Dairy and Non-Dairy Recipes

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

February 18, 2013 - By 

See also Sour Milk – Don’t Toss it Out! and Cottage Cheese Made from Sour Milk

Ricotta Cheese

I’ve seen a couple of posts about making ricotta cheese recently and it prompted me to try making my own! I love ricotta cheese in lasagna and I buy the organic kind when it’s available. I decided that making my own would be better yet, since I have access to organic raw milk.

Ricotta Cheese:

  • 2 quarts whole milk
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 3 Tbs white vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Combine milk and cream in heavy sauce pan. Heat over medium high to 185 F. Remove from heat and add vinegar. Stir gently for 30 seconds, add salt, stir for 30 seconds more. Cover with clean towel and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours.

Line a large colander with several layers of cheesecloth and set colander into a large bowl. Transfer curds to colander with a slotted spoon and allow to drain 30 minutes. Press to remove more liquid. This cheese should last 4 to 10 days in the refrigerator.

 

I used my batch of ricotta to make a pan of lasagna for the freezer. I like to keep a few easy to make meals in the freezer for those days when I don’t feel like putting something together.  We all had a little taste of the ricotta fresh from the bowl and it was better than any I’ve ever bought, yum. 🙂 One of the nice things about ricotta cheese is that you can make it from whey left over from making cheese that uses rennet as a curdling agent. I’m hoping to try a fresh mozzarella cheese soon and maybe I’ll get a batch of ricotta from the whey…sounds like another lasagna in the making. That works…everyone in our house loves lasagna!

Have you ever made ricotta cheese? What is your favorite way to use it?

 

Related Posts

non-dairy milk

Make Non-Dairy Milk for Self-Reliance

May 8, 2021

Homemade Hot Cocoa Recipe from Scratch

December 5, 2019
homemade butter from an antique butter mold

Surplus Milk? Homemade Dairy Products!

March 8, 2019

24 Comments on “Homemade Ricotta Cheese”

  1. Tried your recipe about a month ago – PERFECT in the chicken dish I was making …then.. found my kids (in their 40’s) eating the left overs with crackers and commenting that it needed garlic in addition to the spices I had added for my dinner dish. The next batch was made to be used as a cheese spread, mixed in some spices and its been a hit + the bonus of not having to drive around the county trying to find Ricotta in a store somewhere. Thank you !

    Reply

  2. I’ve tried making ricotta once, and it was a complete failure 🙁 I used lemon juice instead of vinegar, thinking that my lemon tree would have enough lemons on it to use. I don’t think it did, because the juice I did manage to get wasn’t enough to curdle the milk, and so it never did more than thicken ever so slightly.
    I haven’t been brave enough to try again, since then! I do have plenty of vinegar in the pantry, so when I do try again, I shall definitely be doing so with vinegar rather than lemon.

    Reply

    1. Hi Donna,
      I have also read that you can use lemon juice, but I never tried it. I think I will stick to vinegar after reading about your experience! Thanks for sharing 🙂 I hope you have a better batch next time!

      Reply

  4. Wow! I love ricotta cheese, and never knew it was that easy to make it! I am definitely going to try this. Thanks so much for linking up with “Try a New Recipe Tuesday!” I can’t wait to see what you share next week. 🙂 🙂

    Reply

  8. I never knew how easy it was to make your own ricotta. I am really going to have to try this out myself soon. We use ricotta a lot for manicotti and lasagna here!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.