Best Ricotta Method

[jbachman]

So in looking around the internet and even this site I've seen two methods for Ricotta making that differ greatly.  One involves cooking the whey for an hour at 100 degrees F then raising to 200 at the end and adding acid.  The other just brings things straight up to 200 without the hour cooking.  Has anyone tried these two different methods and know which one is better?  More traditionally correct?  I've seen plenty of people on here who have not cooked it for an hour and seem to get good results so I'm not sure if it's necessary.

[bbracken677]

I havent tried the cook at 100 for an hour method. I have attempted the other style a few times and have to say that the style of cheese the whey comes from will have a significant impact on how much ricotta you wind up with.
The best yield I have had so far was from a parmesan make...from an attempt make with whey left from a camembert make, I got almost no ricotta at all.

[jbachman]

Yeah.  I tried to do a ricotta today with the cook for an hour method from a chèvre leftover whey and got almost nothing out of it.  1/3 cup maybe.   :(

[H-K-J]

This is the way I did it with 4 gallons of whey ^-^

[Al Lewis]

I'm with you on this one.  Used 2 gallons of whey from my Wensleydale make and got about 4 tablespoons of Ricotta.

[Schnecken Slayer]

I found I got good results from my hard and washed curd cheese.
Not a great yield from the cams.

[linuxboy]

For what style of ricotta? There are different variations. A single method is like saying all cheddar is the same where there are dozens of substantial cheddar differences in the make.

[jbachman]

linuxboy,
I guess that's part of my question then.  I'm not aware of the different styles of ricotta (newbie).  The whey I had was left over from making 1 gallon of milk's worth of chèvre.  Perhaps the the goat whey just doesn't give good yield?  Maybe my expectations for yield are too hight for ricotta.

[linuxboy]

Chevre doesn't work, you need whey from a cheese that still has enough whey proteins to make it worthwhile when making whey ricotta.

[jbachman]

Cool.  Thanks for the info.  I guess the whey will be going to the cats from the chevre batches.

[margaretsmall]

The cats will enjoy it, but you can also use whey to make great soup (the cream varieties) and bread for yourself.
Margaret

[susanky]

So is there a general rule (or a list somewhere) of which cheese extracts more of less of the protein, thereby predicting which are more likely to leave a whey useful for making ricotta?
Susan

[bbracken677]

I think the more whey released from the curds (such as parmesan) would result in greater yields...ergo, any cheese where you would use a flocculation of less than 3 would be best.
Higher flocculation multipliers would result in significantly less yield such as camembert or chevre.

[jbachman]

The cats will enjoy it, but you can also use whey to make great soup (the cream varieties) and bread for yourself.
Margaret

I actually did use some of the whey from this batch for some bread dough and it was really great!

[Vina]

have to agree - I bake whey baguettes and they turn out perferct!