The Best Thing to Do With Expired Milk

Reducing food waste is an important issue that concerns many people, but even the most militant eco-warrior would not dare to drink a glass of expired milk. Would a large percentage of these skeptics eat a slice of spoiled milk (cheese) in a beautiful plate? Absolutely, including me.

In my house we use cream or half and half in coffee, but milk, whole or not, is strictly for recipes, not something we usually keep on hand. This often leaves us with a significant amount of milk left over after we’ve eaten a casserole or macaroni and cheese, and I hate wasting it.

Recook it

I usually plan ahead and arm myself with enough recipes to use up the milk, but I like to keep homemade ricotta in my back pocket as a life saver. Ricotta – Italian for “re-cooked” – is made from the whey obtained from the preparation of pecorino or mozzarella. In many regions it is a sheep product, while in America it is usually a cow product.

Casaro (an Italian cheese maker) re-cooks the previously separated whey to form a new curd and then strains it into baskets to make ricotta. While casari use whey, you can use aging milk from your fridge, and you can do it with whole and 2% milk; anything below will not have enough fat to make curd.

A little lemon juice or vinegar, a strainer, and a kitchen thermometer are all you really need, and we covered it in this article a few years ago with additional how-to guides.

Making ricotta at home is super easy and cooking kills anyone like me who lives in terrifying fear, plus you get cheese. Bring the questionable milk almost to a boil, add the acid, strain and enjoy.

Lemon powder or citric acid is also fine if you don’t want to add more liquid (some recipes call for up to ¼ cup lemon juice). Just a meager teaspoon of lemon powder is enough to get the same sour punch (and coagulation effect).

Use the finished product as a spread for toast, beat it into scrambled eggs, or add it to pizza and pasta. This version tastes more lively than the store-bought version, which has a lot of creamy notes, but is less savory than the homemade version.

You can season the ricotta with sugar, salt, olive oil, herbs or spices, sprinkle a spoonful of tapenade on top, or season with garlic and plenty of lemon for a divine and light mezze.

Digest what has already been digested

Despite my best intentions, I have sometimes wasted what I was doing in order not to waste, and homemade ricotta is no exception. Store-bought ricotta is another creamy culprit for occasional excess; after making lasagna or baked ziti, a partially used tub dries up in the back of my refrigerator.

While ricotta is excellent when freshly opened, it does lose its freshness after three to four days, but you don’t have to throw it away.

Do what the (southern) Italians do and digest the overcooked: make Ricotta al Forno, “oven-baked ricotta.” Think of the delicious toasted ricotta chunks you get on a white pie – it’s a delight that awaits you.

Commonly served at breakfast time, these little cheese tortillas can be sweet or savory, but the base is a one-ingredient dish unless you customize it to your liking. Sprinkle olive oil, herbs and seasonings on top before baking, or use as a base for sweets. Like unbaked ricotta, it’s really versatile.

While many people bake it in a stack or small pan to create a slide, I like mine to have as much delicious, savory, almost burnt crust as possible, so I spread it on the thin side, usually one inch thick. before baking.

While making homemade ricotta is easy, making al forno ricotta is even easier: Arrange it in the bowl of your choice, bake, chill, and serve. Cook until they are browned to use as a sauce, or cook until they are crispy to serve as a pie or semi-hard cheese.

The temperature depends on you and your oven. For thicker versions with sauce-like quality, 400°F is fine for crusting on the outside while still leaving some moisture on the inside. For a more cake-like consistency, 375°F is safer and will give a smoother, chewier result.

I love to cook in a cast iron skillet. It makes the pieces as crispy as possible, heavy enough to cook the crust quickly, and since it takes a long time to cool, it moisturizes the crust so you can reheat it without overdrying it – it’s deliciously chewy inside thanks to Maillard’s magic. all over the outside.

Given that both of these tips are inexpensive, effortless, and don’t require a ton of extra ingredients, they’re easy to put into practice when you’re using milk and ricotta, but you can also make (and/or bake) yogurt, cottage cheese, and other fresh cheeses. such as mascarpone, cream cheese and more. Experiment to your heart’s content, but don’t throw away what can be exceptional with a little effort.