Turn Creamy Ricotta Into Hard Grated Cheese

Ricotta is running out of air time. It’s the perfect food, able to pair both savory and sweet dishes, and sits in the space between smooth, silky, and delicious. I encourage you to find a cheese with the same potential as ricotta.

Ricotta is also the easiest cheese to make – so simple it could be called “unhealthy”. In fact, making ricotta comes down to capturing milk solids—it’s more of a performance loop than a recipe. When preparing any other cheese, you can take whey, add a coagulant and make ricotta from it.

It will be good for you to cook this cheese first, and instead of whey, we will cook whole milk ricotta, because the world is cruel now and you deserve something good. As a savory reward, we’ll go one step further with ricotta salad, a hard cheese that can be grated after it’s been aged so you can remember that moment in time – you, the cheese, and the feeling. you will get pleasure by presenting this cheese to your friends.

Ricotta (recipe by Gavin Webber )

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon milk, not ultra-pasteurized (pasteurized, VAT-pasteurized or raw can be used).
• 2 teaspoons citric acid dissolved in ¼ cup distilled water
• 1 teaspoon non-iodized salt

Equipment ( recommendations for choosing equipment can be found in our buying guide ):

• Pot 6 liters or more
• 3 liter saucepan
• Stainless steel colander
• Gauze
• measuring spoons
• Thermometer
• Cheese press (when preparing ricotta salad)
• 1 medium cheese tin with extension (when making ricotta salad)

Customize the space

As with all cheese, cleanliness is inextricably linked to cottage cheese. Make sure the pot, the countertop, all the utensils you need—from measuring spoons to a thermometer—as well as the faucet and sink—are all freshly cleaned and sanitized with either white vinegar or a disinfectant solution. Keep a vinegar sprayer and clean towels nearby.

Before you begin, boil water in a saucepan on the stove and submerge the cheesecloth in it for at least a minute, then remove it with sanitized tongs and strain it over a colander.

Once you start, you won’t want to wash the dishes or anything else in the kitchen, as water drops can ruin the cheese. If you have enzymes, cover or move them so they don’t contaminate the cheese. We are looking for a sterile environment because we don’t want to contaminate your cheese. Contaminating cheese is bad.

Heat up the milk

Since the temperature will be higher with this cheese, you will need a steamer to avoid burning the milk. Set up a saucepan with a few inches of water and place a saucepan that holds at least six liters in it. Make sure the thermometer is attached to the pot, then pour in the milk. Turn on medium heat and start stirring.

The target temperature is 190℉, but don’t chase it. It will take at least 20 minutes to reach this temperature, stirring all the time. Once you click on it, turn off the heat but don’t move the pan.

Add coagulant

Stir the milk to make a nice little cyclone, then pour in half of the citric acid solution. The milk will curdle, which is what we need. You now have curd (solid) and whey (liquid). Keep stirring. Watch out for serum; we are looking for it to turn yellow. It sounds vague, but you will understand it when it happens. After a minute of stirring, add the rest of the citric acid by a tablespoon, but only add as much as you need to get a yellow whey. Once it turns yellow, add another tablespoon of citric acid and stir.

Remove curd with a spoon

Take the pan to the sink and slowly and carefully pour everything into a colander lined with cheesecloth. If you can’t pour it neatly, transfer the tender curd into a colander with a slotted spoon.

Let the curd drain for 15 minutes to an hour. You can tell it’s “done” by squeezing the curd with two fingers and leaving a creamy residue. Sprinkle the curds with salt, stir, flavor the cheese and adjust the salt to your liking.

That’s all. You can set sail on a cannoli ship, or you can make gnocchi so light that you can float off into space on a raft. Making ricotta is actually very simple; it keeps in the refrigerator for a week or so.

Level Up With Ricotta Salad

If you’re feeling unbeatable and ready to try hard cheese, ricotta salad is a good option to start with. It’s hard to screw up because it’s ricotta and ricotta is reliable.

Spoon the curd into a clean cheese dish. Use a spoon to flatten them out. Now place the attachment on top and place the cheese in the cheese press . Your cheese press has a weight sensor, and for most cheeses, you start with less weight and gradually increase it. With this particular cheese, go for broke.

Load a 30lb weight and leave it for an hour, then increase it to 50lb. I turn the cheese every two hours for the first five to six hours or until I go to bed. Here’s how accurate it is. This is ricotta. After 12 hours in the press, turn it over onto a bamboo mat and leave it outdoors for at least a day. The room should have a temperature of 60 to 70 degrees, not hotter, and air should circulate in it. Turn the cheese daily with clean hands.

The cheese will start to feel dry to the touch on the outside, and when it is completely dry, you can transfer it to a Tupperware or vacuum bag. Put it in the cheese fridge for at least a month, and then you can take it out, taste a piece, see how it tastes and if it shreds. You can continue to age as needed until you get a grindable texture and flavor you like.

A note about hard cheeses and their molds

Cheese is made from mold. Mold is not inherently bad. In fact, we deliberately introduce mold into the cheese – this is your culture. But ricotta salad is made without crops, so mold is not a good sign. Black mold, blue mold, brown mold are bad. Throw cheese if you see them.

When you cut the cheese, look at the holes. They should be irregular in shape, not perfectly round. It doesn’t matter how many irregularly shaped holes it has – they are called “mechanical holes” and are created during the process of pressing and joining the cheese. If there are perfectly round holes, this is bad. The round holes represent yeast or coliforms, both of which are useless. Don’t think about it, just throw it away – spoiled cheese is not worth your health.