Homemade Ricotta
From heatherbudapest 16 years ago
- 10 minutes to make
- Serves 1
Having recently made ricotta, I thought I would pass along the recipe I found and used. I don't claim it as original, nor do I necessarily recommend it over other methods. But I made it and it worked great for me. Read more I left the house for most of the day, came back, and found my ricotta ready. I found it on About.com and it's attributed to Grace Pilato: " From Cosa Bolle in Pentola, the Newsletter: Moving decisively towards food, Diana recently wrote: Though ricotta is often referred to as a cheese, if you want to split hairs it's actually a cheese byproduct, as it's made from the whey that is drained from the curds once the cheese is made. This doesn't mean one cannot make it from milk, however, and I occasionally get requests for a recipe. Gretl recently posted this to the FoodWine discussion list, and it does look good. The recipe is by Grace Pilato, and here are Gretl's transcription and notes: Homemade Fresh Ricotta (from Grace Pilato) I have worked on many variations of this recipe - trying it over and over again trying to get the right combination of taste, consistency, and ease of preparation. I have used readily available enzymes from the grocery store, vegetable enzymes from cheese distributors, fresh lemon juice, citric acid from the drug store, yogurt, and run-of-the mill, inexpensive white distilled vinegar. This recipe is definitely a winner-a perfect ten. The vinegar in this preparation is what makes the milk form curds. If there is too little vinegar, the curds will not fully form and you will get a smaller yield. If there is too much vinegar, you will get an acidic tasting ricotta. Accordingly, the vinegar should not exceed 5 percent of the volume of moisture. Ricotta is so easy to make and the taste so special that you will want to make it weekly to have on hand for eating and cooking. You will need to have a cooking thermometer for your first couple of attempts. The Taylor instant read pocket thermometer is my preference. It is reliable, inexpensive, and compact." See less
Ingredients
- 1 gallon whole pasteurized milk shopping list
- 1/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar shopping list
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (more if you want a saltier taste and if you are not going to use it for desserts) shopping list
How to make it
- Rinse the inside of the pot you intend to use with cold water (this helps prevent the milk from scorching).
- Place 1 gallon milk in large, heavy non-reactive pot on medium heat.
- Add salt and stir briefly. Allow milk to heat up slowly, stirring occasionally. Soon you will notice steam start to form above the surface and tiny bubbles appearing on the milk. You want it to reach 180-185 degrees, near scalding temperature, just before it comes to a boil. Check the temperature with your thermometer.
- When it reaches the correct temperature, take the pot off the burner, add the vinegar and stir gently for only one minute.
- Add vinegar. You will notice curds forming immediately.
- Cover with a dry clean dish towel and allow the mixture to sit undisturbed for a couple of hours. You can also begin preparing your ricotta in the morning before going to work and let it sit until you come home.
- When the ricotta has rested for 2 hours or more, take a piece of cheesecloth, dampen it and place it inside a colander. With a slotted spoon, ladle out the ricotta into the prepared colander. Place the colander with ricotta inside of a larger pan so it can drain freely. Let it drain for two hours or so depending on how creamy or dry you want your cheese to be.
- Lift the cheesecloth up by the four corners and twist gently. If the liquid runs clear, squeeze a little more. If the liquid runs milky, there is no more need to squeeze.
- Place in a tight sealed container.
- Refrigerate. It will keep for up to 7 days. Ricotta does not freeze well.
- Notes
- I would advise against the use of low fat or part skim milk in making the ricotta. The flavor comes from the cream in the whole milk. For desserts, add 1 pint heavy whipping cream along with the milk. I use this variation when I am making ricotta for a dessert filling such as cannoli, cassata, or cream puffs. It is richer, creamier, and a bit more decadent.
- Grace has a cookbook coming out; it's her first. Although it's listed as being available on the Amazon.com site, it won't be printed until January or early February. Take a look. It's called, appropriately enough, "Cooking With Grace."
The Rating
Reviewed by 10 people-
OK, I tried this and you know what? It was so easy and turned out fantastic! Other than the minutes watching the pot on the stove to make sure it didn't boil, it was SOOOOOOOOOOOO Easy! I also tried a version that uses buttermilk at the same time ...more
rdh14
in Niles loved it
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Just a side note...I used the ricotta to make ricotta cheese cookies (from the site, recipe is frosted ricotta cheese cookies) and they came out fantastic! Thanks again! Oh, and like the alteration below, I accidentally added the vinegar at the begi...more
rdh14
in Niles loved it
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Thanks for the post Heather. I usually cannot get Ricotta cheese out here in the middle of the south pacific so this will come in handy. RJ
elgourmand
in Apia loved it
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