Whole Milk Ricotta and Beyond

Mascarpone and Paneer were great, but I was pretty pumped to work on something more familiar. Homemade ricotta cheese... come on now!  We went with the whole milk ricotta recipe vs. the whey ricotta which looks a little more complicated. The instructions were very similar to Panir... You slowly warm up milk, introduce acid, the milk coagulates, the curds and whey separate, drain, and add salt.  Dazzled again that such small adjustments create completely different products.   

This Organic Valley milk we used came from the Nezinscot Farm in Turner Maine.   The farm is owned and run by Gregg and Gloria Varney , and was the first certified organic dairy in the state of Maine.  They have about 100 cows and grow most of their animal feed on their farm.  Only 45 minutes away from our house, this just got added to the destination list. 

 

One of the noticeable different in process was the length of time in which the milk is brought up to temperature.  The previous two cheese recipes called for a more gradual warming, taking around 40 minutes. This was a much faster 20-25 minutes to bring to 195F.  Not quite sure how this difference plays into the cheese, but figured it needed extra stirring to avoid scalding.  I wonder what role the frequent stirring plays in curd size? I remember reading that over stirring can break up the fat globules, so my guess is that more stirring = smaller curd size?

Oh... the book called for a 4 quart pot. Not quite sure how that would work with a gallon of milk and 1/2 cup of cream.  My best alternative was a 6 quart pot.  Almost botched the entire effort as the thermometer didn't fall deep enough into the milk to register temp properly.  It was down enough to show some change in temp, so I assumed it was fine. Then it got stuck on 140F for what was clearly too long because it had been 20 minutes and curds had started to from. At that point I took the gauge off the rim, dipped it a little further down and the temp shot up to 185F.  Not sure if I dislodged the thermometer at some point, or maybe the milk level had gone down past the thermometer.  I suppose the lesson is to be attentive... I bet another minute would have scalded the milk beyond use.

Had to improvise on the initial curd strain as our metal strainer was overflowed! Clearly need to invest in a flat ladle or some type of curd scooper as well.

We had decided earlier to use some of the ricotta to make Ricotta Salada. Now this goes against my original plan to follow the book more or less linearly, but couldn't resist the opportunity to experiment with aging.

  

Kate bought this plastic food storage container that came with a strainer.  Not really convinced of its intended functionality, but we made good use it using the strainer as a cheese mold and the container to store the fresh ricotta

   

Ricotta Salada: line mold with damp butter muslin>fill with curds>press for one hour>undress, unmold, flip, salt, redress place back into mold>press for an additional 12 hours>into the fridge crisper>flip and salt once a day for 7 days>age for 1-3 more weeks in fridge!

You can see the mold imprints... not perfect, but I think it will work.

Above and below pics are after the first (1 hour) press

 

Back to the fresh ricotta; it tasted fantastic. Full on deliciousness! Fresh, creamy, a little sweet, and a  salty. We compared it to some store bought ricotta and it wasn't even close. Without a doubt the best cheese we have made so far.  I'm sure some of this is simply the type of cheese... but I still think this was our best effort.  I would say that it came out pretty dry and not as "fluff" as some of the pictures I have seen of fresh ricotta... not necessarily a negative quality, but noticeable for sure.

Labor Fruits