Homemade Ricotta Cheese

 One of the things that thrilled me about this property was the restored cook stove.
We are still working on getting it approved for use with our insurance company.
But in the meantime, it is beautiful and a little extra counter space.
Today I am using the stove as counter space while I make my homemade ricotta cheese.

I have also gathered the ingredients to make my lunch. :-)
This is what we call summer pizza.
I'll show you how to make it next week.
Summer pizza is the main reason we make a lot of homemade ricotta cheese.

But back to the cheese...
I am well aware that you can buy ricotta cheese in the store.  I have bought it plenty of times.  But once you have homemade ricotta you will wonder what in the heck you were buying.  There is a huge difference between homemade and store bought ricotta.  

The good news is that you do not need a cow in your back yard to whip up a batch of this amazing ricotta.  You can use store bought, pasteurized milk to make this cheese and it will be amazing.  

You will need a gallon of milk, a splash of cream, citric acid and salt.  

I bought a cheese making kit that contained a bit of several different cheese making ingredients.  But you can easily pick up food grade citric acid on line if you cannot find it in a store.  My local grocery store pharmacy will order it for me.

 

The equipment you will need to have to make this recipe is a large heavy bottom pot so the milk does not scorch and burn, a stainless steel spoon or ladle, a silicon spatula, a basic thermometer, and either a fine mesh sieve or a colander lined with cheesecloth that fits over a bowl to catch the whey.  

Start by pouring your milk and a half cup of cream into the pot. 

Put the pot over a medium burner.

The trick to good cheese is to raise the milk temperature slowly.
On medium heat it took me roughly forty minutes to get the milk up to temperature.

Sprinkle your salt and citric acid over the milk, one teaspoon of each.

Gently agitate the milk about four times in the following manner.

With the spoon at the surface of the milk, push the spoon down in a straight line to the bottom of the pan and then bring the spoon back up.  Do this slowly.  This is how you stir milk during cheese making.  

You may begin to notice tiny little curds forming and clinging to your spoon.

That's the good stuff!

 

You will want to use the rubber spatula to scrape the bottom of your pan.

If you do not, the milk may stick and burn.

You will notice curds starting to form and float on the surface of the milk.

As the temperature goes up, the curd number and size will increase.
Around 170 degrees you will notice it looks like there is cottage cheese floating in your pot.

Once you reach 184 degrees, remove the pot from the heat, cover it and let it sit for 15 minutes.  

After the 15 minutes, you will be amazed at all the curds in your pot.

Gently slide the curds and whey into the fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth lined colander.

Do not pour the curds and whey into the strainer.

The force of the rushing whey will push tender curds through the strainer.

You do not want to loose any of  your ricotta.

Keep scooping.

Once all your whey is strained, let the ricotta sit in the strainer for awhile.

You'll want to strain your cheese for a bit longer to make it more firm.

If you forget about the cheese and let it strain for too long you will get very stiff cheese.

I know because I have done that...often.

I just stick the cheese in the fridge to continue draining. 

Once your cheese has drained flip it into a bowl.
You can add a splash of milk now if your cheese is too stiff.

Add one teaspoon of salt and mix it in.

This is now the best food on the planet.

Store the cheese in a glass container.

You should wind up with a couple cups of ricotta and 3/4 of a gallon of whey.

We give our whey to the chickens for a special treat.