Following along with switching over to homemade, making it ourselves, products, we bring you: Ricotta Cheese. Are you thinking that there’s no possible way that you can make cheese because it should be for some professional to figure out? Yea, I thought that too. I never believed in my life that I would start making my own cheese. But you know what? I am totally hooked! If you can boil milk, you can make this cheese.
List of special things you’ll need:
Cheese cloth — You can find it at any fabric store or online
Strainer
Citric acid
Thermometer
Ingredients:
1 gallon whole milk
1 cup cream
1 tsp citric acid
2 tsp Kosher salt
On medium heat warm milk, and cream, heat till 190˚F.
Once the desired temp is reached, add citric acid and gently stir. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Carefully pour into a strainer that’s covered with a cheesecloth (we actually used an old, clean kitchen apron and it works great).
Let it sit for 10-20 min. *You can use it hot and have it be legit “21 min cheese” and you can skip this step. The longer you let it sit, the thicker it will get.*
When you have desired thickness, sprinkle the salt over top and mix. Store up for a week safely.
For some extra zing in flavor, add in pesto or sundried tomatoes. I wanted to cry a little bit when The Chef made pesto ricotta and added it to veggie lasagna. I have never… I can’t even explain it’s awesomeness.
*After the ricotta has strained, you can discard the whey underneath, or use it when you boil potatoes or pasta. I’ve heard it gives really great flavor! If you know of other uses for this, please let me know! I want to find awesome uses if I can instead of dumping it*
Next on our list for cheeses is mozzarella! I’ve seen a lot of how to’s and blog on how to do it, I just have to order my vegetable rennet. I’m super geeked. That will knock down our cost for making our own pizza into under a dollar mark if I’m doing my math correctly.
Oh and speaking of prices. Why don’t you check out the cost of ricotta cheese from a store compared to making it yourself. Now there’s a wallet friendly M.I.Y! You get about quadruple the amount for less money. Um, yes please.
Let us know if you have any questions!! We love hearing from you!
Print out the recipe so it’s an easy find for next time! Don’t forget to share this blog with your pals! It’s like a free gift (or sort of).
- 1 gallon of whole milk
- 1 cup cream
- 1 tsp citric acid
- 2 tsp Kosher salt
- On medium heat warm milk, and cream, heat till 190˚F. Once the desired temp is reached, add citric acid and gently stir. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Carefully pour into a strainer that's covered with a cheesecloth. Let it sit for 10-20 min. *You can use it hot and have it be legit "21 min cheese" and you can skip this step. The longer you let it sit, the thicker it will get.* When you have desired thickness, sprinkle the salt over top and mix. Store up for a week safely.
- For an extra zing of flavor, add in pesto or sundried tomatoes! This is greeeeat in lasagna!!
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