Cooking from scratch with everyday fixings can be an empowering feeling. The less processed foodstuffs we purchase the better off we feel. Control over food ingredients and our pocketbook is a worthy goal.
Here is a simple recipe I have used continuously since I took my first cheese making class - homemade ricotta cheese with ingredients most of us have in our refrigerator and pantry. You could call this cheater ricotta, since some cheese books only give recipes for ricotta made with whey, but they are assuming you are already making cheese. This way you don't have to have a cow in the back yard. I usually make it for lasagna, while I'm making the noodles. It literally can be made and ready for use in 10 minutes. The fresh ricotta will keep up to a week in the refrigerator or it freezes well, if you have a milk surplus. Most of the time though, I just make it and use immediately.
All you need is milk and acid. You can use skim to full fat milk, raw or pasteurized and you add acid - vinegar, lemon juice or citric acid.
Heat the milk in a non-reactive pan to 190F (88C) (Any temperature between 190F (88C) and 212F (100C) is fine.)
The milk will foam at this point.
Turn off heat, add acid and stir. I used lemon juice in this batch, and started with 2 Tablespoons. My milk was fresh, so I ended up adding 1 additional Tablespoon before the curd started to form. It happens fast.
This is the curds and whey. Set aside and let cool to a safe handling temperature.
When curds and whey have cooled, drain through a colander lined with wet cheesecloth*. Save the whey, it has many uses - bread, pancakes, nutritional drinks, and livestock feed are some of the ways to use your whey. You could also repeat this process with the whey and get more ricotta cheese. The yield will be smaller since only the water-soluble albumen protein remains in the whey. When milk is used both the casein and albumen proteins are separated from the liquid and the yield will be higher.
Pour off the first whey, and tie the cheesecloth into a bag and suspend over a bowl for further draining. At this point, you could use the cheese, if you are going to keep it several days, the more whey you drain off the better.
Yield: 3/4 pound of cheese and 1 quart + whey from 1/2 gallon of milk.
Tools needed:
Milk one gallon will yield approximately 1 1/2 pounds of milk.
Lemon Juice, vinegar, or citric acid - approximately 1/4 cup per gallon.
Non reactive pan
Non reactive colander
Non reactive mixing spoon
Cheesecloth
Large bowl
Thanks Della!
*To be on the safe side it is recommended that you boil your cheesecloth to sterilize it before draining your cheese.
An easy way to do this is in the microwave: Wet your cheesecloth and place in a microwave safe bowl, microwave for one minute. Be careful, the cloth will be extremely hot, after it cools you can use it to drain your cheese.
39 comments:
this recipe will be saved, seems so simple thanks for sharing.
So if I understand you correctly, the whey you're left with at the end of the procedure you've described is what one traditionally begins with when making ricotta. Is that correct? My question is what to do with the whey by-product when you've finished making ricotta, either as you've done, or by traditional methods. I guess the by-product at the end of the traditional method is more "spent" than the whey you get. But I'm guessing there must have been some use of it. The wikihow on ricotta making shows a pretty greenish-yellow colored by product. Good for slopping hogs perhaps?
Anyway, great post!
I'm glad you blogged about this because I doubt very many people are aware that you can make cheese this way..
I grew up on a farm and my mom made our own cottage cheese like this by adding a bit of cream and salt to the cheese after it was drained.. and she would make some killer biscuits and bread from the whey.
fabulous! can't wait to try it! thank you
I too would love to know what to do with the leftover whey. It breaks my heart to dump it, however I don't have farm animals at this time.
The ricotta I make is just so delicous and I do it the same way you described. Truly the best!
Thanks for the pics and would love recipes for the whey!
Oh, and I noticed you got more cheese from me with the same amount of milk. Can you tell me maybe what I'm doing wrong? I use organic skim milk that comes from the grocery.
Can you post how to make noodles too? And you lasagna recipe :)
I too grew up w/ a dairy cow.. Lots of yummy treats from whole milk.. I made ricotta this last Vtines day for lasagna. I can't seem to get as much from my gallon of milk as you do.. Total drag, I'll have to try again... I use the whey for protien shakes in the morning for all the kids! Thanks for a great post!
Wow, thank you so much for this recipe. For an Italian from NY, it's hard to find good ricotta....now I can make my own! WOW! I eat ricotta with and on everything, by itself...mmmmmm!
~Corinne
My curds and whey are cooling as I type this! Can't wait to taste my first homemade ricotta!
Great post, Nita. Hi Della!
Missfrugalintraining, thank you, it really is simple and how fun it was to make it in cheese class - literally in seconds you have cheese.
Kate,yes that is correct - true ricotta is made from the by-product whey from other cheese making endeavors. But most of the ricotta sold in stores is made from milk. So this is real close only much fresher and can be used in many ways. I have used it as a substitute for cream cheese or cottage cheese. And to tell the truth I like to just eat it like this with a little salt and pepper and maybe a little pesto on top!
Traditionally whey is used to raise pork. Pigs can be kept on dairy and utilize what otherwise would become waste. It takes approximately 150# of whey to make 1 carcass pound of pork.
I usually drink the whey as tonic morning and night or use it to presoak grains and legumes. Nourishing Traditions has a fair share of whey facts and ideas on how to use it.
Pat aka Posh, I know, it was hard to stay out of the cheese so I could get a picture of it! Thanks for sharing your memories of farm life.
Anonymous - thank you.
ChristyACB, Have you read Nourishing Traditions? Or the Wise Traditions magazine? If you don't feel like cooking with the whey or drinking it, you can use it as fertilizer for plants or shrubs too.
The cheese yield depends on the breed of cow and feed, some breeds have a higher cheese to milk ratio than others - and the milk from the store could be from several different breeds.
Janelle, here is the link to my noodle recipe:
http://matronofhusbandry.wordpress.com/2008/12/27/chicken-soup-with-german-butter-balls/
Lasagna recipe? It's in my head and you never know what may be in it. Just try your favorite lasagna recipe with these fresh noodles and the ricotta and see how you like it.
Sugarmama's Cafe, the protein shakes are a great idea - no one here likes the whey but me and if I use the lemon juice instead of the vinegar it is pretty tasty!
Corrine, once you start making your own you will find it hard to purchase the other!
Paula, whaaat! I gave an Italian a recipe??? ;) Let me know if you like it.
Rhonda Jean, thanks and Della says Hi!
I need to add that the cheesecloth should be boiled before using just to be safe.
I don't have a microwave, but if you do - wet your cloth and place it in microwave safe bowl and nuke it for 1 minute. That will sterilize it too. Just be careful, because the cloth will be very hot.
I will also edit the post to include this information.
This may seem like a silly question, but since you mentioned that the cheescloth needs to be boiled...Can you use cheescloth more than once? If so, how do you clean it after you've used it to make cheese?
Wow! This is a great post! I have been planning on making quark (from yoghurt) for a while now, and this sounds just as easy. I will set aside some $$ from my next pay to get some cloth for straining and then I will make some and totally shock (in a pleasant way) my husband and all my friends on facebook! lol
You make it look so easy. I need to find a source to get some raw milk. That should not be an issue, next town over supplies most of Maine's milk.
Erin, yes get the cheesecloth at a cooking store if possible. The cheesecloth sold at fabric stores is too loose of weave. You could also use muslin, just make sure you get 100% cotton with no permanent press chemicals. The "cheese cloths" can be used over and over. By getting the cloth wet beforehand, the cheese doesn't really stick to the cloth. To wash I presoak in with warm water and one tablespoon of baking soda. That helps clean the cloth and then I wash by hand and dry in the sun if possible. I avoid running these cloths through the washing machine because of possible e.coli contamination.
Kathy, you will surprise them I bet! The quark sounds interesting too.
Kim, it is easy, Leah could do this. You can use milk from the store to make this, it doesn't have to be raw. But, I'm kinda partial to raw milk though...
Thank you so much for sharing this, I can't wait to try it out. :)
So so useful. Thank you for sharing. I'm bookmarking this.
Thank you, this will be so useful. And I can make just the amount I need - so very useful for us singletons who love to cook.
The word verification has me laughing - "angst" - I don't think so!
I already had milk cooling to make yogurt this evening, not long before I read your post... and then realised i had no starter yogurt - I must've eaten the last for breakfast! So I reheated the milk, added lemon juice a tablespoon at a time until it looked like the photos and am now letting it cool before draining. Thanks so much for the recipe and especially for the perfect timing of the post!
Nita, this is so easy and wonderful...thanks SO much!
Robbyn
I'll be bookmarking this. I love this coop!
Thank you
What do you mean by a non-reactive pot?
This sounds so easy! I'll give it a try soon.
Anonymous - a non-reactive pot is one that will not react with acid or brine. Stainless steel would be good, or glass or anything enamelled (non-chipped!).
Bel, & Greenbean, thank you!
Mickle in NZ, thanks, I agree angst isn't what I think of when I'm making this cheese. Lately the blogger word verifications have actually been quite thought provoking... . We used to have a cat named Mickle :)
Annet & Kirk, you're welcome!
Robbin & Simbelmyne, thank you, I couldn't not share something so easy to make!
Anonymous, like Toria suggested stainless steel,enameled pan, or stove top safe glass for the heating, and plastic could be used for the cooling part. Aluminum or copper are the types of metal to avoid.
Toria, thanks and it IS easy.
I was trying to make cottage cheese a couple weeks ago and cultured it with yogurt. I ended up with a very fine product having used full fat milk. It was almost smooth and a little like cream cheese. I ended up making lemon ricotta cheesecake squares with it and they were great. I put the recipe on my post on Tuesday Feb 17th.
I'd like to try this using half and half instead of milk. Do you think it would work?
Rose
My ricotta is draining right now... I'm going to make some homemade noodles this afternoon and we'll have lasagna for supper!
Thanks for the great idea! The pictures were so good that it wasn't intimidating at all! I find if there are pictures, I'm more likely to be confident to try things.
Mickle is a special nickname my dear Mum came up with years back - mixing my general nickname of Mick with actual name of Michelle.
I share my life with a rescue cat I named Zebby - because I can!
Word veri = "aridents", um - sounds unpleasant so, no thank you. Lately some word veri offerings are very profound, others are just hilarious.
Looking forward to making this cheese recipe, is similar to paneer which I also want to try.
Sincere thanks for sharing, happy cooking and beyond, Mickle in Wellington, NZ
(word veri failed - now offered apingurb - Wah??)
I tried this today, and half the family was really impressed with the result. Thanks so much for this tutorial, as I think it will help stretch our funds a little further.
Cheers!
Lisa A
Dawn, I had to quickly read your post, those sound delicious!
Rose, it should work, but it will be creamier like cream cheese. Let us know how it worked.
Farmers Daughter, the pictures do help don't they. I know making cheese in a class and actually seeing the break, made the directions seem so much easier.
Just thinking of lasagna is making me hungry!
Mickle, we have been laughing about those tomcats (Mickle and Rickle)now for days - I hadn't thought of them for some time.
The paneer sounds wonderful.
I haven't had a word veri that has made sense now for at least 3 days :)
Lisa A, what about the other half of the family? ;) I'm glad I could share this.
Great Post - thanks. I will try this soon (I HOPE). you mentioned using the whey to make bread - so do I just substitute the whey for the water when making bread? thanks!! Emily
Hiya
If you make Mozzerella you can make ricotta from that batch of whey by just adding some more milk and then bringing the temp up again and adding the vinegar, thereby getting two cheeses for the price of one :)
Sincerely Emily, good luck on your cheese making, and yes just substitute the whey for the water portion of your recipe. Thanks for reading!
The Crone, good tip and for a third you can still get a small amount of ricotta with the whey. So really you could get three cheeses for the price of one!
What kind of milk are you using to get these yields? I finally got around to trying this and used 1/2 gallon of milk. I ended up with only 6 oz. of cheese. :( It is really yummy, though!
actually the first cheese you make is called farmer's cheese, queso blanco, or paneer (depending on where you come from). true ricotta is made only from the whey, letting it sit to ferment up to a day @ room temp and reheating to near boiling so it curdles (again). it literally means "recooked" in italian.
Thanks again for posting this! I keep coming back to it because it's so easy!
Do you make any other cheeses? I'd love to see another post about it if you do.
I'm hoping to make mozzarella this summer. Wish me luck! :)
This is one recipe I must try. I didn't know it was so easy (or at least it looks easy). Thanks so much!
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