Homemade Ricotta Cheese

December 2, 2018 by Melanie Dompierre 5 Comments

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Cheese… Who doesn’t love cheese? If you have cheese you are okay 🙂 I don’t drink milk because I don’t like the taste, but I do love cheese. Ever since I tried this recipe, I stopped buying ricotta cheese from the store. My homemade ricotta cheese is so much better! There are similar recipes on the Internet, but mine is a little different in a sense that you will taste the lemon in it. It is fresh, a little tangy, and so much better than store-bought cheese. You don’t need fancy equipment or special tools, just a simple cheesecloth or even a clean light dish towel will do the trick! Don’t be afraid of making your own cheese – it is fun and really rewarding! You can even make your homemade cream cheese with this ricotta. Just add 1/2 cup of 35% cream and a pinch of salt to your prepared and cooled ricotta cheese, and mix it well with a hand blender. Keep it cool and it’s good for a week.

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

by Melanie Dompierre

Quantity for: 8 portions

PREP TIME5

COOK TIME15

COOLING TIME30

TOTAL TIME50

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This cheese is really easy to make. The recipe doesn't require special skills or fancy equipment. Enjoy fresh homemade cheese that tastes better than any ricotta you can find in the store. On a toast, on your pancakes, on a salad and even with a fruit salad, this cheese is perfect!

Ingredients

3 lemons (big)
4 liters milk (3% or 5% for a better yield)

Instructions

Pour the milk into a large pot and warm it up on a medium fire.
While warming up the milk, stir gently.
Warm up the milk until it reaches 180°F.
Cut the lemons in half and squeeze the juice into the milk. I use a lemon juicer like this one.
Stir the milk and lemon gently with a wooden spoon, until you see the curds appearing.
Let the milk cool down before straining.
Take a cheesecloth and place it over a large bowl. This is for straining the whey out of the cheese. You might have to repeat this step more than once, depending on how large is your bowl and your cheesecloth.
When you have transferred the cheese onto the cheesecloth, you can help the process by squeezing the contents of the cloth like this. What's left in the cheesecloth is your cheese. You can transfer it into a container of your choice.
If you make large quantity of cheese like I do, I highly suggest using this cheese strainer. It is easy to clean, and you can make a large quantity all at once!
Let the cheese cool down in the fridge and enjoy!