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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Videos / Three Ways to Make Homemade Ricotta Cheese (+ Video)

Three Ways to Make Homemade Ricotta Cheese (+ Video)

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

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Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Homemade Ricotta - 3 Different Ways!
  • Homemade Ricotta Recipe
  • Homemade Ricotta Video Demonstration+−
    • More Homemade Cheese Recipes to Try

homemade ricottaIf you are interested in trying your hand at making cheese, ricotta is a great one to try first.

The deliciously sweet, creamy ricotta curds are slightly off white in color with a taste and texture a bit reminiscent of cottage cheese or quark.

The great news is that messing up ricotta is just about impossible!  It is one of the easiest and perhaps the best cheese you will ever attempt. The results are so delectable you will no doubt be making it over and over again.

I first learned to make ricotta along with a number of other cheeses 6 years ago when an expert cheesemaker from Wisconsin (where else?) who was planning a vacation in my area emailed me and asked if I would host a cheesemaking class in my home.

The class turned out to be extremely fun and informative and the techniques I learned I have continued to use to this day.

Homemade Ricotta – 3 Different Ways!

There are 3 different ways to make ricotta that I have discovered over the years in addition to the one approach I learned in that beginner cheesemaking class. All three approaches are overviewed in the video lesson below.  In addition, the simplest method of the three is included as a written recipe.

Choose whichever method suits you best with whatever type of milk or whey you have on hand.

homemade ricotta
3.6 from 5 votes
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Homemade Ricotta Recipe

Recipe for the easiest of the three different methods for making homemade ricotta.

Cook Time 10 minutes
Servings 2 cups
Author Sarah Pope

Ingredients

  • 1 gallon raw milk slightly soured
  • 1 stockpot
  • 1 stainless steel colander
  • 1 cheesecloth fine mesh
  • 1 large rubber band

Instructions

  1. Pour slightly sour raw milk into a large stockpot. If the raw milk is very sour or slightly clabbered, do not use as the ricotta will not turn out sweet.

  2. Put stockpot on large burner and turn on to medium-high heat. Keep a close eye on the pot. Within 5-10 minutes, the milk will start to separate as shown in the photo. Remove pot from heat immediately. Overcooking will destroy the delicate texture of the ricotta.

    separated ricotta
  3. Line a stainless steel colander with a fine mesh cheesecloth folded in half. Place the lined colander into another large pot and carefully pour in the warm, separated raw milk.

    pouring ricotta and whey into colander
  4. Let the whey drain from the ricotta cheese for 30 minutes to 1 hour. The longer you let the ricotta drain, the firmer it will be. Keep this in mind so that you achieve the desired consistency for whatever dish you plan to make with the ricotta.

    draining whey from ricotta
  5. Scrape out ricotta from the cheesecloth and use in a dish immediately such as lasagna or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It will last about a week refrigerated.

Recipe Notes

Cow or goat milk may be used to make this homemade ricotta recipe.

Homemade Ricotta Video Demonstration

More Homemade Cheese Recipes to Try

If learning to make cheese is exciting to you, check out my other cheesemaking posts here:

  • Drowning in Whey?  Make Gjetost Cheese.  This post is a good one to read after learning to make ricotta as the leftover whey can be used to make gjetost if you chose to make ricotta from fresh milk.
  • Cream Cheese and Liquid Whey.  This video is incidentally one of the very first videos I ever filmed for this blog 2 years ago!
  • Cheese Making: Common Problems and Solutions.
  • Perfect Probiotic Cottage Cheese
  • How to Make Yogurt Cheese.
  • How to Make Quark

 

Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist

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Category: Fermented Side Recipes, Videos
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: the bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Reader Interactions

Comments (43)

  1. Kim Lund

    Mar 2, 2019 at 9:19 pm

    5 stars
    I am very confused. You said leftover whey can be made into geost cheese but that says not to use from making cheese, fresh only. Please let me know the correct way. Thank you for all the information

    Reply
    • Sarah Pope MGA

      Mar 2, 2019 at 9:47 pm

      Fresh whey contains enzymes and probiotics and comes from fermented dairy (clabbered milk, kefir, yogurt) … whey leftover from cheesemaking has been cooked and no longer contains enzymes and probiotics.

  2. Nancy

    Jan 27, 2019 at 2:20 pm

    Well first time. Had 3 half gallons of raw milk, from the cow. It tasted a bit sour, smelled like seafood to me. I have gotten my milk from this guy for several months now. Anyway, smelled all three 1/2 gallons and decided to try the ricotta cheese. Not sure what I did wrong, but didn’t work. Burned the milk in the bottom of the pot. 🙁 I poured through the mess cheese cloth and put the product back into the jars to save until I can figure out if there is anything else I can use this for. Help.

    Reply
  3. teresa olofson

    Jul 1, 2018 at 4:30 pm

    5 stars
    why do we “heat” the soured milk for ricotta cheese?

    I have tried making 24 hour yogurt in the oven using a lamp plus the oven light and two times it came out curds and whey.

    Reply
    • Sarah

      Jul 1, 2018 at 9:18 pm

      It doesn’t work if you don’t heat it 🙂

  4. teresa olofson

    Jul 1, 2018 at 4:29 pm

    5 stars
    why do we “heat” soured milk for ricotta cheese?

    Reply
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