Ricotta cheese

Leonie2 · Ricotta cheese

Ricotta is an Italian word meaning recooked because it is made by cooking the whey which is produced when making cheese. The bacteria in whey must ferment the liquid further, this is done by leaving the whey at room temperature for 12 - 24 hours. During this time the sugars are converted to lactic acid which lowers the pH of the whey. The solubility of the protein in acidified whey is reduced, heating the whey causes the protein in the whey to separate from the liquid and the very fine curd can then be removed by filtering or pouring through a fine cloth like muslin.

What you need:
whey, the by-product from making cheese
a thermometer
saucepan
fine sieve
muslin cloth

How to:
Save the whey from making cheese. Pour it into a container, cover and leave at room temperature overnight or for up to 24 hours.

Pour whey into a saucepan and heat gently, stir taking care that it doesn't catch and scortch on the bottom of the saucepan.

As the temperature reaches approx 80C you'll notice a white foam beginning to appear.

Continue heating and stirring until it reaches nearly boiling point or 95C. Be careful, if it reaches boiling point it can boil over. Remove from heat. Cover and allow the "cooked" whey to cool undisturbed until comfortable to the touch. The curds should look like clouds suspended in the whey, while the whey appears clear and yellowish green.

Do not stir the curd, if you do it will break up and dispearse with the liquid making it very difficult to separate. Set up a receiving pot with a large strainer and a muslin square lining the strainer. If the curd is floating, very gently so as to avoid mixing the curd and whey, scoop the curd out using a fine sieve. Alternatively, if the curd all sinks, pour as much of the whey through the cloth as you can without disturbing the curds at the bottom of the pot. It will filter through MUCH faster if you do this carefully without sitrring up the curds. Your main aim here is to keep the curds as stable as possible to prevent everything mixing together. If it does all mix together then reheat again and start over.

Pour the curds into the muslin square, tie the corners in a knot and suspend over a bowl so that the whey can drip from the curds. Do not squeeze, the curds are very fine and will simply squeeze through the muslin and they will be lost. Leave to drip for a few hours. You can set this up in the fridge and leave to drip overnight.

The remaining whey has very little protein in it now and can be given to the chickens. Mine had bread soaked in whey and they love it.

Remove the ricotta from the muslin cloth and store in a contain in the fridge, use fairly soon after making or alternatively freeze.

This batch of ricotta made from the cheese (2 litres of milk) I made yesterday weighs approx 60g, enough to make a cheese and chive style dip.

Leonie2

somerset lad
Moderator

Joined: 18 Feb 2006
Posts: 249
Location: Taunton som
Posted: 22 Mar 2006 05:13 pm Post subject:

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I have never made ricotta cheese J, but next gallon , here we go again.
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Jesse
Site Admin

Joined: 02 Feb 2006
Posts: 2188
Location: West Sussex
Posted: 22 Mar 2006 05:48 pm Post subject:

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First time I tried to make ricotta I never knew it was meant to be re-heated, I just strained the whey through a cloth and was left with less than a teaspoon full and it was so dissapointing, this method gave me enough to spread on my rivita biscuits for lunch

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nanny
Evergreen

Joined: 19 Feb 2006
Posts: 522
Location: deepest suffolk
Posted: 22 Mar 2006 09:57 pm Post subject:

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it's a good way of getting the most out of your gallon of milk isn't it?

by the way, where i come from they use ricotta cheese as one of the layers in lasagne, the one we would use yoghurt or soured cream in so that's an added bonus

really can't wait to have another go at this .......

getting more exciting by the day
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debbie
Seedling

Joined: 16 Mar 2006
Posts: 103
Location: Exmoor
Posted: 23 Mar 2006 12:25 am Post subject:

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probably doesn't produce strictly speaking ricotta but if you add a dash of full cream milk and a few drops of rennet to your whey you get a much better weight of cheese

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Svea
Seedling

Joined: 16 Feb 2006
Posts: 86
Location: London
Posted: 23 Mar 2006 08:03 am Post subject:

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warning - random trivia of the day!!

ricotta = ital. recooked

apparently, here goes the story
at the end of the summer, when the cows came home from being on the high meadows in the mountains, the cheese making started. as all the 'hard' cheese was produced for selling to richer people, the ricotta, being the left over product, was for the local poor people. lots of villages in northern italy have ricotta festivals in september - a tradition that has kept to this day (although i am sure they now eat their own hard cheese, too)

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