A delicious sandwich with a slice of Dutch cheese, a cup of coffee or tea is the best breakfast for many lovers of this product. When buying cheese in a store, not everyone thinks about how many preservatives and various chemical additives there are. Try home-made Dutch cheese and you will be sure of its naturalness and taste.
Description and useful properties
Dutch cheese is one of the most popular cheeses, it is about 200 years old.
According to one of the versions, it is believed that Peter the Great brought Dutch cheese-makers to Russia, who were the first to master the art of cheese-making. Then Russian landowners also began to build cheese dairies in order to make cheese for themselves and for sale. Thus, domestic cheeses began to appear in markets and grocery stores, while the name remained European.
Dutch cheese is 45 and 50% fat. Its consistency is dense, but very elastic. A quality product has a pattern consisting of small eyes, which are evenly distributed over the surface of the cheese. The taste of Dutch cheese is milky, with a subtle sourness. The color can vary from yellow to white.
- proteins - 28 gr.
- fat - 29 gr.
- water - 40 mg.
- calorie content - 350-360 kcal.
The benefit of cheese is the presence of a large amount of calcium and phosphorus. When consumed in small amounts daily, cheese helps to strengthen bones and improve the condition of muscle tissue. For cheese lovers, the absorption of carbohydrates is improved and blood sugar levels are regulated. The presence of potassium in cheese has a beneficial effect on the work of the cardiovascular system. This dairy product contains the amount of sodium that a person needs, thanks to which the water balance in the body is regulated.
Types of Dutch cheese
Dutch cheese comes in three different forms with slight differences in flavor and properties.
1.: has a pleasant aroma, a slight sourness is complemented by a slight pungency. The eyes when cut are round or elongated. The consistency of the cheese is plastic, but it can break when bent. The color is white or light yellow. The fat content is 50%.
2.: has the shape of a rectangular bar, with rounded edges, has a delicate taste. Fat content 45%, but in comparison with round it has a higher moisture content.
3.: has the shape of a ball about 8-10 cm in diameter and weighs 500 grams. In terms of performance, it is equivalent to round cheese. It is the youngest in terms of maturation (35 - 40 days).
Classic Dutch Cheese Recipe
Cooking Dutch cheese at home is now available to everyone. The key is desire, the right ingredients and the right equipment. Ingredients such as mesophilic starter culture, calcium chloride solution, and rennet are available from specialized cheese shops or online stores.
Ingredients:
- 10 liters of milk;
- 1/4 teaspoon mesophilic starter culture;
- 1, 2 ml of 10% calcium chloride solution;
- 2.4 ml of liquid rennet;
- 3 liters of clean water, with a temperature of 42 degrees.
Equipment:
- a pan with a volume of 10 liters;
- drainage bag;
- mold for pressing cheese;
- cheese press.
How to prepare Dutch cheese step by step:
1. Heat the milk to 70 degrees (pasteurization process), then cool it down to 32 degrees.
2. Add starter culture, leave for 2-3 minutes, then stir slowly.
3. Collect 50 ml of warm water in 2 containers: add a solution of calcium chloride (1/4 tsp) to one, and rennet to the other, add all this to a saucepan with resin, stir. The milk will turn into a curd.
4. Leave the curd to ripen at room temperature for 20-30 minutes. Cover the pot with a lid.
5. After 30 minutes it is necessary to check the clot for a “clean break”. To do this, make a shallow incision with a knife, lift part of the clot and if the edges are even and the incision is filled with serum, then you can proceed to the next step, if not, then wait another 15 minutes.
6. Cut the curd into 8-10 mm cubes.
7. Knead the curd for about 20 minutes until it is firm and firm.
8. Next, drain about 3 liters of whey from the pan. This is necessary to reduce the acidity of the future cheese. Instead of whey, pour in the same amount of water with a temperature of 42 degrees, knead for another 20-25 minutes.
9. Place the drain bag in the mold and scoop up the curd. Fill the mold by tamping the grain well with your hands. Dutch cheese should be firm and almost free of holes. When you have formed the cheese head, close the lid and let the curd self-press for 15 minutes under a layer of whey on each side.
10. Turn the cheese, increasing the weight of the press every 30 minutes. Place the cheese under a press and turn over until all the whey is gone.
11. After pressing the cheese, weigh and salt. From 10 liters of milk, you should get a head of cheese weighing one kilogram.
12. To prepare four liters of 20% brine, it is necessary to dissolve one kilogram of salt, 4 grams of dry calcium chloride in boiled water, add 2.5 ml of 9% vinegar.
The residence time in the brine is calculated according to this principle: 3 hours for every 500 grams of cheese weight. Based on this, our cheese weighing one kilogram will be salted in 6 hours. After 3 hours, turn the cheese over to the other side.
13. Then the cheese should be dried at a temperature of 15-20 degrees for 3-4 days.
14. Cover the dried cheese with wax, latex or shrink-wrap. The maturation time of Dutch cheese is 60 days, at a temperature of 10-15 degrees. Ripe cheese is stored for 4 to 6 months, at a temperature of 5-7 degrees.
Important! You cannot cook cheese from store-bought packaged milk. In industrial production, milk pasteurization occurs at high temperatures, because of this, the formation of a curd will not occur. Homemade milk from yesterday's milking is suitable for cheese making.
Simple Dutch cheese recipe
This cheese recipe is easier to prepare, but it also makes for real and delicious Dutch cheese.
Ingredients:
- cottage cheese - 1 kg.;
- chicken egg - 1 piece;
- milk - 1 liter;
- butter - 180 gr.;
- salt - 1 teaspoon.
Step by step cooking:
1. Pour milk into a saucepan, add salt to it, bring to a boil.
2. As soon as the milk boils, add the curd, cook with continuous stirring until the whey comes out.
3. Strain the curd with a gauze bag. Suspend the mass and leave until the whey stops dripping. This can take about one hour.
4. In a separate saucepan, mash and mix egg and butter until smooth.
5. Add the resulting mixture to the curd and put in a water bath. Stir the mixture until you get a homogeneous and viscous mass.
6. Cool, give the mass the desired shape. The cheese can be eaten after a few hours, keep in the refrigerator.
Dutch cheese recipes
While Dutch cheese is a good stand-alone snack, it can be used as an ingredient in salads, appetizers and hot meals.
Dutch cheese salad
Ingredients:
- 100 g Dutch cheese;
- 2 unsweetened apples;
- 100 g ham;
- 1 pickled cucumber;
- 100 g mayonnaise;
- salt, pepper to taste;
- green onions, dill.
Step by step cooking:
1. Wash the apples, peel and core, cut into thin strips.
2. Cut the cheese, ham and cucumber into strips, add finely chopped greens.
3. Mix with mayonnaise, add salt, pepper and let it brew for 30 minutes.
Chicken baked with cheese
Ingredients:
- potatoes - 500 gr.;
- chicken drumstick - 500 gr.;
- cream - 500 ml;
- Dutch cheese - 300 gr.;
- vegetable oil - 2-3 tablespoons.
Step by step cooking:
1. Wash the chicken drumstick, dry it, fry in vegetable oil until half cooked.
2. Peel the potatoes, wash and cut into thin slices.
4. Grate the cheese.
5. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
6. Grease a baking sheet with vegetable oil, put a layer of chopped potatoes on it, put a drumstick on top, cover with cream, sprinkle with grated cheese, put a layer of potatoes on the cheese again, pour cream and sprinkle with cheese.
7. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes.
Tomatoes stuffed with cheese and minced meat
Ingredients:
- large tomatoes - 4 pcs.;
- Dutch cheese - 125 gr.;
- minced pork and beef - 200 gr.;
- rice - 50 gr.;
- egg - 1 pc.;
- parsley - 1 tbsp. the spoon;
- broth - 0.5 liters;
- cream - 2 tbsp. spoons;
- salt to taste;
- black pepper to taste.
Step by step cooking:
1. Rinse the rice well, boil in salted water, and drain into a colander.
2. Wash the tomatoes, cut the stalks, cut off the top and carefully remove the pulp with a teaspoon. Chop the tomato pulp.
3. Cut the cheese into small cubes.
4. Finely chop the parsley.
5. Add rice, egg, cheese, salt, pepper, herbs to the minced meat and mix everything. Stuff the tomatoes with this mass.
6. Add the broth to the chopped tomato pulp and pour into a deep baking dish.
7. Place the stuffed tomatoes in a dish.
8. Preheat the oven to 160-170 degrees. Bake the tomatoes for 30-35 minutes.
Serve the stuffed tomatoes warm with cream and herbs.
