Making Ricotta Cheese at Home

Reader Contribution by Claire E
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I poked a wooden spoon gingerly into the pot and carefully stirred its contents, which looked like a stereotypical witch’s brew. Inside the pot was a thin yellow liquid which smelled of warm milk and was topped with a lot of tiny, globby white lumps. I was making — or trying to make — cheese. So far it was nothing like I’d expected.

I’d decided to try something new and make ricotta. We needed it for the pumpkin lasagna we were planning to take to my grandparents’ house for Christmas. Not only that, but when I’d read about other people’s experiences making cheese, they described it as a magical, almost transcendent experience. I wanted to see if it was really that great.

The recipe I used, from The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making, by Alana Chernila (Clarkson Potter, 2012), was pretty simple: haul out a great big pot, dump in your whole milk, add a little bit of lemon juice, and then warm the milk very slowly, stirring no more than twice. This process took so long I set a timer and, in between stirs, did homework. It was during this time that the milk reached its unappetizing gloppy stage.

Then we reached the next step, which involved warming the milk faster, though not quite boiling it.

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