Homemade Ricotta
Using just whole milk and vinegar you can make a ricotta style fresh cheese and use it in exactly the same sweet and savoury dishes as store bought.
Here we add a little salt for flavour and optionally replace some of the milk with cream to make it extra rich and delicious.
Simply heat the milk/cream and stir in a little vinegar so it separates into curds and whey. Strained, you'll be left with ricotta made from the curds plus liquid whey you can use to add flavour and nutrition to bread doughs, soups, porridge, smoothies etc.
See Recipes Notes for how much vinegar to use if you want to make more or less ricotta than stated in the recipe.
It's recommended that you read the blog post for extra tips before starting the recipe.
Ingredients
- 1140 ml whole dairy milk (not UHT) approximately 2 pints
- 360 ml double cream can be partly or wholly replaced with more milk
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 40 ml mild white vinegar with 5% acidity e.g. rice wine vinegar or white wine vinegar
Instructions
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Take a large saucepan, pour in some cold water, swish it around then tip out: this creates a film which reduces the chance of the milk sticking.
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Pour the milk, plus the double cream if using, into the saucepan.
Put over medium heat and bring it slowly to a point just below boiling: you should see lots of little bubbles around the edges and if you have a thermometer it should read 90°C / 194°F.
Immediately take off the heat.
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Stir in the salt then sprinkle over the vinegar. Gently stir for 45 seconds. You should almost immediately see it splitting into solid curds and liquid whey.
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Cover and set aside for 15 - 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, double line a large sieve with muslin or cheesecloth and place it over a large, deep bowl.
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Ladle or carefully pour the contents of the saucepan in the lined sieve.
Set aside (in the fridge if the room is warm) and allow the whey to drip into the bowl.
- For soft ricotta leave for 1 - 2 hours.
- For firmer ricotta leave for 5 hours or more. You can also bring the sides of the cloth together and squeeze out more whey if you want it very firm.
Tip: occasionally gently stir the ricotta in the sieve in case the cloth has become clogged with whey.
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When the ricotta is your desired consistency, spoon into a clean lidded container and store in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Tip 1: if the ricotta is too firm then you can stir a little of the whey back in.
Tip 2: for a smoother ricotta, lightly beat with a spoon.
The liquid whey should be stored in the same way and used in bread doughs, pancake batters, soups, smoothies etc.
Recipe Notes
Making larger or smaller amounts: how much vinegar to use.
This recipe uses a total of 1.5 litres of milk/cream. If you want to use a larger or smaller amount, then adjust the amount of vinegar by calculating how many ml represent 2.7 per cent of your total milk/cream.
For example, if you have 2 litres (i.e. 2000 ml) of milk/cream: 2.7 per cent would be 54 ml and this is the amount of vinegar you should use. Likewise, for 1 litre of milk/cream you should use 27 ml of vinegar (i.e. 27 is 2.7 per cent of 1000 ml).