Make Goat Milk Ricotta Cheese

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If you want a quick and easy-to-use cheese that works great in scrambled eggs or in your favorite lasagna recipe, ricotta is your best choice. Ricotta is a fairly straightforward cheese to make, especially if you have extra goat milk and/or leftover whey from cheese making. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Instructions

1. Place 1 g of goat milk or about 1 g of leftover whey in a large stainless steel cooking pot and heat over medium to 195 F, stirring occasionally with a spatula. At 195 degrees, tiny curds will begin to bubble to the surface.

2. If you started with goat milk, reduce the heat to low and simmer at 195 degrees for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and making sure no curd sticks to the pan.

3. If you started with whey, add an additional 2 qt. of goat milk and bring the temperature back up to 195 F, stirring occasionally and making sure no curd sticks to the pan. Reduce the heat to low and simmer at 195 degrees for 15 minutes.

4. Set a large colander in a large bowl (big enough to hold the liquid leftover from the curd) and place a two-layered section of cheesecloth over the colander. This cheesecloth should be large enough to be pushed down into the colander and still allow the corners to hang well over the sides.

5. Pour the curds and whey through the cheesecloth and scrape out any curd that remains in the pot. Be careful not to allow the edges of the cheesecloth to slip down into the colander as you pour.

6. Bring the corners up and together and lift the ball of curd out of the whey and tie a rubber band around the upper part of the cheesecloth about 2 inches above the ball of curd. Hang the separated curd over the bowl of whey from a hook or cabinet handle and let drain.

7. Once the whey is drained off of the curd (about an hour), remove the rubber band, peel the cheese cloth off of the curd and place the curd into a small mixing bowl, discarding the cheesecloth.

8. Add about 1/2 tsp. of kosher salt per 1 cup of cheese curd and stir with a fork until the salt is well dispersed and the curd has separated into smaller particles. Store in a plastic bag or lidded container.

Tags: goat milk, stirring occasionally, ball curd, cheesecloth about, curd place, curd sticks, degrees minutes