Ricotta Cheese

For those not taking the edx Science of Cooking class, one of the labs has been making homemade ricotta cheese, which was pretty easy and yummy.  I'm going to add some spices and take some to our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

When prepared with salt, this recipe makes a delicious homemade ricotta cheese. When prepared without salt, it is instead a traditional Catalan cheese called mató, that is usually eaten with honey. You can choose which of these cheeses you want to make by adapting the recipe below.

Materials:

1 stove or hot plate

1 pot

1 strainer

1 whisk

1 thermometer

measuring spoons

cheese cloth

1 large bowl (for water bath)

1 medium bowl (for straining)

Ingredients:

1 liter whole milk

2 Tbsp white vinegar (30 ml)

½ tsp salt (2.5 ml) or honey

Crackers 

Procedure:

1. Prepare a big bowl with ice+water to put the pot in later.
2. Arrange the cheese cloth into four single layers, place it over a strainer, and put the strainer over a bowl as shown in the picture below.

3. Heat the milk while stirring (with salt if you chose to make ricotta, without salt if you chose to make mató). When the milk reaches 198˚F/92˚C, remove the pot from the stove or hot plate, quickly mix in vinegar (no more than a few seconds), and then, let sit and do NOT stir. **This step is critical. If you continue mixing the milk+vinegar mixture, you will prevent the coagulation from happening and will end up with no cheese.**
4. Place the pot in the bowl of ice+water to cool down.
5. When the temperature reaches 97˚F/36˚C, pour the contents of the pot onto the strainer covered with cheesecloth. This allows the whey to pass through, while the curds remain in the strainer. You may occasionally have to stir the curds gently to help the whey drain.
6. Fold the edges of the cheesecloth over the curds, and put everything (strainer+bowl) in the fridge to chill for 20 min or longer.
7. Eat with crackers. Add honey for the traditional version of Catalan mató.