Cheesemaking question--ricotta

[hisenthlay]

Hi, quick question here, I think.

How much ricotta is one gallon of whey supposed to yield? If the answer is more than about 2 tablespoons, what am I doing wrong?

I used whey from making skim milk chevre and mozzarella. It was raw goat milk, and it had been frozen for a while before I used it to make the cheese. The other cheeses turned out fine, but I can never get ricotta to really work. I'm using the fiasco farm recipe, and I did add a bit of white vinegar to help the process along.

The first time I tried making ricotta, I strained it through a triple layer of my regular cheesecloth, and everything basically went right through. Today was my second try, and I used a clean white cotton undershirt. Most of the white stuff stayed in the cloth and the whey that drained through was clear.

So, am I doing something wrong, or is 2 tbs a normal yield per gallon?

Thanks!

[Laura Workman]

Fresh cheeses have way less yield of ricotta from their whey than harder cheeses like cheddar. You can increase the yield by adding some milk to the whey and proceeding as usual from there.

[MarkSykes]

Take a look at the Ricotta Page of Fankhauser's Cheese Page, which is the bext-explained and well illustrated guide to cheesemaking I've found on the Web.

Good luck,

[Julia]

Originally Posted by hisenthlay

So, am I doing something wrong, or is 2 tbs a normal yield per gallon?

No, you're not doing anything wrong. The yield from only whey is very low, but cheese factories considered it "free" so they messed with it. I don't. If I want ricotta, I make some, using whole milk and citric acid solution (makes a softer curd than vinegar)....

[hisenthlay]

Ok, thanks. That makes me feel better--I thought it was just my incompetence! I'm new at cheesemaking, so I've been making pretty small batches of stuff so as not to waste too much milk if I screw up. Ending up with 2 tbs seemed ridiculous, though! Oh well. At least it tastes ok...

I'll try the Fankhauser site next time--it looks great.

Thanks!

[gryndlgoat]

Also- if you want to avoid having to cut up any more T-shirts-
paper coffee filters (the bigger the better) make good whey strainers for ricotta. It helps if you wet them first with water before pouring in the curds.

[hisenthlay]

Originally Posted by gryndlgoat

Also- if you want to avoid having to cut up any more T-shirts-
paper coffee filters (the bigger the better) make good whey strainers for ricotta. It helps if you wet them first with water before pouring in the curds.

Oh, I didn't cut it--I just used it spread flat so the whey went through a double layer of shirt. I intend to wash the shirt and put it back with the rest of my fiancee's shirts--he'll never know the difference :haha: (Just kidding--I asked him first.)

I forgot to mention that I did try using a cheap paper coffee filter once, and nothing stayed in it, either. Now I realize that I just might not have been using enough whey, though (maybe only a quart).

It's good to know that hard cheeses have a higher yield--when I try those, I'll be sure to try ricotta again. Maybe I'll even stop being so cheap and put a little milk in the mix as well.

Thanks all!