Ricotta Cheese: One Whey To Make It

Most cheese is tricky business. You need fresh whole milk, and you need to add just enough salt and rennet, and a little acid, and control the temperature very carefully, and hold temperatures for a certain amount of time. 

And that's just the beginning. Then you need to press the cheese, and age it carefully in controlled environments.

Or you can make ricotta.

The traditional way to make it is from left over whey from making another cheese, like mozzarella. But there's an easier way still. What kind of ingredients do you need for this? You ask me?

So, for the record, that's salt, whole milk, and vinegar. You can also use another weak acid, like lemon juice. Mix one ounce of vinegar and two teaspoons of salt together with two cups of milk (or multiply everything by 8  for a whole gallon).

Heat the mixture in a saucepan (2 cups), or lobster pot (full gallon), on medium heat until the milk just starts to simmer. You'll see that the curd has already started to form as you reach this temperature.

Skim off the curd into a strainer with cheese cloth, sterilized handkerchief, or paper towel.

The longer you let it drain, the drier the cheese will be, after about 10 minutes, you'll get this:

Now, I'm not a huge fan of ricotta, but this was delicious, it was soft and creamy, not gritty. Start to finish, this is about a fifteen-minute project. Start with smaller batches until you get used it.

Ingredients:

2 cups of whole milk

1 ounce of distilled vinegar or other weak acid

2 teaspoons of salt

Procedure:

1. Mix everything in a saucepan and heat to a simmer

2. Skim the curd off the top and let drain in a strainer with cheesecloth.

Comments

[meg]

A friend and I accidentally made ricotta this weekend. We were making a batch of ice cream with some goat milk and were heating the milk on the stove with yolks, diced apples, sorghum syrup, and sugar. We started talking and soon forgot to check the temperature of the milk. The acid in the apples caused the curds and whey to separate, and we had ricotta. Well, it did have yolks and other stuff in there, but the flavor of the curd was all ricotta. Wasn't what we intended, but still quite yummy.

[Brian]

You just can't help yourself, can you, Meg? You have some Potential Cheese, and you don't pay attention, and suddenly there's Actual Cheese. It's as if you have some experience making cheese or something. ;)

[Cindy Wallace]

Thanks for the recipe. I've made ricotta after having made mozzarella, but it's nice to have a really quick way to make it. I agree with you about not being overly fond of most ricotta. (I thinki it has a gritty texture, too.) Can't wait to try this! Now that school's out for the summer, I'm going to give this a try. Do you know if I could make it successfully using lower fat milk? If so, how far down the low-fat scale can I go and still end up with decent ricotta? Thanks!