Making Ricotta at Home
Making Ricotta at home is easy. Ricotta is not tricky to make and what a buzz it is to make your own cheese!
Equipment
- 1 large saucepan
- 1 strainer
- 1 thermometer
- 1 piece chux or muslin cloth
Ingredients
- 3 litres milk, full cream
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 60 ml lemon juice or white vinegar
Instructions
Making Ricotta
- Pour full cream milk into a large pot wth a thick base ( this will conduct and distribute the heat better). Put the pot onto a medium to low flame and let it heat
- Meantime, squease 1 to 2 lemons and set aside. Set up the pot with a strainer and some muslin cloth or a clean chux
- When the temperature reaches 80 C / 175 F turn down the heat and stir in ONLY 3/4 of the acid/ juice/ vinegar along with the salt and stir very well. You may already see some curdling. Watch it and control the heat
- At this point the milk should really start to curdle with little lumps and froth floating to the top. The aim is to have only a yellowy water left behind. If the milk seems to have stalled add the remainder of the lemon juice/ other acid. Stir gently and start scooping out the curds. If you dont have a little strainer to scoop you will need to gently keep the liquid moving while the curds form.
- Pour the liquid through the strainer and cloth and let it drain. Drain it as long as you want. The longer you drain the dryer the ricotta. See notes for other instructions
Notes
It's important to let the milk heat slowly. This way no milk will stick or catch on the bottom of the pot
Its a little bit like making popcorn. once it starts curdling it will continue until all curds formed.
I like t leave the ricotta over heat without boiling or going over 80 C/ 175F as I feel I get bigger better curds. You can bring the ricotta to temperature and take it off ewhen it starts to curdle but you don't quite get the same amount of curd.