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Cheese from Russia and Belarus

Tvorogтворог

Tvorog is a fresh acid curd made by souring pasteurised milk with lactic bacteria at about 28–32 °C until it sets, sometimes helped by a little rennet. The curd is cut, warmed to push out whey, drained in bags and pressed, then chilled. In modern Russian usage it is usually not counted as a cheese.

Fully documentedCheese7.9 h – 19 hFamily: Fresh lactic (acid-set) cheese family

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceAmounts are per tonne of milk in the Russian and Belarusian dairy-plant papers cited here. None of the sources gives a home recipe or home amounts.
Skim or standardised cow milkThe acid method suits skim and low-fat tvorog best, because heating the curd loses fat[goryachevskikh2022]
Lactic starter or bacterial concentrateDose depends on the starter's activity; thermophilic streptococci and lactococci for fast souring[goryachevskikh2022]
Calcium chloride (as a 40 % solution)400 g per tonne of milkAdded when the curd would be too soft[goryachevskikh2022][strok-belstu]
Rennet, pepsin or another enzyme preparation1 g per tonne of milkAcid-rennet method only[strok-belstu]
Starterlactic starter or bacterial concentrate

Total time across the recorded steps: 7.9 h – 19 h

Start
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78–87 °C

What changes: The milk is pasteurised at 78–87 °C

Step 1 of 6
Pasteurise the milk
Time
0.2–0.5 min
Reported
Temperature
78–87 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus
Streptococcus
Lactobacilli
L. casei
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: pasteurised milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Tvorog is a fresh acid curd made by souring pasteurised milk with lactic bacteria at about 28–32 °C until it sets, sometimes helped by a little rennet. The curd is cut, warmed to push out whey, drained in bags and pressed, then chilled. In modern Russian usage it is usually not counted as a cheese. Made in 6 steps over 7.9 h – 19 h. The longest step, sour until the milk sets, takes 6–12 h (Goryachevskikh A.V. (reviewer Minukhin L.A.)…). Lactococcus, dominant in 6 of 10 tvorog samples from Russia and Streptococcus, dominant in 4 of 10 tvorog samples from Russia do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step6–12 hReported[goryachevskikh2022][strok-belstu]Sour until the milk sets
Temperature78–87 °CReported[goryachevskikh2022][strok-belstu]Pasteurise the milk
AciditypH 4–5.5Measured[kochetkova2022]Chill and pack

What makes this one different

Tvorog is set mainly by lactic acid, with little or no rennet. The cut curd is warmed to push out whey, then drained in bags and pressed. It is graded by fat content, and in modern Russian usage it is usually not counted as a cheese.

Milk
Pasteurised cow milk, skimmed or standardised
Ripening
None; eaten fresh
Fat classes
Fat-free, low-fat (2.0–3.8 %), classic (4.0–12.0 %) and fat (12.0–23.0 %)
Acidity limit for 9 % tvorog
At most 220 °T and at most 73.0 % moisture under GOST 31453-2013, as quoted in a market survey

Related ferments

Variants

  • Acid-rennet tvorogA little rennet or pepsin is added with the starter, and the curd is warmed only to 36–38 °C.
  • Grained tvorog (zernisty)Listed as its own type of tvorog, alongside table, soft and dietetic tvorog.
  • Homemade Azerbaijani tvorogTvorog made at home in Azerbaijan, from which lactobacilli close to L. plantarum, L. rhamnosus and L. casei were isolated.

Safety

Industrial tvorog is made from milk pasteurised at 78–80 °C or 87 °C. After pressing it is cooled at once to 3–8 °C, which stops the souring so the acidity does not run too high. The sources used here give no further hazards for tvorog.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
  1. [goryachevskikh2022] Goryachevskikh A.V. (reviewer Minukhin L.A.), Tekhnologiya proizvodstva tvoroga kislotnym sposobom i ego oborudovanie (Technology of tvorog production by the acid method and its equipment), Ural State Agrarian University, student article in its 2022 issue 7 collectionother
  2. [strok-belstu] Strok D.V., Starovoitov M.S. (supervisor Ankuda M.A.), Modernisation of milk processing for tvorog making, Belarusian State Technological University student paper, p. 246 (year not printed)other
  3. [siemianowski2013] Siemianowski K., Szpendowski J., Bohdziewicz K. et al. 2013, Effect of dry matter content in milk on souring dynamics and quality parameters of tvorog curd, Żywność. Nauka. Technologia. Jakość 1(86)paper
  4. [kochetkova2022] Kochetkova T.V. et al. 2022, Microbial communities of artisanal fermented milk products from Russia, Microorganisms 10(11):2140, doi:10.3390/microorganisms10112140paper
  5. [masoumikia2015] Masoumikia R., Ganbarov K. 2015, Antagonistic activity of probiotic lactobacilli against human enteropathogenic bacteria in homemade tvorog curd cheese from Azerbaijan, BioImpacts 5(3):151–154, doi:10.15171/bi.2015.21paper
  6. [mikhailova2025] Mikhailova P.V. (supervisor Fedorova N.B.) 2025, Monitoring the quality of fermented milk products of domestic producers, Proceedings of the 9th International Student Conference "V mire nauchnykh otkrytii", held in the Ulyanovsk State Agrarian University libraryother