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It’s impossible to find ricotta cheese near me and I really love it. So I decided to make it for myself.

Turns out it’s so stupidly easy I could kick myself for not trying before!

I followed this recipe.

Making Fresh Ricotta Cheese

Ingredients:

2. Set the colander over a large bowl and line with cheesecloth (or, if you don’t have cheesecloth, a clean nylon stocking or clean kitchen dishcloth will do as well). Pour the curdled milk slowly into the cheesecloth, letting the whey drain into the bowl underneath. Pour out excess whey into kitchen sink to ensure colander is not touching whey on the bottom. Allow the cheese to drain until it is as dry as you like, anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. Remove ricotta from cheesecloth, and add salt to taste, if desired. Use immediately, or refrigerate for 1-2 days, keeping in mind that the cheese will continue to firm up as it sits.

Here I am making sure the milk doesn’t boil but just warms up.

There are several methods for making ricotta cheese - but mixing in half a cup of lemon juice to 2 litres of warm milk seemed to be the easiest for the first time round.

I also cheated and bought a bottle of fresh 100% lemon juice.

I’ve spent so many months trying to keep milk fresh and uncurdled this felt WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!

Trying to focus on ricotta cheese and not the whole milk curdling and separating deal which ain’t pretty.

After 5 minutes….

It’s already morphing into cheese!!

I couldn’t find cheesecloth yet, so I cut up a clean pair of pantyhose and used that over the colander.

No whey! I should have researched before I made it because I ended up chucking it out and I should have kept it to use somehow.

I will know for next time.

After at least 30 minutes of draining - success!

Will definitely be making this on a regular basis - easy and fairly cheap. Cost ¥350 for 2 litres of milk, ¥124 for the lemon juice, and some small cost of the cheap pantyhose but I forget exactly.

Took about 10 minutes to warm the milk on the gas cooker then 5 minutes stirring and pouring into pantyhose/colander. Then it was just waiting for it to drain and chucking it in a container.

It’s been fab in both the Italian crepes and on toast with spicy fig orange marmalade.

• Wow! You’re like a combination of Joan Jett and Betty Crocker. Hey, that sounds good.

  nils
  Location: k
  09/10/08 11:39 PM

• Congratulations on making your own ricotta.  I went to an Indian cooking class before and they taught us to make paneer which is similar but I have never had the guts to make it on my own…

  Hope you are alright with the earthquakes in Japan.

  Trissa
  Location: trissalicious.com
  09/10/10 03:46 PM

• What can you do with leftover whey?

  Lori
  09/10/11 04:09 AM

• Hehehe thanks nils.

  Oh Trissa you should try! The worst outcome is wasting a couple of litres of milk.

  Lori apparently there are several uses of whey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whey) but at home it seems a good thing to add to stock or soups or stews for an extra protein and amino acid boost.

  MJD-S
  Location: Sleep Deprivation Alley
  09/10/11 10:13 AM