So today I made homemade ricotta cheese. Technically, it is not true ricotta cheese, even though most of the YouTube videos referred to it as ricotta cheese. To make real ricotta cheese, you need fresh milk, preferably from a goat, and you treat it with rennet, make mozzarella, and then using the whey leftover, you recook it (ri-cotta) to make the cheese.
Anyway, this is made using whole milk and heavy cream and lemon juice or vinegar. Heated to about 190°. Add a little salt and after adding the acid, that is lemon juice or vinegar, you let it sit until the curds form.
It was a bit of a mess. I made a single container of ricotta plus a little bit more. It cost about $3.49 for the milk, $2.99 for the heavy cream $3.99 for the cheesecloth, about $.50 for one and 1/2 lemons. For a total of $10.97.
I can buy a container of BelGioioso ricotta at sprouts for $7.99 when it’s on sale, or $8.99 when it’s not. And there’s no mess to clean up.
3 comments:
Well, you can say you've done it, at least.
Do It Yourself isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. Still, I’m impressed.
But was it fun? And does it taste any better than store-bought?
P.S. - thanks for enlightening me on the etymology of ricotta. I had no idea.
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