I love cheese, pretty much any kind of cheese, that and chocolate are my downfalls. I mentioned recently that I took a soft cheese making class at OFFF. This morning I made my first ricotta and is it ever yummy. I was thinking it's really pretty much like cheese curds compared to the commercial ricotta I'm used to but then I remembered the teacher saying they add cream to that after it's made. Family get together today so I thought everyone would enjoy trying some homemade cheese as an appetizer. I haven't found my local goat milk source yet but there are lots of them in this area. I used whole organic, grass-fed, non-homogenized, not ultra pasteurized milk. I buy organic milk already but this was even more expensive. One gallon of milk yielded a bit over a pound of ricotta and now I have a huge jar of whey left. The instructor said not to throw it away, it's good to use in baking, soups, smoothies and such so I might bake some bread this week and give it a try. Once I find my goats milk source I'll start using that for the ricotta......and for the chevre and feta I want to make - I already have my cultures and rennet for those....but the ricotta only required the milk and a bit of vinegar.
Lucky family, your homemade cheese looks delish! I am waiting to hear how you like the feta when you make it, feta is one of many cheeses I love. Cheese and chocolate- how can you go wrong?
ReplyDeleteyummy! your picture looks so good! i made cows milk ricotta last summer with lemon juice in place of the vinegar and it was delish :) my grandmas bread recipe actually calls for whey so im sure it will work. she also wrote that you can use the water left over from boiling potatoes if whey is not available. those thrifty ladies knew how to make use of everything back then! cant wait to hear about the chevre. that is one of my personal favs and on my list to try :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip on the lemon juice - I'll have to try that in place of the vinegar next time.
DeleteLook at you! Looks yummy and no doubt by the time I got here it's all gone! I made paneer
ReplyDeleteonce for an indian dinner party I had years ago. Seemed like a lot of milk for not too much cheese, but it was very good!
We still have plenty left so I need to come up with a recipe, maybe just plain old lasagna that I'll use it in. It was drier than I would have liked, will have to read up more on the process.
DeleteEggplant Parmesan! I made some again tonight. The cheeses are expensive so was glad I could use the rest of them up. I wish Ian were as enthusiastic as I am. I say yum!
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