Author Topic: Ricotta, Whole Milk - Make Fail  (Read 3176 times)

eirelander

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Ricotta, Whole Milk - Make Fail
« on: November 05, 2010, 11:29:43 AM »
I am a new cheesemaker and tried ricotta yesterday for the first time.  Two 1 gallon batches with slightly different coagulation techniques. Unfortunately, both batches came out tough and rubbery, not at all the light and airy cheese I thought I would make!

I used farm fresh milk (~7% butterfat, I believe the farmer said).  The first batch I followed the Ricki Carroll recipe (citric acid added at the beginning of the heating process).  First of all, my yield was pretty low - about 2 cups. I also think I may have overheated the milk by 5-6 degrees F.  The batch came out in one large mass, which I broke apart by hand and added a little cream to improve the consistency.  After 7 hours in the fridge, it's not at all improved.

The second batch I used the recipe from this site.  The only major difference (from Ricki's recipe) is I used white vinegar (6 oz then another 2 later on) *after it* reached temperature ~185 F.  This batch came out even more solidified than the first batch.

So, is it the milk, the temperature? Maybe it's supposed to look like this; I've never had homemade ricotta before!
« Last Edit: November 05, 2010, 11:56:32 AM by eirelander »

susanky

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Re: Ricotta, Whole Milk - Make Fail
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2010, 12:17:17 PM »
I am a newbie myself and have made a little ricotta from whey. It was very fine and required a coffee strainer.  I'll be interested to hear what the gurus say.  I am not clear on the difference in these type of recipes (using whole milk, acidifier (vinegar, lemon juice or whatever) and heating to high temp to get curd) and queso blanco.  My queso recipe (Ricki Carrol) seems the same.  And the larger curd/texture you got sounds more like queso.  What defines one verses the other?

KosherBaker

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Re: Ricotta, Whole Milk - Make Fail
« Reply #2 on: November 05, 2010, 08:19:48 PM »
I've only made ricotta from the milky whey left over after making the cheese. Never made it from whole milk. As I'm sure you guys know Ri means to redo something and Cotta means to cook something. So Ricotta means Recooked, i.e. cooked after the original cheese was finished. I have however, heard of some milk being added to the whey to improve the yield and consistency and "fix" the acidity. While we are waiting for people in the know to chime in, may I suggest you have a look at this link and see how it compares to your Ricotta instructions:
http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/cheese/sectionf.htm#heatacid

eirelander

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Re: Ricotta, Whole Milk - Make Fail
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2010, 03:02:42 AM »
seems like the guelph recipe is quite a bit different than the two I used. Esp since they start with whey and I started with whole milk. I guess my 'ricotta' is more like queso blanco.

Cheese Head

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Re: Ricotta, Whole Milk - Make Fail
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2011, 12:42:09 PM »
On the recipes section of the website there are two Ricotta recipes, using whey or whole milk.

I reviewed a whole milk and whey based manufactured Ricotta here and a partially skimmed milk Ricotta here.