Recipe

Homemade Ricotta Recipe

	Heatherbudapest / All my dishes 2 years, 2 months ago 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. I left the house for most of the day... More Prep:45m Cook:10m Servings:1	Heatherbuda
	fresh simplerthanyoudexpect

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Ingredients

1 gallon whole pasteurized milk

1/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt (more if you want a saltier taste and if you are not going to use it for desserts)

Directions

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."

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Comments

heatherbudapest 2 years, 2 months ago said:
There is also a *beautiful* ricotta recipe in the Suite 101 cookbooks here: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/000282.html

cherihannah 2 years, 2 months ago said:
Thanks so much for this recipe. Can't wait to make it!!!I love to make my own yogurt& have made cottage cheese a long time ago

frankieanne 2 years, 2 months ago said:
I have only recently become interested in making my own cheese. Thank you!

jenniferbyrdez 2 years, 1 month ago said:
Wonderful. This is something I'd like to try. Thank you.

invisiblechef 1 year, 10 months ago said:
I think this is so great! thanks so much for sharing this with us.

jimrug1 1 year, 8 months ago said:
Hi Heather, this sounds very interesting and not all that hard. I make Laban(yogurt)every week and occasionally Lebanese chese (kind of like a farmer stye) but have never tried Ricotta. I love it though. Your directions seem very easy to follow. I may try some this weekend. Thanks for posting ........ Jim

rdh14 1 year, 8 months ago said:
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 to compare side by side and the other one didn't come close! Fantastic..thank you, I will never purchase ricotta cheese again!

rdh14 1 year, 8 months ago said:
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 beginning and it turned out beautifully...was just a mistake, but it was fine.

zoetheunicorn 1 year, 2 months ago said:
Sweet, im gonna do this. I already make my own yoghurt and thanks to wikkdkitty for the salt tip, as i also use whey in cooking.

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Alterations

wikkdkitty 2 years, 2 months ago said:
if you add the acid in the beginning before you apply heat, you dont have to worry about the milk scalding. It comes out beautifully.

I also dont add the salt until it is separated from the whey. I use the whey for cooking and protein drinks... yummy!

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