ОАО "Кобринский маслодельно-сыродельный завод"

What can we do with the dried up cheese?

The dried up cheese is better to use in a grating kind, using it with the dishes as macaroni, a potato, vegetables. And if you want, that the dried up cheese became soft, put it for some time in fresh milk or kefir.

How can you check a naturalness of sour cream at home?

In order to check a naturalness of sour cream at home, there is enough to add an iodine dab in a spoon with sour cream. A natural and a quality sour cream becomes yellow or even brown (it depend on quantity of the added iodine). If the product has vegetative additives - it will be a dark blue color.

How can you distinguish a stale and a poor-quality product?

First of all look at the packaging. It should be smooth, not expanded. Pay attention to the date of manufacturing and to the expiry date. All dairy products should be a homogeneous consistency, without any grains except curd. Though a lot of grains in curd are also not the best indicator.
There should be no foreign flavors and smells. Kefir should smells like kefir and sour cream - sour cream. There should be not any gas bubbles and cavities in a product. If there is whey, especially in layers, the product is not fresh. Cultured milk products should be not too souring (an exception: acidophilous products, matzoon, which in original have a high acidity). The term of storage of the really useful milk and dairy products is not more than three days, but in your refrigerator, they can stay a bit longer.
Cultured milk products have a lot of benefits (if you do not take into account fresh-drawn milk). They are easily digested by the organism, and there are useful substances in them almost as much as in milk. Cultured milk products help to restore normal intestinal microflora, especially elaborated by using bifidus bacteria. To eat them in the morning is the best way. Even the ordinary kefir has a great usefulness. Even Mechnikov recommended it for the treatment of bleeding gastric ulcers. And in Japan and Canada it has been recognized as a medical drink.

What is the difference between butter, margarine and spread?

Butter received that name as it made exclusively of a high-fat cream without any additives.

Margarine, on the contrary, is made of vegetative fats.

Spread is a "mix" from animal-vegetable fat.

These are not so simple terms, but they are also registered in the state standard documents. And according to these documents substitution of terms is inadmissible, i.e. on margarine packing can't be written “butter”

Please tell, what is the best way to keep cheese?

The best way to keep cheese is on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator or in a cool damp place (about 6-8 degrees above zero).