No. 3648 — Homemade White Cheese from Tvorog and Sour Cream

Set freshly drawn whole milk in pots or crocks. After several days in a warm place it becomes naturally sour and the whey begins to separate.

The author says to stir the sour cream back into the milk, or preferably leave the surface undisturbed, and place the pots in a gently warmed oven, around 35–40 degrees Réaumur or in residual heat after baking bread.

Overheating makes the curds reddish, crumbly and less palatable according to the source. Let the formed curds cool completely in their original vessels.

Transfer to a pointed bag of coarse linen and hang from a ceiling in a cool place for twelve hours, with a clean trough below to collect whey.

Tie the bag, place on a sloping board, lay another board and a stone on top, starting with light weight and increasing it. Press about twelve hours more.

When whey has drained, remove the tvorog and salt lightly if desired. Add caraway if liked, but avoid overworking the curds if a layered texture is wanted.

Pack into small triangular bags, tie and press under boards and stones for several more hours.

For especially layered cheese, the author omits salt until after removing from the small bags. She then salts the surfaces or wraps the cheeses in cloth soaked in salt water for 24 hours, repeating this several times.

The formed cheeses are dried in summer outdoors in shade or in winter in a warm room away from the stove, on shelves or poles covered with straw. Direct sun or excessive heat makes them crack.

If mould appears, the period method scrapes it off with a knife and rinses in salted water. The cheeses were covered with dense mesh or kept in baskets to deter flies and turned frequently.

Well-dried cheeses were cleaned, packed into large pots with layers of oat straw and kept somewhere neither excessively dry nor humid. If they moulded, the author washed with whey, salted and dried again in shade.