Homemade Ricotta Cheese

So like 90% of the time we buy milk, we don’t finish the gallon before it’s expired. And usually the whole gallon is pretty comparable to the 1/2 gallon price. So I always just buy a whole gallon. And then it expires. Until now. When you have milk that’s about to go so waste— make ricotta!! All you need is milk and vinegar. Let’s make ricotta together.

Begin with your leftover, almost wasted milk. (We only buy whole milk, but you can still make this with any milk, whole is just the creamiest) For me it was 1/2 a gallon, but you can obviously just adjust the vinegar amount to however much milk you ended up with.... but I’m really not convinced you could put too much vinegar. But you can definitely put too little. So maybe don’t use less than me.

Okay, dump your milk into a pot. Heat it over medium heat, stirring occasionally so it doesn’t burn, until it reaches 185°.

Measure out 1/3 cup of vinegar.

Once your milk reaches temp, take it off the heat.

Pour in your vinegar. Stir. Cover for 15 minutes.

I forgot to take a photo of what it looks like when you take the lid off after 15 minutes, but you’ll basically see it in just a bit.

Prepare a bowl large enough to fit all the milk with a fine mesh strainer on top. If you don’t have a fine mesh strainer you can use a colander with a tea towel in it.

(do this over the sink) Pour the whole contents into the strainer. (Also, this is basically what it looks like after you take the lid off) You very much should do this in two separate pours. Pour half-ish and wait for the whey to drain, then pour the rest.

You can help the straining process along with a spoon of you want. I do because I’m impatient.

Once all of your whey is strained, put it in a container and refrigerate. Also you can salt it, but I’ll just salt it later when I go to use it. See: easy peasy homemade creamy ricotta cheese.