Ricotta with washed-curd cheese whey

[mhill]

When we first started cheese making, we tried to make ricotta with washed curd cheese whey (diluted with water by 30%) and were unsuccessful. We then had very consistent success making ricotta with regular cheese whey. I am wondering if anyone knows of a variation of the standard washed curd cheese process that is compatible with still using the whey for ricotta (e.g. washing curds after draining whey, etc.) . Or is this impossible? Mike.

[Tomer1]

Did you use the direct acid method? or was the whey left to further ferment and acidify?

[mhill]

The latter. Left whey to acidify to proper PH and then cooked. I think the dilution of the "washed curd" whey with water was the problem. Mike

[MrsKK]

Yeah, unfortunately adding all that water just dilutes it too much to get ricotta from it.  You can use the whey that you remove at the beginning of the process for making ricotta, but it wouldn't give you much.

[iamgouda]

I know this is an old thread, but I just wanted to say I've had success making Ricotta from washed-curd whey.
I used it right after making the Gouda, and heated it to 200 F, added a little more than 1/4 C cider vinegar.
I used whey from 2 gal milk.
I ended up with 1 1/2 C Ricotta and lots of very thin whey!   ;D

Hope this helps some...