Ricotta

Long long ago in a galaxy far far away, I promised to do a blog post on how to make Ricotta Cheese.  Okay, so it was only a couple years ago, and the goats I owned then are not sooo far away.  Permit a girl her Star Wars introduction, will you? 

Ricotta can be made using a few different methods, but what they all have in common is whey.  After you make one of your other cheeses, you will have whey left over and it's nice to have something to do with it.  You'll still have whey after making ricotta, but because it will be heated to 195*F, don't expect to use it in lactofermentation, as the probiotics likely won't have survived.  It's still great to use in soups and smoothies and the like.  Your pigs and chickens (if you have any) will still like it. 

It's important to begin with fresh whey.  I made feta cheese and then turned around and used the whey from that to make this batch of ricotta.  I have put the whey in the fridge overnight and made ricotta bright and early the next morning and it was fine.  Don't expect to leave it out overnight and have it work, though. 

My recipe calls for 1 gallon of fresh whey (I use whatever dripped out of my 2 gallons of milk cheese recipe and don't measure to have exactly a gallon).  It calls for 1.5 quarts (6 cups) whole goat milk.  You can omit the milk, but your yield will be considerably less.  You may cuss yourself for handling 17 degrees short of boiling liquid to have a measly amount of ricotta, so if you've got the milk, you'll want to use it.  1/4 cup of Lemon juice (concentrated is fine) or the juice of one lemon, and 1/2 tsp non-iodized salt, along with your colander, pots, thermometer, spoon, and hanging cloth (I use pillowcases), and you're all set!

Here's the whey being heated.  It has to reach 195 degrees, so you can see we've got a while to go...

Almost there... 

 It helps to pass the time if you've got a really cute helper in your kitchen, but since Ricotta involves such high temperatures, I suggest keeping them busy with another task...

Once the whey reaches 195 degrees Fahrenheit, you add your milk.   At this point, you may see the whey separate into what looks like lemonade and white flecks.  If you don't want to add extra milk, you can go ahead and strain this.  The white flecks are your ricotta curds.  If you want to add extra milk, go ahead.  You'll then reheat to 195 degrees again, making sure to stir frequently so you don't wind up with scorched milk stuck to the bottom of your pot.

Once the temperature reaches 195 degrees, you can turn off the burner.  If you keep stirring, you may find that the milk separates into whey and white flecks and you can go ahead and pour into the straining cloth in your colander.  If you are lazy like me and don't want to keep stirring, you can add your quarter cup of lemon juice and it will separate out rather quickly.  Vinegar would also work, but because I'll likely use the whey left over after making ricotta, and I'd rather have lemon whey than vinegar whey, I use lemon juice.

 Here you can see (sort of) the fleck separating out. 

 A closer look on the spoon, in case it helps!

 Ready to pour!

 I put a colander into a pot and a pillowcase into the colander and pour my pot of curds and whey into that.  Use caution and have the kiddos leave the kitchen for a bit. 195 degrees is hot!

 Once the pot is poured, gather up the sides of the cloth and secure them.  I use new hair bands to tie them up and hang them from the cabinet pulls.

 Here is my feta (left) and ricotta (right) draining over the pot the feta was made in. 

 And here's the leftover whey from making the ricotta.

 I save it to use later in other things.  (Soups, smoothies, and when I am tired of looking at it, it can go to the chickens.)  It will give a slight cheese flavor to mashed potatoes without the added calories of cheese. 

 Unlike feta which will hang over night, ricotta only needs to hang for about an hour.  (Or as long as it takes to tend to a couple loads of laundry.... scratch that.  It sounds so unromantic.  How about as long as it takes to enjoy a glass of wine.  Better?)  Here's what the ricotta will look like when you open up the cloth. 

Place the ricotta in a bowl and add your 1/2 tsp of salt and mix it up.  It's ready to use and will last for a week in the fridge, if you have the willpower to keep it around that long!  Enjoy!