Fast and Easy Ricotta Cheese

In the last few months, I've finally gotten back into the habit of making cheese regularly (click here for my basic cheese recipe from way back in 2013). And since I usually make about four gallons of milk's worth at a time, that leaves a lot of whey behind. Being a waste-not-want-not kind of girl, of course I use it to soak my chicken feed (whey contains albumen, a protein that laying hens need for egg development) or add to my garden (whey is a rich source of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and many other micronutrients, and can be applied directly to the garden). But before I use it for either of those, I cook it one more time to make ricotta cheese.

I had read that you could make ricotta simply by heating the whey leftover from making a rennet cheese until a fine cloud of cheese forms just under the surface. Then you simply strain it through a cloth overnight and voila! a lovely dish of creamy ricotta.

While this method does work, the yield is ridiculously low and the process is excessively putzy. The cheese made this way is extremely fine, and quickly clogs up the straining cloth. If you want to keep the whey draining, it's necessary to scrape down the cloth almost constantly (which takes HOURS for this quantity of whey), and even so you end up with only about a cup of cheese (from the aforementioned nearly four gallons of whey).

I was just about ready to give up on making ricotta altogether. It was just too much trouble for so little results. But then, a few days ago, I was re-reading David Asher's The Art of Natural Cheesemaking (you can see my review of the book here) and saw his recipe for "fast ricotta". And just like that, I found the solution to my problem. In his recipe, he not only boils the whey briefly (where the first recipe simply heated it until the cheese started to separate), but he also adds 1/4 cup of vinegar. This made a HUGE difference. From the same whey, in less than half an hour (with no scraping of the cloth), I made a full quart of ricotta cheese.

What a relief! I have to admit, the kids were laughing at me as I did a happy dance around the kitchen. It was so much faster, and so much easier. Manicotti Monday has been saved!

In case you'd like to try this for yourself, here's what I did:

Fast and Easy Ricotta Cheese
Heat the whey leftover from making a rennet cheese; bring to a boil. You don't have to stir; the boiling will take care of that for you. Add 1/4 cup of vinegar (white or apple cider vinegar both work fine) or 1/2 cup of lemon juice and bring back to a boil for a moment. Then turn off the heat and let stand for 5-10 minutes.

Line a colander with a damp cotton dish towel and set into a pot large enough to catch your whey. Scoop out the cheese (or just pour all of it through the towel if your pot is small enough; I have to ladle most of it out before I can lift the pot). Most of the whey will drain immediately, but you can hang it if you'd like it to drain more.

Here's my setup (very fancy, I know)

When it's drained to your liking, scoop the cheese into a container and refrigerate. Ricotta is a soft cheese, so you should use it within a week.