How to Make Homemade Ricotta

If you have extra milk, why not use it to make ricotta?  It only takes 3 simple ingredients, a little bit of your time, and believe me it is extremely easy to make.  

The process of making ricotta is best with our farm fresh milk. Yes, you can use whole milk from the store, but it will not have as much flavor as fresh milk. You will need to avoid the ultra-high temperature (UHT) pasteurized milk because this process changes the protein structure and you will not have any success making ricotta with it.  And beware of organic milk! Much of it in the store is also UHT. 

A couple of bonuses with making your own homemade ricotta is one you can control how wet or dry your ricotta is by how long you let it drain.  Secondly, making your own ricotta gives you leftover whey to use in baked goods.  It can be used in any recipe that calls for water.  You will find that whey makes yummy bread or pizza dough.

Homemade Ricotta

1 gallon of Fagan Family Farm milk or whole milk

1/4 cup white vinegar or lemon juice

1 tsp or more of salt to taste (optional)

Pour one gallon of milk into a stainless steel pot.  Bring the milk to a low boil.  Remove it from the heat and add vinegar and salt and stir gently.  Let the mixture sit for at least 10 minutes.  After this time, the milk should have separated into clumps.  Strain the curds by placing a strainer lined with cheesecloth over a bowl.  The curds are your ricotta and the liquid in the bowl is the whey.  Let the ricotta drain for 10-45 minutes, depending on how wet or dry you want it.  

Use it right away or keep it in an airtight container in the fridge.

What recipes do you like to make with ricotta?  Please share below in the comment box.  I'd love to hear from you!

Happy cheese-making!

Jamie