unless, of course, you want to stop at the simplest cheeses like or.

The most popular pepsin - you can find it in our online store in packs of 10 and 20 g.

It is a rennet, which is produced by the glands of the fourth stomach of ruminants, which is called "rennet".

The natural compound is used as a catalyst in the production of cheese.

The main constituents of rennet are pepsin (90%) and chymosin (10%), which breaks down milk components into insoluble protein casein, which is already processed with pepsin.

As a result, milk is divided into two fractions - curd protein mass, which has already been "broken down" into amino acids, which are easily digested by the body, and whey.

That is, the main function of pepsin is its ability to help us absorb protein.

With purchased beef pepsin, you will get the most delicate homemade cheese, and the process of obtaining a curd itself will take a little more than half an hour. How do you prepare it?

Let's start with milk. The use of pepsin expands the range of milk raw materials.

You can buy milk with varying degrees of fat content and even dry milk (after some experience of cheese making).

And then, according to proven recipes, prepare various soft cheeses, pickled varieties, feta cheese, cottage cheese, adding spices, herbs, nuts, etc. to them.

With beef pepsin, the cheese turns out to be soft, homogeneous, without lumps and hard grains, and also more piquant in taste.

The cooking principle is as follows:

• dissolve pepsin in water at room temperature, pour into milk heated to 35 degrees
• after 30-40 minutes a cheese curd forms
• it can be brought to readiness in a water bath at a temperature of about 40 degrees
• after obtaining the cottage cheese of the desired consistency, filter the mass from the whey
• squeeze out under pressure
• add additional ingredients if desired and leave to ripen

And now a detailed recipe for cheese with pepsin.

From the products you will need milk, pepsin at the rate of 2.7 g per 100 liters of milk and salt (a heaped tablespoon for 3 liters of milk).

In order to correctly measure the amount of pepsin, use accurate. They are small in size and very comfortable.

1. Heat milk to 35-38 degrees and salt it.

2. Dilute the rennet in 30 ml of milk and add it to the rest of the milk, stir for 2-3 minutes and leave for 30-40 minutes.

During this time, a whole milk-curd curd clot will begin to form at the bottom of the pan, and whey will separate from above. On the cheese site you can read in detail about that. The finished curd should break without leaving flakes. You can check the readiness by putting a saucer on it - it should hold, and not sink.

Cut the cheese with beef pepsin into cubes, then dip it in hot water (80-90 degrees). Stir with a wooden spatula until melted.

Pour the hot curd into or simply into plastic containers with lids for cooling.

Prepare a saline solution with 200 g of salt per liter of water. Lower the cheese heads and let sit in the brine for 12 hours.

Rinse the finished cheese from salt, and it is ready to eat.

Today, an increasing number of people are thinking about healthy, and most importantly, natural food. I recall the recipes of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers, which can firmly establish themselves in the cookbook of a modern hostess. These recipes are also good because they can be modernized and replaced with some ingredients. Our article will tell you how to make homemade milk cheese with pepsin.

The subtleties of cooking

Pepsin is an enzyme of gastric juice, under the influence of which milk is curdled. There are a huge number of drugs with this enzyme, but it is best to purchase the pharmacy "Acidin-pepsin", as it is guaranteed safe for the human body. The disadvantages include low solubility of tablets and milk curdling time (more than two hours).

All pepsin cheese recipes have one thing in common - pepsin, when milk is heated, curls milk protein into a cheese ball. Depending on the choice of the final product, cheese can be hard, semi-hard, soft, brine and processed. The choice of a recipe depends on taste preferences: someone loves Cheddar, Dorblu or Camembert, and someone loves Mozzarella.

However, getting a natural product at home is quite simple, although there are several nuances here.

1. Milk should be fresh and homemade.The main thing in such milk is that it is not normalized and, accordingly, the fat content is higher than what is sold in stores. An important factor will be the origin of milk: cow or goat. The former is versatile and suitable for cooking both hard and soft cheese. Hard cheeses are not made from goat's milk, since they are inferior in quality.
2. Edible table salt without additives... Iodized salt does not change the taste of cheese for the better, so it is advisable not to use it.
3. Pickle for cheese like Suluguni or Mozzarella.It is worth remembering that the salinity of the cheese depends on how much time it spent in the brine. If you want saltier - keep it longer and vice versa.
4. All kinds of seasonings are sprinkled on the finished productand only in processed cheeses additives are added to the cheese lump.

Recipes

The recipe is simple and includes only three components: milk, acidin-pepsin and salt. The drug is sold in tablets, so it must be crushed before use. Pepsin consumption is approximately the same - 1.5-2 tablets per 1 liter of milk. Below are two basic recipes for adding acidin-pepsin.

Cooking cheese using heat

To make cheese you will need:

• a form for cheese (if there is no special one, then a colander will do);
• gauze, if there is no special form;
• goat or cow milk, preferably homemade;
• acidinpepsin;
• salt.

Add the crushed tablets to a small amount of warm boiled water, stir thoroughly. Acidin-pepsin is poorly soluble and may take 10 to 15 minutes. The resulting solution is added to hot (no more than 40 degrees) milk, stirring constantly for five minutes. After about forty minutes, the mixture will begin to curd. The future cheese must be cut into small pieces with a long knife, first vertically, in strips 3-4 centimeters wide, then at an angle as close as possible to 90 degrees, horizontally.

This is necessary in order for the cheese ball to mature evenly. Then, for about 2 hours, the mixture is heated over low heat, stirring. The heating temperature should not exceed 40 degrees, otherwise the cheese lump will disperse into flakes. As soon as the mixture becomes viscous and reaches for the spoon like a rubber one, you need to salt it, place it in a mold or colander, covered with gauze, and let the whey drain. The serum can be refrigerated for later use.

Option without heating

The recipe is similar to the previous one: a pepsin solution is added to warm milk. The resulting mixture is covered with a lid, placed in a warm place for about six to seven hours. After the formation of a dense cheese lump, it is placed in a mold for decanting the whey.

The calculation of the product yield is simple: from one liter of milk, approximately 100 grams of cheese is obtained. Depending on the fat content of the milk, there may be a little more or a little less cheese. The animal fat content of a product also depends on milk. Salt is added to taste (some people like a saltier product, while others like slightly salted cheese.

According to these two recipes, the product turns out to be soft; it is not recommended to store it for more than five days. For hard cheese you need a press, it can be special or made from scrap materials. The hardness of the cheese depends on the severity of the press. The cheese should spend about a day and a half under the press, periodically it must be turned over and wiped dry.

The resulting product should ripen, cover with a crust. To do this, he is placed on a plate lined with cotton cloth in the refrigerator for one or two weeks. They turn it over every day. It's okay if the cheese is rounded a little, because holes are formed in it due to carbon dioxide. Such a product is stored for about two months.

You will learn more about how to make cheese from milk with pepsin at home in the following video.