Ricotta

We have a lot of milk right now. We have a lot of milk and it's about a week past it's best before. It's still fine, but I know its days are numbered at this point. This means it's time to make cheese! My go-to is normally paneer since we eat a lot of curries and it's nice to be able to make a good lactose-free paneer for TF. But I had my eye on this "breakfast cake" that called for ricotta, so I figured I might as well do that instead.

Traditionally ricotta is a whey cheese. You make a cultured cheese like mozzarella or Parmesan or something. The cheesemaking process causes the casein proteins to separate out (along with a lot of the other milk solids) and that's what makes up your cheese curds. What's left behind is whey. And that whey is full of whey protein. To get that to separate out, you need heat and acid. So you cook your whey, add a bunch of vinegar (or other acid), and then strain out the new curds that form. Those curds are your ricotta.

That's the traditional way of making ricotta. That's not what I did here. Honestly, a lot of commercial ricotta isn't even made that way these days. I made "whole milk ricotta". So, instead of adding acid and heat to a big pot of whey, you just put regular milk through the same process. So... basically the exact same as making paneer but without the pressing at the end. I also don't tend to keep cooking the paneer after the milk has curdled. I just heat it up, add the acid, and then drain it almost immediately. With the ricotta, I like to hold it at temperature for a while before draining it. I also don't drain it as thoroughly as paneer. This makes for a nice, soft, high-moisture cheese. Great for baking or enjoyed fresh drizzled with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Note: This method can also be used to make traditional whey ricotta but you will need A LOT more whey in order to produce the same amount of cheese since a lot of the milk solids will have already been removed by the first cheesemaking process. Also, this will not work with whey from a direct acidified cheese since the acid pulls out the whey protein as well as the casein.

Whole Milk Ricotta

Ingredients

• 2L whole (3.25%) milk
• ~1/4 c. vinegar or lemon juice

Directions

1. Heat milk to 85°C (185°F).¹
2. Add a few Tbsp. of vinegar and give it a stir. If the whey still looks milky, add a little more vinegar. Once the whey looks clear (it will still have some colour, but will become much less turbid), stop adding vinegar and stop stirring.
3. Cover and hold at 85°C (185°F) for 30 minutes.
4. Use butter muslin or a double layer of cheesecloth to strain the curds from the whey. You can be more or less thorough about the straining depending on how wet or dry you want your cheese to be.
5. Use in your favourite cake or pasta recipes or drizzle with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper and serve with crackers.

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¹ The InstantPot works great for this. I just use the slow cook "low" setting. ^Back