Home Recipes Tips Homemade Farmer’s Cheese (tvorog)
- February 24, 2021
5 from 76 votes
- 225 comments
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My mom’s method for Homemade Farmer’s Cheese. So easy, fresh and delicious every time. Takes less than an hour to make and enjoy hours later once cooled and drained. A 2-ingredient recipe that you will always want to make and keep in your fridge!
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Homemade Farmer’s Cheese is very easy to make. It only requires 2 ingredients: milk and vinegar. It’s truly amazing and if you try it, you will want to always have some on hand in your refrigerator. We like to enjoy it for breakfast or as snack with cup of tea or coffee. It’s good idea to always have some already made in refrigerator.
My mom always made this cheese with vinegar and it works magic every time. It’s cheap to make as you don’t need any extra dairy to make it besides milk. It’s a huge time saver as it only takes less than an hour to make and once cooled, you drain it and use it. There is no way I would want to wait days for cheese to form. When I start something, I like to get it done that same day (preferably). I have seen different methods online for homemade farmer’s cheese, but I found my mom’s recipe to always have the best flavor, texture and no unusual aroma to it.
I had never seen farmer’s cheese at my local stores. Probably because not all stores sell it, therefore, I never noticed. Fresh homemade is always better and I know the quality of my cheese. With organic milk and vinegar, I spend $7 maximum to make around 4-5 cups of farmer’s cheese. Most times, I would catch organic milk reduced in price with few days left until expiration date and that would make my cheese about $4. Such a great penny saver!
Farmer’s cheese is one of the easiest and delicious fillings to use for rolls, pastries, cakes and more. Like most Ukrainians, I LOVE farmer’s cheese and I bake a lot with it.
Best Milk for Homemade Farmer’s Cheese:
Try to use good quality milk. How do you know if it’s good quality? You really don’t. But, brands such as Organic Valley or Smith Brothers always were the best and always provide quality cheese. In fact, Organic Valley is the only milk I buy lately.
Use 2% or whole milk. Try avoiding 1% or anything below. Cheese with 1% turns out like sand. The million pieces don’t really connect and it’s hard to work with when baking. It just falls apart. Whole milk creates the best cheese. The cheese turns out thick and rich in flavor. The 2% is a bit thinner and works great as well. I try my best to avoid half & half and heavy cream, even if to add a bit to the rest of the milk. You will have hard time draining the cheese, as the cheese will look more like pudding in your pot and get stuck in the cheese cloth.
Can You Freeze Homemade Farmer’s Cheese?
Yes! I sometimes do it, but not often. To freeze cheese: cool, wrap in plastic food wrap and place into freezer bag. Keep up to 3 months. The frozen cheese texture differs a bit from freshly made cheese and becomes a bit fall-apart, but works great for Cheese Pancakes (sirniki) and other breakfast recipes. Therefore, I do it all the time. I take the cheese out to thaw overnight at room temperature to use in the morning. My family loves sirniki; kids especially.
Important Tips for Making Farmer’s Cheese:
1. Use Heinz distilled white vinegar for best results. My mom has tested different brands and from some of the brands the cheese didn’t want to turn out the way it’s supposed to.
2. Use stainless steel pot if you have one. The nonstick takes forever to bring the milk to bubble and you will most likely end up with milk scorching at the bottom of the pot.
3. Use Flour Sack Towel instead of cheese cloth. I bought it at my local Walmart and cut into 4 squares. It’s thick and works perfect for cheese making. Wash used flour sack towel in hot water with lightly soapy water, dry and re-use. From experience, cheese gets stuck in cheese cloth and usually they are pricier and one time use.
Farmer’s Cheese Ingredients:
- 1 gallon whole milk (I use Organic Valley)
- 1/2 cup Heinz distilled white vinegar
How to Make Farmer’s Cheese:
- Heat milk over medium-low until you see hundreds little bubbles appear, but do not bring to a boil. (it would take 30-40 minutes). Stir occasionally to prevent the milk from scorching at the bottom of the pot.
- Once you see lots of bubbles popping, slowly add distilled white vinegar and give it a gentle stir and wait for 30-60 seconds. Then stir again. The cheese will curdle (become crumbly) and the water should be lime-yellow-ish color. If it doesn’t, add a bit more vinegar until you do see that color of water. Remove from heat to cool to room temperature.
- Line a sieve or a colander with a flour sack towel. Slowly pour the cheese into the cloth to catch the curds. Gather the cloth around cheese and squeeze it as much as you can to get all the whey out. When you start seeing white-ish liquid coming out instead of lime color, you can stop there. *If saving whey (the lime water), drain the cheese into a bowl. People use whey for bread, different cooking and gardening.
- Refrigerate farmer’s cheese once cooled and keep it in refrigerator for up to a week.
Enjoy These Farmer’s Cheese Recipes:
- Cheese Pancakes (Sirniki) + Video – favorite breakfast
- Crepes With Cheese (nalisniki) – thin and delicate with creamy cheese filling
- Farmer’s Cheese Blueberry Crumb Cake – flaky, buttery and so easy
- Farmer’s Cheese Sweet Rolls (pirozhki) – so fluffy and mouth-watering
Homemade Farmer's Cheese (tvorog)
5 from 76 votes
Cook Time: 40 minutes minutes
Total Time: 41 minutes minutes
Servings: 4 cups
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My mom's method for homemade farmer's cheese. So easy, fresh and delicious every time. Takes less than an hour to make and enjoy hours later once cooled and drained. A 2-ingredient recipe that you will always want to make and keep in your fridge!
Ingredients
- 1 gallon whole milk (preferably organic)
- 1/2 cup Heinz distilled white vinegar
Instructions
Heat 1 gallon milk over medium-low until you see hundreds little bubbles appear, but do not bring to a boil. (it would take 30-40 minutes). Stir occasionally to prevent the milk from scorching at the bottom of the pot.
Once you see lots of bubbles popping, slowly add 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar, give it a gentle stir and wait for 30-60 seconds. Then stir again. The cheese will curdle (become crumbly) and the water should be lime/yellow-ish color. If it doesn’t, add a bit more vinegar until you do see that color of water. Remove from heat to cool to room temperature.
Line a sieve or a colander with a flour sack towel. Slowly pour the cheese into the cloth to catch the curds. Gather the cloth around cheese and squeeze it as much as you can to get all the whey out. When you start seeing white-ish liquid coming out instead of lime color, you can stop there.*If saving whey (the lime water), drain the cheese into a bowl. People use whey for bread, different cooking and gardening.
Refrigerate farmer’s cheese once cooled and keep it in refrigerator for up to a week.
Notes
- Use Heinz distilled white vinegar for best results.
- Use stainless steel pot to less likely end up with scorching at the bottom of the pot.
- UseFlour Sack Towel instead of cheese cloth.
- To freeze farmer's cheese: cool, wrap in plastic food wrap and place into freezer bag. Keep up to 3 months. The frozen cheese texture differs a bit from freshly made cheese and becomes a bit fall-apart, but works great for Cheese Pancakesand other breakfast recipes. Take the cheese out to thaw overnight at room temperature to use in the morning.
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Reader Comments & Reviews
Jim says:
Plan on making this soon since I can’t find farmers cheese to make perogies and they just don’t taste the same with cheddar cheese.
I have made mozzarella cheese before and the recipe is almost identical but I don’t recall the farmers cheese that my grandma used in the perogies tasting like mozzarella cheese.
What are the differences?- Reply
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Hi Jim! I never made mozzarella cheese, not sure what is the process or ingredients needed. This cheese recipe is the exact cheese we use for the pierogis.
- Reply
Susan Saturno says:
I just finished making this tvorog recipe! It’s perfect and I can’t wait to use it for making cheese blintzes. The gallon of organic whole milk yielded about 28ounces of cheese. I felt bad dumping out the whey. Next time I’ll save it for the days I bake sourdough bread!
- Reply
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Thank you for sharing that with us. Different brands of milk, yield different amounts of cheese as I tested out myself few months ago, even if they are all whole milk (just a tip 🙂 ). I use whey for garden in the summer.
- Reply
Rain says:
She did leave some steps out like how your suppose to put something heavy on the cheese to get all the whey out but other then that great recipe would try again
- Reply
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Hi! In Step 3 of the recipe “Line a sieve or a colander with a flour sack towel. Slowly pour the cheese into the cloth to catch the curds. Gather the cloth around cheese and squeeze it as much as you can to get all the whey out.”. We don’t put anything heavy. You can if you want to, but we squeeze out the liquid with hands because it’s quick, easy and works great!
Angeline Scott says:
My Lithuanian Grandmother used to make Farmer’s Cheese and serve it on Black Bread with butter. So good with tea! Great memories. Thanks for sharing- I can’t wait to try the recipe.
- Reply
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Thank you for sharing that with us, Angeline! Hope you like this recipe.
- Reply
L J Washington says:
Awesome!!!! Was my first time making cheese and this was super easy. I only had cheese cloths so it did get quite messy. I seasoned it with salt and a bit of pepper. I added a little bit of whey to make it creamier. I added it on top of my pizza. It got toasted a bit and it was amazing. I want to make cream cheese icing for cakes and a cream filling for pastries with it. Excited to see how versatile this can be. A great recipe!!!
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Olga in the Kitchen says:
Thank you for sharing that with us! It all sounds delicious 🙂
- Reply
Vickie says:
Can I use this cheese to make kuchen? My grandmother always used a type of dry cottage cheese, but I can’t find it.
- Reply
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Hi Vickie! I’m not familiar with kuchen dish, but this cheese is indeed more on the dry side (not like cream cheese). So it might work.
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Tina Payne says:
Absolutely delicious! I spread the cheese on blueberry waffles, then topped with fresh blueberries and a drizzle of local honey. That was our breakfast. For lunch I just spread the cheese on crackers which was simple but wonderful.
Everything didn’t go exactly as expected and I did things differently due to lack of space and not wanting to handle the big pot until it was completely cool, partly emptied and not so heavy. I never really got hundreds of popping bubbles so I turned it up to medium but didn’t want to risk too hot to ruin it. Since it had cooked over 45 minutes, and I saw a little foam, I went ahead and added the vinegar. The top looked like cheese even before the vinegar, but then it got good after the vinegar. I just started removing cheese with my slotted spoon and putting it into the colander lined with sack cloth. I’d wait a few minutes and more cheese would fall to the bottom of the pot. After it cooled in the colander, I started using it and it was delicious. After lunch I started pouring the stuff remaining in the pot into the lined colander. It hadn’t added much cheese yet and the curds and whey seemed mixed back together. So I don’t have as much cheese as you said to expect. I did get a little more cheese after my final squeezing so we have about a cup in the fridge now to enjoy tomorrow. I drank a little of the whey but my husband didn’t care for it. He loved the cheese though.
Thanks for the great recipe. I will be doing this every time I have milk that needs to be used up before it expires. I agree with you that this is better than cottage cheese!- Reply
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Hi Tina! Thank you for sharing with us your experiment! The amount of cheese depends on the type of milk you use. For best cheese, we use whole milk. You don’t want to use 1% or the cheese will be falling apart a lot (very little crumbs). After you add the vinegar, you need to give it at least a minute for cheese to form, without stirring the pot too much or the cheese won’t want to curdle if you keep stirring. I will edit the recipe a bit later on, but I experimented with different brands of organic milk recently to add more tips to the recipe. You want the milk to be between 180-190 degrees Farheiheit before adding vinegar. So if you’re not seeing many bubbles, try going with the temp. Hope this helps 🙂
- Reply
marianne says:
Easy, economical and a perfect blank slate for amazing tastes
- Reply
Olga in the Kitchen says:
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Marianne!
- Reply
Phyllis says:
Really easy and loved the flavour. Will do again.
- Reply
Olga in the Kitchen says:
So glad to hear that, Phyllis! Thank you for the feedback.
- Reply
Stevie says:
How long does it last in refrigerator?
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Refrigerate farmer’s cheese once cooled and keep it in refrigerator for up to a week (last step in the recipe).
Yulia says:
Thank you for the extremely easy recipe!
May I ask you where does vinegar stay at the end? Does it stay in the whey or cheese itself? I’m asking because my husband is concerned about giving this cheese to our kids. He says that vinegar can cause esophageal chemical burn. I just don’t know what to say to him:) so I decided to ask you if it’s safe to use that amount of vinegar.
Thank you in advance.Olga in the Kitchen says:
Hi Yulia! The vinegar stays in the whey. You cannot taste vinegar in cheese, in fact it’s more bland. Vinegar only helps curdle the cheese. You can try using lemon juice if you want. People shared it was successful, but it will have a lemony taste. That’s why the whey is often used for gardening to fertilize vegetables and keep all the unnecessary bugs away from gardens.
Norma Malauskas says:
Is this the same farmers cheese used in pierogi? My aunt used farmers cheese, but here in North Carolina I can’t find it. I have used ricotta cheese, and it is ok, but not like I remember. Thank you.
- Reply
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Hi Norma! Yes, this is what we use in pierogis, in piroshki (sweet buns filled with cheese), the vatrushka. Everywhere cheese filling is needed in Slavic recipes.
- Reply
Kris says:
Hi Olga,
About to make up my first batch of farmer’s cheese rather than pay Friendship! For our pierogi, my wife always adds cottage cheese to the farmer’s cheese because she says the farmer’s cheese is a bit dry without it. Do you only use farmer’s cheese? I’m also going to add a little salt to the milk. And why do you use organic milk? Does it actually make a flavor or texture difference? I wouldn’t think it would make any difference other than paying double! I’ve never been on the ‘organic’ band wagon. Can’t afford it.Olga in the Kitchen says:
Hi Kris! I use farmer’s cheese only, without cottage cheese. Cottage cheese usually more slimy that’s why I don’t like using it. You can use non-organic milk as well. I use organic because that’s the milk we always have on hand. Our kids drink milk every day and organic has more nutrients than regular milk, so we prefer to use it in our home.
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