RogueCotta

[Owly055]

The blandness of Ricotta has little appeal to me, but I hate to waste whey. My most recent batch of cheese using two gallons of whole milk, left me with a fair bit of whey, and I decided to make a naturally acidified ricotta by leaving the whey out at room temp, and using litmus paper to assess the PH. I then followed the recipe at Cheese.com........ more or less, adding 3 cups of whole milk, heating it to 180 and holding it there. What I did differently was to add thin slices of butter laying on top of the floating ricotta, allowing them to melt into it. Only used about 2T worth, but it made a huge difference in flavor / richness.
This will be SOP for me from now on. The addition of the whole milk and butter resulted in what to me is a much more desirable product.

One of the joys of making beer, wine, and other food and drink products at home is that you can try whatever you want......

H.W.

 

[Owly055]

A further note on this product. I didn't let it get super firm, so it's a rich creamy spreadable with a mildly tangy flavor, a bit buttery, like a very mild spreadable cream cheese. It's a wonderful product that bears very little resemblance to ricotta as we know it. I can't help but take a taste every now and then. Next time I will take the PH far lower, until it has a sharp tang, and add more butter. I'm wondering what a bit of sugar added to the whey, along with the further souring would result in.........

H.W.

 

[passedpawn]

You could add a small amount of lipase enzymes to your whey for a much more interesting flavor.