How to choose the right Russian cheese. Which cheese is best? Selection rules. The main criteria for the quality of cheese

Every modern housewife should know at least a little about cheese. It is clear that it is impossible to know all 2000 varieties of this product if you are not the chef of a French restaurant, but it will not hurt to have at least a superficial understanding of cheeses. We are sometimes frivolous about the choice of cheese for the preparation of various dishes, and if Italians knew that we use hard cheeses in pizza, many of them would not approve of our choice. Maybe it's not so important which cheese to buy for which dish, it would be satisfying and tasty, and the rest is trifles. But gourmets think differently!

How to choose cheese for different dishes?

Pizza. Residents of Mediterranean countries are sure that without mozzarella, pizza turns into an ordinary open pie. The fact is that this cheese melts and stretches well, but it does not spread, and if you accidentally overexpose it in the oven, it remains soft and tender. Melted mozzarella gives a golden brown crust that does not harden or become rubbery when cooled.

Paste. Parmesan is most suitable for pasta, which has a bright aroma and piquant taste with nutty-fruity notes. Due to the fact that it is very hard and dense, it can be cut into thin shavings, like paper, and the dish will look very impressive.

Lasagna. Delicious lasagna is made with parmesan cheese and tender whey ricotta. For this dish, you should take fresh ricotta with a creamy sweetish taste, since the aged cheese becomes hard and takes on harsh shades.

Greek salad. Without feta, familiar to mankind since ancient times, it is difficult to imagine a "correct" Greek salad, like any other vegetable appetizer. Brackish feta has a soft and at the same time dense structure, so the cheese cubes retain their shape even in multi-layered dishes.

Fondue. This dish is prepared with fatty Swiss Gruyere cheese, which melts perfectly, and notes of fruits and nuts will give any products used in fondue a pleasant, refined taste. Experts advise adding the famous Emmental cheese to Gruyere, which will enrich the fondue with new flavors.

Rules for combining cheese with products

Choosing cheese for recipes is a real art that anyone can learn. The most important thing is to learn a few simple principles.

Soft creamy cheeses with a delicate texture (brie, Camembert, Smolensky) are served with toast, bread and flat cakes, wine and fruits, and the most delicious is the combination of cheese with apples, pears, peaches and grapes.

Semi-hard cheeses (Edam, Gouda, Russian, Poshekhonsky, Dutch, Kostroma), smooth and buttery, melt well, so they are often used for baking. These varieties go well with snacks, desserts and fruits.

Goat's milk cheeses (President Rondele, chevre, suagnon) are good in vegetable, mushroom and meat salads, in hot dishes and soups. They are often used for grilled dishes.

Blue cheeses with mold (Roquefort, Donablou, Gorgonzola) sound amazing in salads, combined with crackers, fruits, desserts and expensive wine.

Hard cheeses (emmental, parmesan, cheddar) are used for making sandwiches, casseroles, pizza, julienne, fondue.

Processed cheeses are suitable for soups, sandwiches, sauces, salads and snacks.

You should not combine cheeses with citrus fruits, the sharp taste of which neutralizes the rich cheese bouquet. Dried fruits and nuts perfectly emphasize the taste of cheese, and experienced gourmets recommend dripping a little honey on cheeses with blue mold to enhance the taste. If we talk about the choice of wines, then fresh cheeses are in harmony with young wines, bright spicy varieties such as Roquefort are served with tart wines and port, and soft fatty cheeses are good with sparkling wines and champagne. French chef Jean Anthelme Brija-Savarin said: "A dinner that does not end with delicious cheese is like a beautiful woman with one eye." Savoring cheese is synonymous with enjoying life, so put cheese on your table every day!

There are many tips on how to distinguish quality cheese from fake cheese on the Internet. But there is little sense from these tips. There are a lot of types and varieties of cheese, so it is impossible to determine the quality of cheese by how a slice of cheese bends, breaks or behaves when heated. Modern counterfeit - these are not only super-cheap cheeses, but also premium foreign brands with a high price. You can check the presence of vegetable fats in them only with a special device - a luminoscope. Ordinary buyers can only rely on their knowledge of what the "correct" cheese is, how it differs from the "cheese product". Let's figure it out.

Cheese color and appearance

Too saturated the yellow color of the cheese prepares what is in the composition dye... It is possible that the dye used by the manufacturer is natural and will not harm you. But if you are a principled opponent of such additives - do not buy too "bright" cheese.

Inhomogeneous color cheese may indicate that the cheese is unripe. If there are deposits and cracks on the crust, it is possible that the cheese was stored incorrectly or the technical conditions of production were violated. If you notice in the package moisture(does not apply to rossol cheeses), if the cheese is sticky, vegetable fats are guaranteed to be used in its production, and this may not always be indicated on the package. Holes in the cheese. If you like cheeses like Mazdam - with large holes and a sweetish taste, pay attention to the size and shape of the cheese eyes. Natural cheese has a regular shape with smooth edges. Large eyes in the middle of the cheese wheel and small ones at the edges are a sign of a fake.

Attention to Packaging!

When choosing cheese on a store shelf, it is best to give preference to

factory packaging, where its exact composition, shelf life and shelf life are spelled out (you can check the ripening time), there is information about the manufacturer. On prepackaged pieces of cheese, which are in the dairy section of the supermarket, the composition, as a rule, is not written. To find out, you will have to contact the store manager and request a product certificate. And the shelf life of cheese packaged in a store (or even more so at a fair or on the market) is problematic to determine if the date of packing is not specified. In addition, there is a possibility that stale cheese could be additionally processed or washed before packaging the cheese.

What should be on the package?

• Product name (cheese or cheese product)
• The value of the mass fraction of fat in percent, grade (if any),
• Manufacturer's name and location,
• Manufacturer's trademark (if any),
• The value of the net weight or volume of the product,
• Production dates (day, month),
• The composition of the product

What should be written on the packaging is regulated by GOST R 51074-2003 “Food products. Information for the consumer. General requirements".

Cheese and cheese product - what's the difference?

Real natural cheese is obtained by curdling milk and further processing the resulting curd. Cheese may contain only milk, rennet or its artificial analogs, fermented milk culture, salt, calcium chloride to improve curdling. Cheese contains proteins (15-27%), fats (20-32%, in dry matter - up to 55%), minerals, vitamins A and B. Cheese is far from a dietary product, the energy value of 100 g of cheese is up to 400 kcal ... Cheese is a source of essential amino acids, including the most deficient ones - tryptophan, lysine and methionine. As you know, those proteins that are similar in amino acid content to proteins of human tissues and organs are most useful for the body. And cheese protein meets these requirements. Moreover, it has the ability to enrich the amino acid composition of proteins in other foods. The cheese also contains calcium in a well-assimilable form.

Cheese product made using cheese technology, but instead of cream (milk fat), it uses vegetable fat / protein. And vegetable fat in the composition can be more than 50%. In some types of cheese product, milk fat is not used at all - it is completely replaced with vegetable fat. The benefits of a cheese product are determined by the quality of the plant materials. After all, vegetable fat can contain useful substances. But often the cheapest vegetable raw materials are used, and even palm oil is added to the cheese product - a very cheap raw material that is used in order to reduce the cost of production and increase its shelf life.

There is no more than 20% of real milk in a cheese product, and the rest is non-dairy fat and protein. As a rule, manufacturers of such products use cheap coconut or palm oil in their production. It would seem that it's okay, because vegetable oils are good for health. Depends on what. In the case of using palm, rapeseed and coconut oils containing saturated fats, they are even dangerous to the human body. These oils are converted into trans-isomeric or transgenic fats and subsequently cause cardiovascular diseases, cholecystitis, obesity, atherosclerosis, vascular thrombosis, etc.

Technical conditions allow replacing milk fat with vegetable analogues with a percentage of 20, 50 and even 100, but everything must be declared on the label.

Simple calculations: what makes up the price of cheese?

1 kg of cheese is made from 10 liters of milk. The average price of 1 liter of milk is 24 rubles. This means that 1 kg of cheese should cost at least 240 rubles - this is a "clean" price. We add to it the cost of manufacturing, the cost of packaging, transportation, and so on. Most likely, natural cheese, and not a cheese product, cannot cost less than 400 rubles. Aged cheeses that take longer to produce and mature are more expensive.

Nutritionist Angelica Duval comments:

"For some diseases, doctors do not recommend cheese. So, people who have calcium stones in their kidneys should not eat it. You should not combine cheeses with animal fats. This can provoke diseases of the stomach, kidneys, urinary system. Do not eat it on an empty stomach. , especially with high acidity! "

What happens?

Cheese may contain flavorings, such as baked milk, if the product is named accordingly.

Legal flavors are usually used, but remember that the fewer flavors, the better.

Technology eliminates the critical ripening process, during which flavoring substances accumulate. The most aromatic and delicious cheeses are dry and hard, ripening for a long time.

How to choose?

Important!

For reference:

Cheese is a fatty product, therefore, they need to be included in the diet of a healthy adult in moderation - about 30-50 grams, and even less for children. It is better to choose cheese with a fat content of up to 45% (in fact, its fat content is much lower, see the label for the real nutritional value).

Least of all salt is found in Russian cheese. More salty can be Dutch, Soviet, Swiss, Kostroma, Uglich.

TOP-5. The most popular cheeses

MOZZARELLA

For the production of mozzarella, milk is fermented, then whey is removed from there, and the result is immersed in warm water. It is here that the resulting mass becomes elastic, and after a while it breaks up into fibers, which, in turn, getting into hot water, curl into their favorite balls. This delicate, white, fluffy snowball-like delicacy is not stored for a long time.

Remember: a real quality product is sold only in whey or brine.

FETA

Translated from Greek "feta" means "piece". For many centuries, feta has been prepared in a large piece: the container into which sheep or goat milk was poured was taken out in the sun - so that it warms up to about 35 degrees. As soon as they noticed that the milk was curdling, the whey was immediately drained, and the remaining mass was carefully transferred to linen bags. Then they were hung in reed baskets in the shade. This went on for several days. Then a large piece of cottage cheese was cut into several bars. The real color of Feta cheese is snow-white, and the taste is slightly salty. This delicacy has a very large mass fraction of fat - from 30 to 60%, and it is stored only in brine.

CAMEMBERT

A soft cream cheese made from raw cow's milk in northwestern France. Its color can be white or pale cream. Mass fraction of fat should not be less than 45%, taste - spicy, piquant. Outside, Camembert is covered with a white mold crust. Camembert ripens within 21 days. Then it is packed in wooden round boxes. The favorite cheese of the Emperor Napoleon goes well with red wine and white, crispy bread.

From the abundance of varieties of cheese on the shelves of our shops, eyes run up. How to choose high-quality hard cheese from this variety, because manufacturers, trying to reduce the price of the product, use harmful food additives and even milk substitutes in its manufacture? We looked for the answer to this question in our article.

What is cheese made of?

Quality hard cheese should be made from:

• milk. It determines the fat content of the product: the more milk, the higher the calorie content of the cheese head. Of course, someone may object: milk can harm health, we already wrote about this in the article "Is it harmful for men to drink milk?" ... But in general, the benefits of this natural product are still greater than harm;

• leaven. Its role is played by lactic or propionic acid bacteria curdling milk;

• rennet element. Previously, it used an animal-derived enzyme extracted from calf stomachs. Nowadays, manufacturers are increasingly replacing rennet with synthetic analogs.

Cheese can be disappointing. It can be boring, it can be primitive, it can be overly sophisticated. However, cheese is still milk's leap into immortality. Clifton Fadiman, American writer

Cheese made from the above elements will have a white color, a bland taste and a short shelf life - a maximum of a month at a low temperature. To give the cheese an appetizing yellowish tint and a pleasant aftertaste, as well as prolong life, add to it:

• table salt. It affects taste and serves as a natural preservative;

• annatto extract. Dye of vegetable origin, indicated on the packaging as E 160b. It is considered safe for humans, although in some cases it can cause an allergic reaction;

• beta carotene. Natural color that gives the cheese an orange hue. It is marked with the alphanumeric code E 160a and is absolutely non-toxic;

• calcium chloride (calcium chloride). A hardener that can also increase the volume of the product. E 509 is designated and does not pose a danger if the permissible dose is not exceeded. Otherwise, it irritates the intestines;

• potassium nitrate (potassium nitrate, E 252). A preservative that seems to be related to non-toxic substances, however, its use in baby food is prohibited. Some scientists claim that this supplement is carcinogenic and can cause cancer and nervous disorders.

How cheese is counterfeited

However, if you strictly follow the standards, the output is a rather expensive product - at least 350 rubles / kg, and ripened cheeses - 500-1000 rubles. To make it cheaper, manufacturers resort to various tricks that have a positive effect on cost, but negatively on quality.

If a country does not have at least fifty varieties of cheese and good wine, it means that the country has reached the end. Salvador Dali, Spanish painter

The most common "trick" to reduce the cost is replacing milk with palm oil. Despite the prevailing prejudice against this product, this vegetable fat can be harmless if the established consumption rates are not exceeded and edible oils are used.

Unfortunately, in the production of cheeses in Russia, cheaper technical palm oil is often used or the limits of its use are not observed. As a result, we get an ersatz product that negatively affects the cardiovascular system. Such a surrogate should be called a cheese product, but unscrupulous manufacturers often "forget" to indicate this on the packaging. Therefore, it is better not to trust the labels, but to learn how to distinguish hard cheese from a fake one yourself.

For more on how to counterfeit cheese, see here:

How to distinguish a quality product?

There are five rules for recognizing quality cheese:

• a product made from vegetable fats is more elastic, you can easily make a ball from it, like from plasticine, but not from real cheese made from milk;

• real hard cheese does not "sweat" - droplets of "moisture" appearing on a slice removed from the refrigerator mean that it contains vegetable fats;

• the presence of a whitish coating indicates spoilage of the cheese, looseness - about freezing, the presence of bubbles under the crust - an excess of bacteria due to improper storage;

• the color of the cheese should be uniform, but not bright, and the holes are evenly distributed. By the way, the more correct the shape of these holes, the more “noble” the product;

• An overabundance of chemical additives that retain water can be determined by dropping iodine on hard cheese. A blue spot that appears will mean that you are “lucky” to buy a poor quality product.

Don't be fooled and keep the food on your table always fresh and of high quality.

Take it for yourself, tell your friends!

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How to choose cheese and which cheese is the best- French, Italian, or maybe our Russian? What are the tips on the label about the quality of the cheese? Which cheese is right for vegetarians?

Love for cheese goes beyond all boundaries: at the last, on World Cheese Awards tried already 2629 types of cheese - almost more than the number of languages ​​in the world (cheese master class from a French chef Guillaume Joly - "How to develop taste without opening your eyes").

Like languages, cheeses are usually divided into families. According to the method of production, they are

• rennet(milk curdles under the influence of rennet),
• fermented milk(lactic acid sourdough is used)
• and fused.

Usually cheese is made from cow's, sheep's and goat's milk or mixtures thereof. For example, an Italian variety Testun al barolo made from cow and sheep. In exotic countries, you can find cheeses made from buffalo, horse or camel milk. In our stores, the most hard and semi-hard cheeses made from cow's milk: "Russian", "Kostromskoy", "Dutch", "Swiss", "Poshekhonsky", "Uglich", "Edam", "Gouda", Oltermanni, Emmental, Maasdam, Radamer.

Hard ripen from 2 months to several years, soft - 2-6 weeks. The older the cheese, the more expensive it is and the more "smelly" it is.

HOW TO CHOOSE CHEESE: ICONS

The quality of the cheeses is protected by origin control. In English speaking countries, this is a mark PDO or PGI... In France - AOC, in Italy, Spain - DOC, DOP... The badge guarantees that the cheese is produced in a strictly defined area according to strictly defined rules. The quality of our cheeses is, in theory, guaranteed by the inscription "Complies with the technical regulations for milk and dairy products No. 88-FZ" .

CHEESE CRUD

Hard cheeses should be bought with a crust, which should be flat, without white spots or cracks. An overcooked piece of cheese is usually darker and drier near the crust. The crust should not be "sweaty" (produce fat) and lag behind the cheese. Soft and young cheeses do not have a crust, so here, when choosing, you need to focus on the smell and appearance. No cheese can smell like yeast, rot, bitterness, lactic acid. And none can taste like detergents, chemicals, greasy, sour. The edges of the cheese should not be crumbly or cracked, except in rare, expensive, long-aged varieties. These are rare in our stores.

CHEESE COLORING

Summer cheeses are more yellow than winter, because of carotene, which is abundant in fresh grass. But the color can be artificial: the cheeses are painted with beta-carotene, saffron or annatto (extracted from the seeds of the tropical plant Bixa orellana). The more yellow it is, the more attractive it seems to the buyer. And this does not affect the taste in any way. This cheese should not be too bright, striped or blotchy. If the cheese is unevenly colored, it means that it is not ripe - this is a violation of technology. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with "pale" cheese - it is simply not dyed.

EYES AND TRACKS

Hard and semi-hard varieties should have holes ("eyes" in cheesemaker's jargon). Exception - "Cheddar" and "Parmesan"... If the pattern is uneven, with large eyes in the middle and small ones at the rind, then the cheese is made from low quality milk. Please note that for imported ones, the diameter of the eye must be at least 5 mm, and according to the domestic GOST, small eyes of an irregular and slit shape are permissible. When the eyes are connected in tracks, this is also a sign of poor quality.

LOCATION

Cheese continues to ripen and breathe both on the counter and in your refrigerator. They easily give off their own smell and absorb strangers. Therefore, if you put cheese next to meat or other food with a strong smell, the cheese will change the smell and taste. It is best to keep it in the refrigerator next to dairy products or uncut vegetables. Cheese in the store should not lie close to sausage, meat or fish.

MORE THAN MEAT

Cheese is almost no different from meat. In 100 g of cheese, as in meat, up to 60% fat, and even more protein (up to 33 g) than in meat and fish, so it gives a stable feeling of satiety. It also contains a lot of saturated fat and salt. 100 g of cheese can hold up to 100 mg of cholesterol. If you want to lose weight, avoid processed cheeses and long ripening - they contain up to 400 kcal per 100 g. Less fatty - young and pickled cheeses (mozzarella, feta, feta cheese, suluguni, Ossetian, Adyghe)... Unsalted species are ideal for the dieter. The most fat (63.94%) and the least protein (29.9%) are found in cream (cream-based) varieties. Least of all - in fermented milk (fat 12.66%, protein 76.90%). By the way, European milk contains more fat than domestic milk, so Swiss cheese made in Russia is less fatty than "native" one.

WHAT CHEESE ARE SUITABLE FOR VEGETARIANS?

Most cheeses are fermented using rennet from the stomachs of calves. For lacto-vegetarians, cheese based on a non-animal enzyme is suitable. Packaging tips: "Microbiological rennet", "mesophilic and thermophilic lactic acid organisms", "enzymes of microbial origin"... Although cheeses based on animal enzymes are always more expensive than "laboratory" cheeses, the taste of the difference between Italian regular and vegetarian mozzarella is almost imperceptible.