I’m serious. I MADE cheese. At home. By myself. AND it did not require ANY special tools or supplies. In fact, YOU can make ricotta cheese at home.
I got the idea/recipe/directions from The Heavy Table. That in combination with having a guest over for dinner propelled me (in my vast amounts of free time) to do it up right and make ricotta for the Mexican lasagna I was serving. Granted, in the future when I make cheese, I will likely serve something where my cheese will stand out, but it fit with the menu I had planned. Don’t judge.
I halved the recipe from the Heavy Table, and made some other adjustments (I used 1/4C heavy cream and 1/4C 1% milk…mostly because I needed to use my heavy cream for something else). Also I could not find cheesecloth, despite looking for it at both the grocery store and an emergency run to Walgreens. Instead I taped a coffee filter to a yogurt container – no worse for wear.
After ten minutes or so on medium heat, the goat milk, heavy cream and milk began a rolling boiling. I added the acid – lemon juice. Within seconds it began to curdle. The yellowish liquid is the whey.
After two minutes of curdling and stirring I took the curds out with a fork and let them drain on the coffee filter for an hour.
Making ricotta was super cool and whey (hahah! i’m hilarious) cool.
After the liquid has been mostly drained, it is ready to eat, serve and enjoy – all things you should do within 2-3 days. The goat milk gave it a lovely tang and was oh so good!
See how easy this was? It took 20 minutes of active work and required virtually no effort. I think you should make some and let me know what you think! Try sheep’s milk or even regular milk!
