Why didn't my ricotta curdle?
I've been making my own yogurt for a while – 1-2 quarts of whole milk, 12 hours cooked, into 1-2 pints after straining it all day. A few batches ago I started saving the whey. Today I tried to make ricotta from it: I heated the whey (one big pickle jar, probably about 24oz but I didn't measure, plus the extra whey from today's one-quart batch). Heated it on the stove to 195 F, added vinegar, stirred it, left it for a while, no visible curdling happened. Poured it through a strainer with a lot of layers of cheesecloth on it, the liquid that came through was about as cloudy as it was at the start and there were no curds I could see.
Any idea?
Best Answer
According to the US Department of Agriculture's FoodData, there is 0.76 g of protein in 100 g of acid whey (whey from drained yoghurt; whey from cheese production is "sweet").
According to the same source, a quart of acid whey weighs 984 g, so 24 fl oz weighs 738 g, and therefore contains 5.6 g or 0.2 oz of protein total. Even if none of it passed through your cheesecloth, that might not be enough curds to see; in any case, you'll need a lot more whey before the process is worthwhile.
Sweet whey is not much better at 0.85 g / 100 g; usually when people talk about making ricotta at home they are actually making some other type of fresh cheese from whole milk rather than whey. Real ricotta is almost always a by-product of making other cheeses in far larger amounts.
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Quick Answer about "Why didn't my ricotta curdle?"
The 3 Basic Ingredients of Ricotta Cheese Avoid ultra-pasteurized milk, which does not curdle properly. (You can use low fat milk, but the resulting cheese won't taste as rich as whole milk ricotta.) Citric acid makes the milk curdle, or separate into curds and whey.How do you curdle ricotta cheese?
Line a large mesh strainer with two layers of cheesecloth over a large bowl. Make sure the cheesecloth is large enough to leave an overhang to the sides, so you can cover the ricotta later. Pour the curdled milk through the strainer and let it drain for at least 1 hour.Can you overcook ricotta?
* Don't overcook the ricotta or you will end up with tough curds. They will still be tasty but they won't be as delicate, which is what you're after. * The longer you drain ricotta the firmer it becomes. If you plan to eat it fresh, drain it in a colander lined with several layers of cheesecloth for just a few minutes.Should ricotta be crumbly?
Ricotta, a fresh cheese, turns into ricotta salata when it gets pressed, salted, and dried. The texture becomes more crumbly, like feta or cotija cheese with a similar saltiness.Why Didn't You Stop Me?
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