The pay-off!

This morning I had pineapple chunks with orange blossom ricotta (I added the "blossom" part) and for dinner I pulled together a wholewheat penne with Holland tomatoes, arugala and anise ricotta - success!

I think it's time for Phase 2

I'm sure my readers are tiring of pics of half-processed ricotta straining on my 24" stove...so the above pics are clues as to what I plan on doing this rainy afternoon. From the beginning my intention was always to get my technique /process in place before I started testing out flavoring the fabulous ricotta! As discussed in previous cheesecake post, I'm going to continue heating milk to a slightly lower temp than most instructions suggest. Basically this is a basic trial and error process so stay tuned for results...

UPDATE 1: My chemistry memories have faded, but as I was dropping the orange organic extract that contained oil and alcohol into the acid and milk mix, I was wondering how my high school science teacher Mr Slowey would explain the reaction. I tried it twice: first adding drops immediately after I added lemon juice and it seemed to almost instantly counteract the rapid "curd action"...second time, I let the milk cool before adding orange flavor. After letting both cool and set a little in the fridge, I've determined that there's not a lot in it, whether you add flavor earlier or later...I consider both a success!!! Yayy!!

UPDATE 2: now onto the anise flavor...not so successful. It required a lot more of the extract to overpower the cooked milk flavor and I'm still not happy with the flavor anyway....maybe I'll try coconut tomorrow...


FYI I realised that I should be crediting all the wonderful pics which I have appropriated...so starting now I will do so...if it's yours and would like me to remove, please let me know. (They certainly enhance my homely little site.)
Anise pic borrowed from Meeta Khurana
Orange pic borrowed from BMUN sustainability blog

Success at Last !

Sarah was able to use my 30 ounces of ricotta to make one of the best ever cheesecakes...it was her first effort, and a mighty fine one at that...the entire cake was consumed by our hungry office before the end of the day!! A note on the ricotta I gave her...as I mentioned below I was testing out cooking the milk at lower temps and I think that that helps give a softer consistency to the product.

Ricotta Fest at Falai

Dinner at Falai last night with Sol inadvertantly turned into a ricotta triple threat!!!...First an amuse bouche of what seemed like a ricotta souffle swimming in light pumpkin broth...then an appetizer of BUFALA RICOTTA FLAN, pine-nut crumble, cauliflower, candied apple, frisée salad (pictured above) folowed by GNUDI, ricotta cheese, baby spinach, brown butter, crema di latte, crispy sage then a complimentary desert sample of ricotta stuffed canolli type thing....yum, yum, yum and yum...and very inspiring!

not a good sign

Hmmmm... not sure, looks a little bit too runny to work ....but we'll see...I made the first two batches with lemon juice, but no salt...the second two I made with vinegar (also no salt), which seems to forms curds a lot more quickly...pretty careful in both case not to heat over 175 degrees (lower than most recipes tell you). I wanted a consistency for this cheesecake experiment, but next time I think I would try to heat to an even lower temp...I think it contributes to "runniness"....stand by....

big project tonight!

So I have a challenge...tonight I have to make 30 ounces of ricotta, which is the yield from 1 1/2 gallons of milk, which is about 4 pots...I might still be doing this in the morning I think...I have an "order" from a colleague who wants to make an almond-crusted honey ricotta cheesecake with my "product" ....can't let her down so will be cooking milk until Jimmy Fallon comes on tonight, I guess...I'm also experimenting with lower temps for a softer consistency...stay tuned!

Welcome me back!

Fashion weeks and travel have kept me out of the kitchen and away from the cheesecloth but tonight I'm back in full force....working on getting a consistent product before I move into phase 2 of this project...I may have missed out with the first batch cause I let the milk over cook to 200 degrees...we'll see how that one turns out...batch turned out OK but really only needed to drain for 10 minutes, even that i think left it too dry...oh, well...nice with banana for breakfast tomorrow!

Let's call Saturday's batch 7 & 8....7 found a home in new jersey with Francis's Italian family so I'm waiting for notes from them....made batch 9 with vinegar again....last 3 all with non-organic milk....

Made two batches today, both with lemon juice, one I let reach almost 200 degrees (by accident). This seemed to make the cheese a little "grainier"....both taste good though!

Made a batch of buttermilk yesterday and let it drain all night...really wasn't happy with the results, very dry and crumbly....not sure if its the BM or the O/N straining.... might try another batch tonight with lemon juice....if I have enough milk....

Totally didn't do pics today but made pasta tonight with red pepper, tomato, arugula, and HOME MADE RICOTTA ....yum!

Sorry, no pics from last nights experiments, but anecdotal evidence from work colleagues tells me that Buttermilk version was preferred over the Kefir batch....to be honest though, there's not a lot in it....some said the buttermilk was more moist, and a tad sweeter....

WOW! Cheesecloth is incredibly flammable!!!

Tonight I'm trying buttermilk and kefir....results and pics tomorrow....

How many calories in ricotta cheese?

And another very important question I was asked: How many calories in this stuff? But how good does it look...this is ricotta of cow buffalo. Yum!!!

What is the difference between ricotta and cottage cheese?

Well, no one ever said I had "ricotta" thighs! ba-da-bam!
One of my readers asked me this very vaild question so I did the research
Basically:

When a cheese maker separates milk or cream into curds and whey, the curds are used to make cottage cheese and the whey is used to make ricotta.

Some commercial research:
Whole Foods charges $5.99 / pound for Lioni Ricotta which they sell not in the printed tubs shown here, but clear plastic which gives them a more "whole foods" look. Apparently NOT organic.
Whole Foods charges $5.99 for a gallon of Organic milk.
My yield last night from a gallon of milk was 1 pound and 3 ounces - as previously noted this is NOT a high-yield process.
Yes, I paid retail for my milk, but still it is hard to see how to come out of this ahead. Can someone do the math for me?

Batch # 2

Batch # 2 for breakfast this morning with a little cinnamon sprinkled...

Batch # 4

This is Batch #4 this morning after I plopped it out of the cheesecloth.

Experimenting

Made 2 more batches last night. This time with NON-organic, NON-ultra pasteurized milk; 1 with vinegar, 1 with lemon juice. No discernible difference. Here is a picture of Batch 4 draining.

Something I've noticed....batch 1 (with vinegar) has actually dried out over 48 hours, while batch 2 (lemon juice) has been getting wetter in the same period.... hmmmm, fascinating!

Results of Lemon Juice recipe

You can see from the picture above why I was worried about the results of my 2nd batch of ricotta! I followed Deborah's recipe below, sans the cream, watched the temperature more carefully and stirred while the milk was heating. Her recipe however did mention NOT to use "ultra-pasteurized" milk which was what I had been using, albeit organic. When the batch turned out as running as it did I was quick to blame it on the wrong milk but her recipe also said that it would firm up in the fridge, which it did! So all in all, quite the success, and I had fresh ricotta on banana for breakfast Sunday morning. Bought another gallon of non-pasteurized milk and am ready to go again!

Whey-st not, Want Not

Sorry for the above, just couldn't help myself!
Some uses for left over whey, and as ricotta is not known to be a "high-yield" cheese, it's good to find something to do with all that nutrient-rich whey!

A recipe with Lemon Juice

Thought I might try this recipe from Baking Obsession

UPDATE: been reading more and it does seem that over cooking the milk could have been where I went wrong....

1st Batch Draining

We'll see if it's any better by the time I get home (I'm writing from an internet cafe as I have no internet at home for no known reason). I looked back at the first recipe that I linked to and it's possible that my milk never frothed enough cause it sure didn't look anything like their pictures

Also there's a good chance that the product improves "with age":

This process relies on allowing the inoculated bacteria in whey to further ferment the liquid as it sits at room temperature for an additional 12-24 hours. During that time, the remaining sugars are converted to lactic acid, which lowers the pH of the whey. The solubility of the protein in acidified whey is reduced. Heating the acidified whey denatures the protein causing it to precipitate out as a fine curd.

First Try

So I started with one of Deborah's recipes

Method Two: (Yields About 3 1/2 Cups)


1 Gallon Whole Pasteurized Milk


1/3 Cup White Distilled Vinegar


1 Teaspoon Salt


Heat the milk in a heavy, non-reactive pot until it reaches 185 degrees F. Remove from the heat and add the vinegar and salt. Stir gently just to mix. The curds will begin to form immediately. Cover the pot and let sit for 2 hours to allow the curds to fully develop. Line a colander with two layers of cheesecloth, and pour the mixture into it. Let the cheese drain for one to two hours depending on how dry you want your ricotta cheese to be. Store the ricotta in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

and all was very simple, I'm just not very excited by results. I used full cream milk but cheese wasnt very creamy, and it was a little sour...HOWEVER, I may have let the milk temp get a little high, and my proportions may be a little off as I don't have measuring things (back to Crate & Barrel again on Monday). The first batch is now draining in a colander at home and I am on my way to buy citric acid to try a different version. This is a picture just after the vinegar and salt were added to milk. It would probably be OK to use this batch in lasagna, but not on fresh mango - my favorite!

Today's shopping: I bought colanders and spatula from Crate & Barrel cheesecloth and thermometer from Sur la Table
Seeing The September Issue tonight so ricotta making put off another day. Check back in on Friday ....FYI picture by Liz U.

Crate & Barrel was overwhelming this afternoon with choices of colanders and non-reactive pots so I came home to do more research. To tide you over here is a recipe by Grace Pilato that seems a little simpler than the one posted below. And Deborah Mele seems to have streamlined the process even further.

UPDATE: seems that both the IKEA pots I already had at home were stainless steel, hence perfectly "non-reactive"...now I can focus on colanders, cheesecloth and thermometers

What is a Non-Reactive Pot?

I wondered this myself! and this is what I found out from Discuss Cooking:

Reactive Pan - is one made from a material that reacts chemically with other foods. Aluminum and copper, metals that conduct heat extremely well, are the 2 most common reactive materials used to make in cookware.

Lightweight aluminum, second only to copper in conducting heat, reacts with acidic foods, imparting a metallic taste, and can discolor light-colored soups and sauces, especially if you stir them with a metal spoon or whisk (it is a very soft metal). For that reason, you should neither cook nor store light-colored foods in aluminum cookware. Anodized aluminum has a hard, corrosion-resistant surface that helps prevent discoloration.

Most copper pots and pans are lined with tin to prevent reaction. However, tin is a very soft metal, so it scratches easily and then exposes foods to the copper underneath.

Non-Reactive Pan: When a recipe calls for a non-reactive cookware, use clay, copper, enamel, glass, plastic, or stainless steel. Stainless steel is the most common non-reactive cookware available. Since it does not conduct or retain heat well, it frequently has aluminum or copper bonded to the bottom or a core of aluminum between layers of stainless steel. Although expensive, this kind of cookware offers the benefits of a durable, non-reactive surface and rapid, uniform heat conductivity.

Glass cookware is non-reactive and although it retains heat well it conducts it poorly. Enamelware is non-reactive as long as the enamel is not scratched or chipped. Cast-iron is considered reactive; however, we have to say that our extremely well-seasoned pans seem to do fine with tomato sauce and other acidic foods as long as they do not stay in contact with one another for extended periods.

Getting started

This blog will document my efforts to learn to make Ricotta Cheese. I just hope that the rest of the process is not as difficult as choosing a name for the blog! Unfortunately, "Curds & Whey"; "Little Miss Muffet" and "Sweet Cheesus" were all taken....so I apologize for the lameness of the title and am open to wittier suggestions!

I first tried ricotta very recently at the breakfast buffet in a hotel in Milan and, back in NYC, have become addicted to the lone version stocked at Wholefoods. I'm looking to make not just a passable cheese, but a Farmer's Market-worthy, creamy, flavorful delight!

I've found a recipe with pictures and a shopping list so am ready to hit the road with this. Tomorrow I will cash in a Crate & Barrel gift card to purchase a non-reactive pot, a strainer and cheesecloth!