The cheese I make closely resembles a popular industrial cheese called ‘Yantar.’ For this cheese, it’s better to use crumbly cottage cheese rather than the layered kind. I put the cottage cheese in an aluminum pot with butter or margarine. As soon as the cottage cheese starts to melt, I reduce the heat to medium and stir more often. The finished cheese should become a yellowish, smooth mass with no curds.
Add salt or sugar to taste at the very end of heating. Scoop the finished cheese into dry, sterilized jars and seal them with boiled lids.
To make 1 kg of cheese, you’ll need 8.5 cups of low-fat cottage cheese, 2.5 tablespoons of butter, 2 teaspoons of baking soda, and 3 teaspoons of fine salt. Pass the cottage cheese through a meat grinder and place it in a metal pot. Evenly sprinkle 1 teaspoon of baking soda over the surface of the cottage cheese and slowly heat it while stirring constantly with a wooden spatula. If you notice whey forming on the sides of the pot, remove the pot from the heat, cover it, and let it sit for 10–15 minutes; then drain the whey and continue heating. If you can’t remove all the whey, add another teaspoon of baking soda to the cheese mixture and heat it again.
Once the cheese mixture melts and thickens slightly, add the melted butter. About 15–20 minutes before the end of cooking, add the salt.
When the cheese mixture is smooth and stretchy, remove it from the heat. Immediately transfer it to a clean, greased container and place it in a cool spot. Before removing the cooled cheese from the container, briefly set the container in hot water.
This method doesn’t require any special skills; it should turn out well the first time and become one of your favorite homemade dishes. If you have a small home farm, you likely already have the basic ingredients. For this version you’ll need 3 liters of milk, 1 liter of sour cream — a thicker, tangier Eastern European–style sour cream — 5 eggs, and 1 tablespoon each of salt and sugar. Also prepare cutting boards and a weight stone.
Bring the milk to a boil. While it heats, whip the sour cream with the eggs until smooth. Once the milk is boiling, add the salt and sugar, then slowly pour the sour cream-and-egg mixture into the milk in a thin stream. Heat on low, stirring, until it curdles. When a thick curd forms in the pot, remove it from the heat and immediately strain the curds through a colander lined with two layers of cheesecloth.
After some of the whey drains, tie the cheesecloth, spread the ends out, place the bundle between two clean cutting boards, and weigh it down with a stone. Once all the whey has been removed, the cheese is ready. It’s incredibly delicious. Use the whey to make pancakes. The cheese will keep for 48–72 hours.
