Homemade Ricotta Cheese

An essential ingredient in the veal ricotta meatballs recipe I tried recently was, of course, the ricotta cheese. The author of the blog post where I found the recipe was so persuasive that I felt the dish would've been a disgusting ball of goo if I made it with store-bought ricotta. So...here is my first ever attempt at making cheese!!! It is based on the recipe found here. The recipe says to line a sieve with cheesecloth. I have never used cheesecloth before, but I know what it is. I didn't have any, so I planned to pick some up at the store. I just happened to see some cheesecloth the last time I was at the grocery store, so I bought it. It was even earth-friendly (unbleached, etc.)! I was so excited, then I opened the package to line my sieve (that sounds HILARIOUS!).

It was only about 6 inches wide, so I had to criss-cross it!

So, this not only looks ridiculous, but it also ended up being only moderately functional! After reading some comments, I think next time I will get a linen towel. Not only will it be big enough, it will be reusable!

The next step was to put the milk, cream, and salt in a pot and slowly heat it. Since this was my first time and I wasn't sure what "slowly" meant, I TOOK FOREVER to heat it!!! Seriously, it probably took at least an hour to get the dairy mixture to the point of a slow boil/simmer...sheesh! The directions made me so nervous about "scorching" that I started the stove at 2 and worked my way up from there...v e r y  s l o w l y . . .

The dairy mixture heating sloooooowly!

Since I had so much time to kill while I was waiting for the dairy mixture to heat, I had plenty of time to hand-squeeze some fresh lemon juice for the recipe. It took 1 1/2 lemons to get 5 Tbs. Actually, that yielded 6 or so Tbs.

When life hands you lemons...make CHEESE!

After the dairy mixture simmered for a bit, I added the lemon juice and cut the heat (which I think had made it to 5 or 6 by then!). I stirred in the juice and let the mixture stand for a few minutes. Once it curdled and cooled a bit, I poured it into the cheesecloth-lined sieve to drain the liquid and separate the curds.

Pre-cheese...AKA curds! :)

This is where the cheesecloth showed its inadequacy. Due to the fact that I had to criss-cross the 6-inch wide strips, there were gaps along the sides a few inches from the bottom of the sieve. This meant that I could only strain a little at a time. So...this part of the process also took a long time. Ahhhh...I guess you can't expect amazing cheese to be fast, eh? Anyway, after most of the liquid drained off, I wrapped the cheese in fresh cheesecloth, put it back in the sieve, and weighed it down with two mugs to get out the last bit of liquid. Once all the liquid was drained, I removed it from the cheesecloth and wrapped it with plastic wrap to keep it fresh until it was time to make the meatballs!

My first homemade cheese!!!

This cheese tasted FANTASTIC!!! It was like yogurt, butter, and cream cheese all whipped together! It was fluffy and creamy and rich and delicate! Alex loved it, too (his favorite food is cheese!)!