Homemade Ricotta Cheese
Ingredients
- 6-7 cups whole milk from grass fed cows
- 3 T white vinegar or lemon juice
- Unrefined sea salt to taste
Optional
- Fresh herbs
- garlic
- nutmeg
- honey
Instructions
- Heat milk to just before boiling, around 190 degrees. Often I make ricotta cheese after burning my milk for yogurt and catch it around 200 degrees and my ricotta turns out just fine.
- Stir in the vinegar or lemon juice and some salt and slowly stir until you see the curds separate from the whey.
- Remove the curds with a slotted spoon or pour into a dish towel lined strainer over a bowl. Let strain anywhere from 5 minutes to a few hours depending on how dry you want the ricotta. The pictured ricotta is after 4 hours of straining.
- Flavor the ricotta with fresh herbs, nutmeg, honey, salt...
Notes
Note: Ricotta means twice cooked, and traditionally is made from the leftover whey from let's say, the mozzarella cheese you just made. As I use my whey in baking and fermenting foods, I simply use this more modern and quick recipe to make ricotta cheese. You are still avoiding the gums and additives found in store bought versions plus saving money! I will post a traditional ricotta cheese recipe later this fall.
True Ricotta cheese is made from the whey leftover from other cheese production. . . .this cheese is actually Paneer, and cheese used in many Indian dishes, or farm cheese, or lemon cheese. . . Great recipe to help people not be afraid of making cheese. . . but Ricotta really is a different cheese.
You are right and I thought I had mentioned that in my post-thanks for catching that. In my cheese classes we talk about the difference between traditional ricotta cheese and the more modern quick versions that you will find in most recipes. The ricotta cheese from this recipe is still, in my opinion, much healthier and more delicious than store bought versions and the goal of Becky’s Mindful Kitchen to help people move away from processed foods. Ricotta, meaning, twice cooked, is a great example of not letting anything go to waste. Happy cheese making Mark!
Try making it with yoghurt instead of vinegar or lemon juice.
I will have to give that a try. Thanks for the comment!
Sounds so easy– I just decided to make this as my weekend project!
Thanks, Becky!
Hey Becky! Question: you mentioned, as have many on the web, that ricotta, twice cooked can be made from the whey after mozzarella is made. I’ve tried it a few times and there doesn’t seem to be much of anything left in that whey? Like maybe a tablespoon full? To me, other than calling it twice cooked, the cheese I get when I get the curd formation and then let it drip is the same quality using regular milk, lets say, or goat’s milk. That to me seems to be the same as ricotta?
Hey Amy,
So because I use whey in so much of my baking and to soak all of my grains, I choose to make ricotta just using whole milk and not leftover whey. Many chefs I know end up adding milk to their whey when making traditional ricotta.