5-Minute Gzik Recipe! Traditional Polish Farmer's Cheese Dip (2024)

FAQs

How do you use farmers cheese? ›

We like to use farmer's cheese as filling for blintzes and pierogis, or as the foundation for a cheese spread. We'll also lightly fry it and use it in a sandwich, and it's great for cheese and crackers. You can also slice it really thin and roll it with your favorite salumi.

The classic version, called gzik, comes from the Wielkopolska province in Poland. It's built from a farmer's cheese called twarog, which is essentially a dry version of what Americans know as cottage cheese.

Cheese Dip Ingredients

These are the simple ingredients you'll need to make this meaty cheese dip recipe: Meat: This satisfying cheese dip starts with ground beef and ground pork sausage. Onion: Cook the meat with a diced onion. Cheese: You'll need a loaf of processed cheese food, such as Velveeta.

How to Store. Farmer cheese will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator when stored in an airtight container. You can freeze farmer cheese; wrap in plastic wrap and place in a zip-top freezer bag. Upon thawing it, however, the texture will be a bit crumblier.

Fresh goat cheese, quick farmers cheese, paneer, queso fresco, and ricotta just can't melt. When heated, the acid in these cheeses lose water, but not proteins. Water will continue to be cooked off, but the proteins in the curd are only going to tighten, holding the cheese together.

Shelf Life

In general, soft cheese will last one week in the fridge, but the quality and taste will be at its prime before that time is up.

The most popular Polish breakfast food are open-face sandwiches featuring slices of hard cheese, cold cuts, tomatoes and cucumbers. Also eaten are different style eggs (soft and hard boiled, fried, scrambled, etc.), pot cheese with radish and chives or honey or jam served with fresh bread and rolls.

For a cheese dip or sauce, the addition of cornstarch serves a similar function: Starch molecules absorb water and expand, not only thickening the liquid phase of the sauce, but also physically preventing the proteins from binding into long, tangled strands and the fats from separating out and pooling.

There are plenty of recipes online. You could add sodium citrate to the cheese sauce to help prevent it from breaking. If you just melt cheese it begins to harden as soon as it starts to cool.

According to Nick Rogers, who has researched the history of cheese dip, the dish was invented by Blackie Donnely, the original owner of Mexico Chiquito restaurants. The Mexico Chiquito chain, which now has multiple locations in central Arkansas, was opened by Donnely and his wife in North Little Rock in 1935.

What is the flavor of farmers cheese? ›

The taste is milder and a little tangier than cottage cheese. What I like about foods like kefir and farmer's cheese is that they are 99% lactose free.

What's a good substitute for farmer's cheese? We've already mentioned that cottage cheese is a good alternative, but Indian paneer and ricotta work too. That said, certain Slavic recipes (like pierogis, blintzes, and vareniki) are simply not as authentic without it.

With American-style farmer's cheese, it's cut into curds, drained, and pressed, creating a firmer, drier texture. But they're both refreshingly bright and tart.

It doesn't age well, so store it in the refrigerator and be sure you eat it within a week after it's made if it lasts that long! If you bake with it, it melts beautifully. It's a great soft cheese for snacking.

Farmer's Cheese

Easily made at home using milk or even kefir, farmer's cheese is a crumbly, creamy, fresh cheese that can stand in for cream cheese with a small adjustment. Blend the cheese up with just enough heavy cream to make a thick mixture. If your farmer's cheese isn't particularly tangy, add some lemon.

The taste is milder and a little tangier than cottage cheese. What I like about foods like kefir and farmer's cheese is that they are 99% lactose free. I'm somewhat sensitive to lactose, so a lot of it doesn't make me feel great (but tastes delicious).

Farmer's cheese is a variant of cottage cheese, made by pressing the whey from the curds (compared to just draining). It tastes more acidic than cottage cheese and has a firmer texture due to its lower moisture content.