Homemade ricotta cheese
Original, appetizing, melt-in-your-mouth, delicious! Homemade ricotta is made from just two ingredients, so you can easily make it in your own kitchen. It comes out very much like real ricotta, with a delicate fresh-cheese flavor and a low fat content.
Cooking method
-
Step 1:
How do you make ricotta at home? Gather the ingredients. It's best to use whole farm milk — it makes the tastiest cheese. If you can't get farm milk, use store-bought, but not ultra-pasteurized — choose the plain kind with a short shelf life. A higher fat content is better; it has little effect on the cheese's calorie count but a big effect on the flavor. I made two-thirds of the batch.
-
Step 2:
Squeeze the juice from the lemons. This amount comes from about two medium lemons. To get more juice and make it easier to squeeze, roll the lemons on the counter, pressing firmly.
-
Step 3:
Take a suitably sized pot and pour the milk into it. Set it over low heat to warm. If you have a cooking thermometer, use it to watch the temperature. If not, go by the milk itself. Heat the milk to 200°F (93°C). By all the signs, the milk is about to boil, with steam rising off it.
-
Step 4:
As soon as the milk reaches the right temperature, turn off the heat. If you want salted ricotta, add salt. Then pour the lemon juice into the milk and stir gently. The milk will curdle right away, breaking into curds. Leave it for 10 minutes.
-
Step 5:
After that time, the milk should be clearly separated into curds and yellow whey. If for some reason it hasn't, add a little more lemon juice.
-
Step 6:
Line a colander with several layers of cheesecloth. Set a bowl or pot under it. Using a slotted spoon, lift the curds out of the pot and into the colander. That keeps the whey from splashing.
-
Step 7:
Pour the remaining whey through the colander.
-
Step 8:
Leave the ricotta in the colander to drain the excess whey. How long to drain depends on the texture you want: for softer ricotta, drain 10 minutes; for drier, drain longer. If your ricotta seems a little dry, you can loosen it with a little whey. Store the finished ricotta in the refrigerator in an airtight container for no more than three days. Enjoy!
- I've made ricotta by this recipe more than once. It comes out very tender, with a slight lemon flavor. It's still not cottage cheese — it has a different texture and taste.
- Don't throw out the leftover whey; you can make a bit more ricotta from it. Just repeat all the steps — heating, adding juice, and draining the curds in a colander.
- This amount of ingredients yields about 500 grams of finished cheese.
- For how to choose the perfect pot for soup, porridge, or pickling cucumbers, see the article on pots.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Whole cow's milk - 68 kcal/100g
- Milk 3.5% fat content - 64 kcal/100g
- Milk 3.2% fat content - 60 kcal/100g
- Milk 1.5% fat content - 47 kcal/100g
- Concentrated milk 7.5% fat content - 140 kcal/100g
- Milk 2.5% fat content - 54 kcal/100g
- Lemon juice - 16 kcal/100g
