Homemade Ricotta Cheese Help

[SarahFair]

I've been using a few recipes that call for ricotta lately...

I'm wanting to try and making it on my own, but I'm seeing a 100 different ways...

Heating the milk anywhere from 110° to 200°
Lemon juice vs vinegar
Icing it after making a ball

How much will half a gallon of milk make?

How are yall doing it?

 

[ilbcnu]

all milk is not created equal. Use organic. Milk that has been ultra pasteurized has destroyed the proteins necessary to curd. Also, the longer it strains the firmer it gets. Try adding a cup of heavy whipping cream while the milk is slowly warming, if you’re not seeing curds form add lemon or vinegar by the tablespoon until curd begins to form. Coffee filters will be as good as cheesecloth. You can also make it the microwave using condensed milk and 1% milk. Trial and error with the heating but you’ll never go back to store bought

 

[elfiii]

I've been using a few recipes that call for ricotta lately...

I'm wanting to try and making it on my own, but I'm seeing a 100 different ways...

Heating the milk anywhere from 110° to 200°
Lemon juice vs vinegar
Icing it after making a ball

How much will half a gallon of milk make?

How are yall doing it?

Girl, you got sand. There is no way I would attempt doing it. All I would accomplish would be a huge mess in Mrs. elfiii's kitchen and that's the death sentence right now.

 

[SarahFair]

Girl, you got sand. There is no way I would attempt doing it. All I would accomplish would be a huge mess in Mrs. elfiii's kitchen and that's the death sentence right now.

I remember when my dad first got into cooking and would make a mess in the kitchen.
You'd hear my mom clear across the house

 

[SarahFair]

I think my fist attempt is going to be an L.

I jumped the gun and put the vinegar in at the start, heated it up to 120, stirring, turned off the heat and let it sit 10 minutes.

It slightly curdled, so I added a little more vinegar and let it sit another 5, slightly curdled more.
So I turned the heat back on and heated it to a little over 130 and it instantly curdled.


Thought I had cheese cloth from another project, no it was tack cloth , so I used paper towels to strain, which was not going well, so I removed the paper towels and just used straight sieve.

It's currently sitting finishing straining, but I can smell the vinegar pretty strong.

It looks okay, but I'm not sure how it's going to taste

 

[ambush80]

I remember when my dad first got into cooking and would make a mess in the kitchen.
You'd hear my mom clear across the house

I was corrupted by watching cooking shows like Iron Chef where they used lots of pans and spoons and whisks and strainers...... to make a dish that they assemble with tweezers. They would waste a ton of ingredients and sling stuff around just to make a few spoon fulls of sauce. Then I worked in restaurants where there were people (sometimes me) whose only job was to wash barely used cooking utensils. I cooked like that at home until I realized that it was impractical. My wife and daughter wash most of the pots and pans when I cook, but I often wash some as I go. My daughter has learned that it's a better gig to cook than to wash.

 

[ambush80]

I think my fist attempt is going to be an L.

I jumped the gun and put the vinegar in at the start, heated it up to 120, stirring, turned off the heat and let it sit 10 minutes.

It slightly curdled, so I added a little more vinegar and let it sit another 5, slightly curdled more.
So I turned the heat back on and heated it to a little over 130 and it instantly curdled.


Thought I had cheese cloth from another project, no it was tack cloth , so I used paper towels to strain, which was not going well, so I removed the paper towels and just used straight sieve.

It's currently sitting finishing straining, but I can smell the vinegar pretty strong.

It looks okay, but I'm not sure how it's going to taste

View attachment 1288371

Cover it up with enough meat sauce, noodles, mozzarella, sausage, basil and parmesan and no one will know the difference.

 

[SarahFair]

I was corrupted by watching cooking shows like Iron Chef where they used lots of pans and spoons and whisks and strainers...... to make a dish that they assemble with tweezers. They would waste a ton of ingredients and sling stuff around just to make a few spoon fulls of sauce. Then I worked in restaurants where there were people (sometimes me) whose only job was to wash barely used cooking utensils. I cooked like that at home until I realized that it was impractical. My wife and daughter wash most of the pots and pans when I cook, but I often wash some as I go. My daughter has learned that it's a better gig to cook than to wash.

I worked for a man who's sister was a professional chef.
Both he and his said they HATED when she'd come over and cook for them because she'd use every dish and utensil in the house and the agreement was, she cooked, they cleaned.
They both rolled their eyes and looked to the heavens when talking about it so it must have been pretty bad

Cover it up with enough meat sauce, noodles, mozzarella, sausage, basil and parmesan and no one will know the difference.

It's going in a lasagna, think it'll cook put?
It takes about 3.5 - 4 hours to make, it'll be slightly disappointing if it tastes off.

Right now it tastes like a new box of Crayola crayons smells.

 

[ambush80]

I worked for a man who's sister was a professional chef.
Both he and his said they HATED when she'd come over and cook for them because she'd use every dish and utensil in the house and the agreement was, she cooked, they cleaned.
They both rolled their eyes and looked to the heavens when talking about it so it must have been pretty bad


It's going in a lasagna, think it'll cook put?
It takes about 3.5 - 4 hours to make, it'll be slightly disappointing if it tastes off.

Right now it tastes like a new box of Crayola crayons smells.

Yeah. I can always tell people who watch too many cooking shows by the way they cook; they grab a new spoon every time to "taste" and make a ton of noise banging pots and lids. They move like a spaz and fling stuff every where. A real cook moves like a Navy Seal, slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

Maybe make a baby lasagna for practice first.

 

[little rascal]

Welcome to Cajun cooking! One pot, couple utensils. Very good, easy to clean up and good leftovers for days.

 

[ilbcnu]

190 is always the magic number for me and i use lemon juice. If you are going to use it for lasagna you will need to add an egg to it, otherwise it will roll out between the noodles. Add chocolate chips to it and spread over cheesecake is what we do with it. Garlic powder, fresh chopped basil is good also