If you have never made cheese before homemade ricotta is such a great place to start. It is so easy and fresh, really fresh ricotta is so different from anything you can buy in a store. You only need basic ingredients, nothing fancy that you have to order off line and when you make a homemade lasagne or ravioli with homemade ricotta and homemade pasta and homegrown vegetables you are going to feel….hmmm….empowered!

You can use this like you use any ricotta cheese, in pasta, desserts, or whatever. Starting with raw milk is best but you can get a gallon of organic at the grocer and that should work fine. I use goats milk of course. It makes a very tender, flavorful and sweet ricotta…You can figure on about 3-4 cups of ricotta from a gallon of milk….or about 2 lbs.

Goats Milk Ricotta

• 1 gallon goat’s milk or milk from a store
• ¼ cup organic apple cider vinegar
• ¼ c organic, unsalted, melted butter
• ½ tsp baking soda

Heat the milk to 195F.Be sure that the milk does not boil or stick to the bottom of the pan.  It took about 2 hours on low heat for me to get it there, stirring every few minutes. Once it has reached 195 stir in the vinegar very slowly.  Almost like you are adding oil to eggs when you make mayonnaise.

There should be a clear separation of the curds and the whey.   The whey will be a greenish color.  As soon as there is a clear separation of the whey from the cheese curds stop adding vinegar. If they do not separate at all then increase the temperature of the milk to 205F.

Using a slotted spoon gently ladle the curds into a colander lined with cheesecloth. Allow to drain for one minute.

Again the word is gently, spoon them into a bowl.

Gently (are you getting the gently part?)  stir in the melted butter and baking soda. Mix very well.

This can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Yield: two pounds ricotta cheese

Images:Marye Audet 

Post from: Baking Delights