Get the Chickens in the Road 2009 Wall Calendar! Click here!Posted by Suzanne McMinn on October 11, 2008
Step 1: Get a goat. Tie her up, tie her down, tie her sideways, then milk her.
Or save yourself, I implore you, and just go to the store and buy a gallon of the freshest whole milk you can find.
Ricotta is the easiest of all soft cheeses. It’s a simple process with very few steps (especially if you skip Step 1 above), and you can have fresh ricotta anytime!
A good way to get started if you are a first-time cheesemaker is with a cheesemaking kit. I got this one from New England Cheesemaking Supply Co.
The 30 Minute Mozzarella & Ricotta kit is $24.95. It comes with enough citric acid, cheese salt, and rennet for 30 batches of cheese, plus instructions for ricotta and mozzarella, butter muslin, and a dairy thermometer. You’ll also need a large stainless steel pot, a stainless steel colander, stainless steel slotted spoon, and measuring spoons onhand.
If you don’t have access to fresh milk, please don’t let that stop you! Making cheese is fun, and slightly addictive. Once you learn how, it’s a creative process, like breadmaking, in which you can add your own flavorings and make specialty cheeses your way. While I feel fortunate to have fresh raw milk available to me, now that I’ve delved into cheesemaking, I see that there is far more to it than the milk. For one thing, it’s freshly-made even if you use milk from the store, not to mention all the creative opportunities for adding in your own herbs and other seasonings. Cheesemaking is a mecca of artistic exploration–and it’s easier than you think, particularly when you’re talking the soft cheeses!
I’m not sure why this kit is called “30 minute” mozzarella & ricotta because it really takes 60 minutes–30 minutes to prepare the milk and another 30 minutes to drain the cheese. (Still, it’s a relatively quick process, and you’re only actually doing something for the first 30 minutes.)
How to make Fresh Ricotta Cheese:
1 gallon fresh whole milk
1 teaspoon citric acid
1 teaspoon cheese salt
Pour milk into a large stainless steel pot. Add the citric acid and cheese salt. Heat on medium-high until the milk reaches 195 degrees.
It will seem as if it takes a long time to achieve the proper temperature, but you’ll get there in under 30 minutes. (You can’t just stick your heat on high because you’ll scorch the milk–I set my burner right between medium and high). Stir infrequently, just enough to avoid scalding the milk on the bottom of the pan. (I just move the spoon around the bottom of the pot gently every few minutes.)
You’ll notice curds beginning to form on the surface of the pot.
Keep checking the temperature using the dairy thermometer.
By the time it reaches 195 degrees, the milk will have separated into curds and whey.
Isn’t that awesome? You’ll feel as if you’ve performed a magic trick the first time you do it.
Turn off the heat and let the pot sit for about 10 minutes. Cross your fingers the cat doesn’t wake up and eat it when you’re not looking.
After 10 minutes, line your colander with the butter muslin.
Using a large slotted spoon, transfer the curds to the muslin-lined colander.
Look at that! Is that cool or what?
Once all the curds are transferred to the colander……
….tie the muslin together.
Then tie it onto your sink faucet.
Let drain for another 30 minutes, or to desired consistency. (There are numerous uses for all that leftover whey, but that’s a whole ‘nother post!)
When the cheese is finished draining, untie the muslin and transfer the ricotta to a container. In this case, I used two pint-size glass jars. Store in the fridge for up to two weeks, and use as you would with any ricotta–only this is better because you made it. I see Pepperoni Lasagna!
Behold! Cheese!!!
Get the Chickens in the Road 2009 Wall Calendar! Click here!Posted by Suzanne McMinn on October 11, 2008
4:36
am
Wow! I can’t believe how easy that actually looks! I may have to try it with bought milk. Will have to look online for a cheese making kit. Mmmm…lasagna with fresh cheese…yummy!
6:21
am
I learned something early this morning-how to make cheese! It sounds easy. I had to look up what rennet and butter muslin was. Maybe I’ll try it some day. Is the mozzarella a lot harder to make? My family loves mozzarella.
6:46
am
This is what kept going trough my head….Little Miss Muffet Sat on a tuffet eating her curds and whey….
Did you taste any? What did they taste like? Now I am off to the cheses making site! Your cheese was inspiring!
6:53
am
That photo of the goat is adorable. Have you made fresh mozzarella yet? Is there a post about it, if you have. It’s my fave and be something I would consider making.
7:09
am
I just went to a wine and cheese class in Litchfield County (Connecticut) last weekend where we did this with that kit! You will never buy Ricotta again. I promise.
7:52
am
Wow! You make it look so easy, especially with the great photos. I bet it will taste so great because you made it yourself instead of coming from a store…homemade always seems to be so much better…right.
7:53
am
Well aren’t you just something! Great job…you make it look so easy. I’m smelling lasagna already.
7:56
am
Really? That’s all there is to it? Looks wonderful, probably tastes even better!
8:45
am
My favorite use of fresh ricotta cheese? At the Sepember get-together at Suzanne’s she put fresh ricotta cheese on french bread slices, topped the bread with pesto or shredded basil, and put them under the broiler until the cheese melted. It’s great in lasagna I’m sure, but fresh ricotta broiled on toast really highlights the delicate cheese.
Check out the picture from the get-together last month. It’s on the September 29th blog page. (If I could figure out how I’d make it a link…)
8:46
am
Did I miss something because that seems so easy? Minus the goat milking of course. That was pretty amazing.
8:52
am
Look at today’st photo of the locally-grown apples. I have two buckets Mike picked yesterday from an old apple tree he found up the hill in a field. I’m going to can apple pie filling - next winter I’ll just have to open two jars of apple filling, pour it into a 9″ pie shell, and bake. MUCH better than that store-bought canned apple filling!
8:53
am
Ricotta really is that easy! (Surprisingly, cottage cheese, which seems to me so similar to ricotta, is an entirely different process, with more steps.) Mozzarella is relatively simple, too, though it has a few more steps. I’ve tried it once–it was my first cheesemaking experiment–and I wasn’t very happy with how it came out, but now that I’ve experimented some more, I’m going to try it again and I’ll post when I do!
The party pics are here and if you scroll down you can find the pic of the ricotta broiled on fat slices of Grandmother Bread with some garlic and herbs–yum!
8:58
am
That’s it? I would have thought it would be more complicated than that. Thank you for another great post, Suzanne. I’m tempted to try this is weekend, but it’s Thanksgiving weekend up here in Canada, so I have more pressing things to do in the kitchen this weekend. ;-)
9:59
am
That is pretty darn cool!
:J
10:13
am
Fresh Cheese! I’m so jealous! I might have to try that! (minus the goat, for now.)
10:51
am
THAT is just the neatest thing…VERY interesting!!!!! It looks fun! I want to try that sometime! I LOVE Ricotta!
I could see Tiramisu, Cannoli, Lasagna, stuffed Manicotti shells and sauce, cheesecake (?)…the sky is the limit! Even cool dips, made out of Ricotta, for vegies or crackers!
10:52
am
P.S. - I do prefer Ricotta in Lasagna than cottage cheese.
Isn’t that the CUTEST little Clover face looking up at you?
11:07
am
Wait. That’s it? I thought that making cheese would take days not an hour. Maybe now I’ll try doing it. Thanks.
11:24
am
Now that I think about it….it only made two little PINT size jam jars full? Out of a gallon of milk? I was just curious about that, because when I make yogurt out of a quart of milk, it makes alot more.
Just making sure I am thinking about the right amt. it makes. It just seems like a quart should make alot more than two little jars!!
11:25
am
I love your blog. read it first thing every day. I have a question. I remember my grandmother making what she called cottage cheese out of cow milk and it was better than any cheese you could buy at the store. I know she would let her milk sour (probably in place of your acid) she would put it into a cheese cloth and pour boiling water over it. hang it up to drain. She chilled and served with salt & pepper after stirring some whole cream into it. Now was this cottage cheese or ricotta? I think of her every time I purchase cottage cheese at the store because hers was soooooo much better. Thank you Suzanne
11:58
am
Suzanne,
I just looked up cheese recipes last night, and I gave up because it looked too complicated. I have extra fresh raw milk and I need to do something with it. I think I’ll try it now, since I can handle the above process.
12:16
pm
How COOL is THAT?! I love riccotta cheese…it’s my favorite ingredient in my stuffed shells. YUM!
Blessings from Ohio…
1:12
pm
wow, I always just eat the cheese. I never really thought about how to make it. Thanks for provoking thoughts and sharing cheese making.
2:31
pm
Wow, first eggs and now cheese! What’s next lol. I wonder how the pioneers made cheese without the citric acid - something acidic I guess.
3:28
pm
You make it look so easy!
3:57
pm
YAY for cheese!
LOL on step one. Think I’m gonna skip that one.
4:14
pm
OK! I have ordered the Beginner’s Kit and I’m just sitting here waiting for it to arrive…… I also ordered several Storey’s Country Pamphlets (see, I’ve already forgotten the name of the things!) and I’m ready to get prepared for this Depression that we are facing. Ready, Set….
RosieJo
5:15
pm
Ricotta really IS that easy. It’s a great cheese to start with because it will give you a boost of confidence to go on and try other cheeses that have more steps and other processes.
Cottage cheese is different–it’s made with a mesophilic starter. I haven’t tried it yet, but I intend to! It’s also a soft cheese. Any of the soft cheeses are good for beginner cheesemakers, but definitely start with ricotta as it is the easiest. You just about CAN’T mess up ricotta.
5:26
pm
oh, and Donna, yes, a gallon of milk makes two pints of ricotta! You’ll find that with any cheese. Milk is largely water, and making cheese involves separating that out.
6:08
pm
You are making cheese!!
6:17
pm
Hello!
Thought it time I stopped lurking and commented. I want to say how very much I love your blog. I am not on the computer much but I try to stop in every day to see your latest post. You have the best recipes and I have never laughed so hard. I have not had a chance to read any of your books as yet but you must be a terrific author! Thank You!!!
Andrea
6:52
pm
CONGRATULATIONS!!! It looks soooo good.
The next thing we know, you’ll have a fully stocked cheese cave.
7:27
pm
Thank you Suzanne for that reply above…that is sooo interesting! I want to make that sometime!! Anything fresh is always better!
7:27
pm
Wow, I’m with Mental Mama’s comment…I may never buy ricotta again! This doesn’t look hard at all! What fun! (well, I’m going to skip step one of course.)
10:35
pm
I don’t have access to anything but store bought milk. If I can get someone to bring me some from one of those huge bulk stores I can see myself making ricotta cheese. I would much rather do that than to buy the ricotta in the store! Thanks for the recipe and steps.