Cottage cheese and Ricotta

You surely know this nursery rhyme
Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet
Eating her curds and whey,
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away

Well, I like to eat those, too and I am not as easily frightened by spiders. It happens that I have a good supply of whey. My mother-in-law makes cottage cheese and has a lot of whey left over from the process. If you are not familiar with home made cheese I assure you it is a very simple thing to make. I get to make it but not as often as my mother-in-law. You can find out more  by searching in Google, which will take you to many sites that teach you how to. Just do not try to make Ricotta from the search. What most Americans call ricotta in their instructional videos and blogs, is another version of pot cheese. Cottage cheese or pot cheese is very easy to make and can be made from buttermilk or milk.

Method 1

I get about a gallon of Buttermilk and pour it in Pyrex bowl and set it over another pot with hot water in it.

As the water in the pot with water boils and then gently simmers the buttermilk in the Pyrex bowl starts to separate into curds and whey. That process takes about one to two hours or sometimes more. 

Curdling time will depend on the temperature of buttermilk and/or how long it sat outside without refrigeration. When curds form you may need to stir gently to make the mass more uniform, as the middle of the bowl is not as well done as the sides. Then you may need to feel the texture of the cheese in the middle of the mass. It may be slightly softer or looser to touch and it is entirely up to you if you want to let it cook little longer for a firmer texture of the cheese or drain it while it is still really creamy and soft. Once it is cooked to your desired tenderness, remove from the heat, and line the colander with cheese cloth and set over another container to catch the whey as you drain your cheese. That is all it takes. I love drinking warm whey, or store it in the fridge for later use.   

Method 2

My mother-in-law ads a cup of buttermilk to a gallon of milk and and lets the mixture sit out without refrigeration in Pyrex bowl for about 24 hours. Then it is half way there to being made. She then cooks it for about 5-9 min in the microwave at full power. The length of time will depend on your microwave, so you would need to experiment. it may require few additional minutes but in the much weaker power, at about 3 or defrost.  The precise number depend on your microwave and you really would need to experiment with time and power level of your microwave. My mom-in-law then allows it to cool and strains it after.

My cottage from buttermilk was somewhat sweeter and contained more fat, and her cottage cheese was slightly more sour and very good, too. The product keeps in the refrigerator for about 1 week.

The remainder of the cheese was delicious and nutritious whey. I use it for pancakes but I was curious to try something else and decided to make Ricotta.

Ricotta
Naturally, I googled for the method for making ricotta. I was stunned to see that there are hundreds of videos on how to, but all of the once I saw were not making ricotta, but another version of home made pot cheese. They claimed that their product is ricotta, even though it was made from whole milk and not whey. Ricotta is made from whey, according to wikipedia :

Ricotta is produced from whey, the liquid separated from the curds when cheese is made. Most of the milk protein (especially casein) is removed when cheese is made, but some protein remains in the whey, mostly albumin. This remaining protein can be harvested if the whey is first allowed to become more acidic by additional fermentation (by letting it sit for 12–24 hours at room temperature). Then the acidified whey is heated to near boiling. The combination of low pH and high temperature denatures the protein and causes it to precipitate out, forming a fine curd. Once cooled, the curd is separated by passing through a fine cloth.

I have conducted an experiment with a code name "ricotta". I decided to do it real Italian way from whey and not whole milk.  I did not use fresh whey, but rather one that has been sitting in the fridge for a while. From experience, I know that the taste of the whey changes over time and it get more sour, even though it is somewhat sour to begin. I collected about to 2L of the stuff and brought it to a boil. The white  foam began to form and the whey started to boil and rise like milk. It can easily over run a create a mess, like the milk, so do not leave it unattended and keep a constant eye on it. No additional acid like vinegar was used, just whey and it's natural acidity and increase in temperature. Once you know that ricotta precipitated, or rather foamed up it is ready to be harvested. I set a cloth over the colander.The cloth has to be really fine and regular cheese cloth won't do even if it is folded 16 times. I guess the best thing for it is coffee filter. My biggest disappointment was yield. I only got  couple of tablespoons of ricotta. I guess I can't really blame all those folks on the net for trying to make ricotta out of whole milk. It is not practical to make it form whey.

However, the experiment worked. Whey from ricotta did not go to waist either. I still used it for pancakes.