How to Make Ricotta Cheese

Sometimes a cheesecake recipe will call for Ricotta which is a bit more buttery than Cottage Cheese IMO. it also makes an excellent addition to cheese blintzs.


Homemade Ricotta Cheese Recipe
Ingredients:
3 quarts milk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
8 ounces plain unsweetened yogurt

1. Place milk and lemon juice in a bowl, cover and allow to sit for 36 hours - in the lower part of the refrigerator.
2. After the setting time mix in yogurt and bring mixture to a rolling boil until it clearly cuts.
3. If the mixture doesn't cut after reaching a boil add a little more lemon juice and boil again.
4. Drain off the whey using a large strainer lined with cheese cloth, gauze or similar material.
5. Pull up the corners of the cloth, tie and let the ball of cheese hang for one hour.
6. Refrigerate.
7. Makes over a pound of good sweet ricotta-type cheese
8. Keeps refrigerated for about 2 days.
   

How To Make Sour Cream

The next installment of our how to series is how to make Sour Cream. It looks really easy, do not put your jar on the heat register or else you'll end up with ricotta cheese.


Sour Cream:

Ingredients:
2 cups light cream
2 tablespoons buttermilk

Directions:

1. Combine cream with buttermilk in hot, clean glass canning jar that has been heating in boiling water.
2. Cover tightly and shake gently to thoroughly mix.
3. Let stand in a warm place - like where you put bread to rise) till thickened (24-48 hours).
4. Store, covered in refrigerator.
5. Stir before serving.
6. Use within three weeks.

How To Make Yogurt Cheese II

The most amazing thing is making cheese. I never thought I would ever try it. When I had goats, the thought of goat milk anything was too disgusting to comprehend. Now, I regret not having a goat. I am also looking for a source of milk, which will be hard, since it's winter and people are drying up their does. Anyway, here are some pictures of the cheesecake I made using mostly yogurt I made and surprisingly it turned out pretty good, I'll post the recipe when I'm done.
Last night I had to make a mad dash to Walmart to get cheesecloth, the cheesecloth I found would not hold a butterfly in place, much less cheese, so I improvised and found some flower sack dish towels, 6 for $5. This is what the yogurt looks like after putting it in the strainer with the cloth.

I doubled them up and poured the yogurt into the strainer, this time I trebled the cloth. I also bought a new strainer, because my jelly colander did not have it's legs any more, I wish I knew what happened to them, another thing you wish you had after throwing it out.

You can see after about ten hours the cheese is starting to form. It has a pull on the cloth and has sunk about an inch. It's not done yet, but it's well on it's way. I can't wait to try flavoring it and using it on bagels. A few more hours and it should be ready to refrigerate and serve. There is quite a bit of loss of cheese, but that can't be helped. So far there have been about two cups of whey drain off.

The whey looks a bit watery, but you can see the fat globules still in the liquid. this can be pulled with lemon juice, but I think I'll give it to the cats again. I know I must have one cat which isn't a freak. I figured out that my cats are not finicky, but are royalty waiting for the food tester to tell them it's safe to eat. Handful will not eat anything that hasn't been on someones plate unless it comes from a can. She would live happily as an inside cat if I'd let her. She was named Handful because she fit in the palm of my hand for over 8 months. I had to bottle feed her, because she was so small. She sure has spunk, for one so little, even at almost two, she is the size of a six month old kitten.

The cheesecake turned out pretty good, it cooked well and very few cracks. I was surprised at how well it did. The last two cheesecakes I made flopped, because I misread the recipe and added 8 oz more cream cheese than the recipe and did not compromise with the cooking temp or time. Both times the cake slid off the plate, the cats really love cheesecake, that's for sure. After an hour in the oven and three in the fridge, this is what my cheesecake looks like, I added a bit of whipped cream around the edges to make it more aesthetically pleasing.


Here it is all cut up, it was lovely and cut really well. It did not break or anything. With as runny as the batter was, I was surprised when it held up as well as it did. Now to the recipe. I used the "Creamy Citrus Cheesecake" recipe and pretty much doubled the recipe for a 10 in spring form pan.

I made yogurt cheese from a half gallon of home made yogurt. It took 24 hours to get cream cheese consistency.

Modified Creamy Citrus Cheesecake
Ingredients:

2 packages of cinnamon graham crackers crushed (not sure how many that is, but two of those little wrapped plastic packages from the box)
4 T margarine, melted
6 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
6 teaspoon vanilla, divided
1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese softened
yogurt cheese from half gallon of yogurt, dripped for 24 hours (estimation of 3 cups)
1 cup plain, lemon, or vanilla yogurt, divided
4 T powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 325* F.


2. In a bowl combine graham cracker crumbs and margarine, press into bottom of 10 in spring form pan, bake 6 minutes, chill.


3. In blender, combine eggs, granulated sugar, 4 tsp vanilla, and juice, cut cream cheese into chunks, add to mixture and process until smooth, slightly pulse in yogurt cheese. (you don't want to chop up the cheese too fine)


4. Pour into crust.


5. Bake at 325* for 70-80 minutes or until set.


6. Combine remaining yogurt, vanilla, and powdered sugar, spread over hot cheesecake,


7. Loosen side of pan, cool on wire rack, chill before serving.

How To Make Yogurt Cheese

Last night, I decided to make some yogurt to see if I could do it. This is how I did it. I am cheap so I wanted to see if I could do it without a bunch of fancy gadgets and keep it as close to the old time ways as possible. The tool I used were as follows, a stainless steel mixing bowl, a huge stock pot I got at a discount store, which cost about $5 a few years ago, a candy thermometer, and a wire whisk. I found some half gallon jars at OSH, 6 for $9, the most expensive of all the items. I had an old 10 gallon aquarium with a heater on the bottom glass. That's it, no fancy gadgets.

I took a little less than a gallon of just expired store bought whole milk, I figured since we're souring the milk anyway, a day off the expiration wouldn't make much of a difference, and would probably help the whole process. I added enough half and half to make a gallon, three quarts of whipping cream, and an 8 oz cup of yogurt. I heated all, except the yogurt, in what could pass as a poor man's double boiler (a stainless steel mixing bowl set inside a huge stock pot full of water.) The bowl just floated in the water perfectly, it didn't quite sit, but wasn't going to tip either. One of my back country cookbooks said to heat it just to boiling, so as soon as I saw bubbles along the sides of the bowl, the fire went off. Just to check and see if I was within parameters, I checked the temp. It heated it all up to about 160* F, before cutting off the heat. I let it sit for a while, it gradually heated up a bit more. With all the cream in the milk, it had a lovely buttery smell as it started to heat up. I noticed, if I quit stirring, for any length of time, it would get a film on the top, so I quickly stirred that back into the milk mixture.

I took the bowl out of the boiling water, and placed it in a bowl of cold water, I did this about four times before the temp got to about 105* which was when I added the yogurt and mixed it all in. I then dipped into the milk mixture and filled three of the half gallon jars, which I had washed well. The directions called for complete sanitation, but I know that a lot of old timers do not bleach their utensils, so I just made sure everything was clean and since everything was new, I just washed everything well. I wanted to try to make it as close to the old way as possible. Here is where I deviated from the old cook stove method, I had put them on the heat register, but I wasn't sure if it would be too hot, so, I placed the jars in the aquarium full of warm water and plugged in the heater. The temp did not go below 86*F as far as I can tell all night. This morning, I had what looked like a creamy sludge which smelled somewhat like yogurt. My daughter played guinea pig, I put a bit in a bowl and put a bit of jelly in it and honey for a sweetener, she gave it a thumbs up. It's not as sour as yogurt should be, I think this may be because of all the cream I added. DH said it's not thick enough, so I put it on the heat register for a few hours to sour up some and hopefully thicken a little more.

*UPDATE: I think I may have put it on the heater for too long, because it started to separate. I stirred it back together and it's now cooling in the fridge.*

Now yogurt cheese is supposed to be easy, which since I have a gallon and a half of yogurt to experiment with, I'm going to try. I have a colander used to make jellies and juices, so I'm going to line it with coffee filters and let it drain. The outcome should be something close to cream cheese. From what I've read, the procedure is to just pour the yogurt in the lined colander and let it sit in the fridge over a bowl over night, the whey will drip out making a very soft cheese.

January, 6th: The picture is of what cheese from half a gallon of yogurt looks like. It was drained for 24 hours in some flower sack towels. The cheesecloth, even when quadrupled, wasn't thick enough. Even with doubling of the flower sack I lost a lot of cheese into the whey, until I lined the colander with coffee filters also. It made about 3/4 of the weight, by what the books say it should. Next time I make cheese, it won't have so much cream in it. It probably could have drained for a lot longer, because the sides of the cloth had cheese, the middle of the glob was still runny. I think there is way too much fat in it since the top of my mouth is slimy. My neighbor's boy liked it and said it tasted like cream cheese mixed with sour cream. I am going to try it again with another half gallon of yogurt, this time I'll take photos.

On a side note, the whey was too rich for my cats, they liked it a little, but not enough to scarf it. Ed, however, gave it two paws up, and Handful decided to investigate what was under the cloth, Tommy and Stubby both ran from invading feet, so something must of been worth having, just not the whey. I am now baking a cheesecake with the cheese. I hope it's ok, it seemed a bit runny when I poured it in the pan.

I found this recipe for yogurt cheese cheesecake, so we'll try it also, the original recipe did not call for any sort of crust, but I like graham cracker crust, so I'm going to add it to the recipe. If you're a purist, don't put it in a crust.

LEMON CHEESECAKE

8 servings

2 cups nonfat yogurt cheese

7 tablespoons sugar (or to taste)

1 tablespoon cornstarch

4 egg whites, lightly beaten (or 1 egg and 2 whites)

1 lemon, juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel, or 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract

1. 
   
   Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a 7-inch spring form or 8-inch pie pan. (here is where you make the crust)


2. 
   
   Combine yogurt cheese, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and vanilla, mixing gently with a fork or wire whisk until well bended.


3. 
   
   Stir in the eggs.


4. 
   
   Pour into prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula.


5. 
   
   Bake until the center is set, 20 to 25 minutes (pie pan) or 55 minutes (spring form).


6. 
   
   Cool slightly and refrigerate, uncovered, for 24 hours.

How to Make Chocolate Goat Cheese

I found this wonderful looking cheesecake recipe it called for chocolate goat cheese. I asked my friend, Atsiylah, how to make it. She said this:

Chocolate cheese is a piece of cake! Make the cream cheese as below, add a 2 to 3 ratio of bakers chocolate to a 1/2 and 1/2 combo of white and powdered sugar after cheese has been dripped. Mix well! I've heard of some old timers adding bakers chocolate to the culture the day before use too, it supposedly gives a hint of that dark chocolate flavor with out too much.

I asked her what to do with the chocolate before adding it, thinking bakers chocolate comes in a bar. She said use powdered baker's chocolate, I assume she means cocoa. We'll see. Anyway, this recipe really looks good, so I'll be willing to try it.

Chocolate Goat Cheesecake

Ingredients
Crust:
2 cups crushed vanilla wafers
1/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons melted butter

Filling (all at room temperature):
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
25 oz chocolate goat cheese
1 tablespoon flour
1.5 tablespoons sweet liqueur (rum, cognac, etc.)

Topping:
2 cups sour cream
1/4 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Melt the butter for the crust in a saucepan and blend with the sugar and vanilla wafers.
3. Press mixture into the bottom of the spring form pan (and up the sides about an inch, if you can) and refrigerate.
4. Blend the ingredients for the filling until smooth. (Use a standing mixer or hand mixer on medium speed.)
5. Pour the mixture into the spring form pan and bake in the oven for about an hour.
6. When done, take out and cool for 10 minutes.
7. While it is cooling, mix the sour cream and sugar for the topping until smooth.
8. Spread topping over the cheesecake and put back in the oven for 8-10 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and refrigerate immediately.

How To Make Yogurt

Another ingredient in a lot of cheesecakes is yogurt. Since we've made goat cheese, let's try something a bit harder, yogurt. It's not too much harder, it just needs a constant temperature to set correctly. During the winter months, this may be a bit harder than summer months. Let's try it anyway, shall we?

You will need a double boiler, or a large pot with a smaller pot to sit inside it. A candy thermometer, a wire whisk or metal spoon, containers to put the yogurt in to thicken, an igloo type of cooler, or heating pad to keep the temperature steady, or a gas pilot light.

Ingredients:
1 8oz container of plain cultured yogurt
8 cups milk (goat, cow, 2%, whole, skim, whatever)
2 cups cream (optional)
2 T powdered milk (optional) - this helps thicken the yogurt

Directions:

1. Sterilize all containers, spoons and pots.
2. put enough water in the larger pot for the smaller pot to have water half way up the sides.
3. Bring the water to a boil.
4. pour milk, powdered milk, and cream into the smaller pot, then place it in the boiling water.
5. Put the thermometer in the milk and stir continually until the milk reached about 180* F, do not let the milk boil.
6. Keep the milk at 180* for two to three minutes, then kill the heat.
7. Place pan in sink of cold water and let it cool until it reaches between 105* and 110* F
8. Stir the yogurt until it is smooth and liquid, then add it to your milk.
9. stir until it is well incorporated into the milk.
10. Pour the yogurt mixture in sterilized containers and place on pilot light, heating pad, oven, or cooler (If using cooler, pour warm tap water around the jars)
11. cover and leave alone for about 6 hours.
12. your yogurt should be thickened now and can be put in the fridge. Yogurt will keep for about 2-3 weeks in the fridge.

Now you're ready to make yogurt cheesecake, or even yogurt cheese. Enjoy and happy cheesing!

How to Make Sour Cream

Our next installment for the homestead cheesecake maker wannabe is making sour cream.

Traditionally, sour cream was made by letting fresh cream sour naturally. Natural occurring bacteria in the cream including, Streptococcus, Leuconostoc, as well as various Lactobacillus created the acid flavor in the cream. Today, commercially made sour cream is produced by inoculating a pasteurized cream with a pure mixture of bacteria. Once the product has thickened it is re-pasteurized and the bacteria is killed.

Some tips I found online: Never boil sour cream because it will curdle immediately. To add sour creme to a hot liquid, remove the liquid from the heat source (or turn the heat to very low) and add the cream while stirring gently. (This is why my stroganoff always curdles. ) Now two ways of making sour cream.

Method 1
Ingredients:
1 cup cream
1 tablespoon cultured buttermilk
Recipe can be increased at the ratio of 1 tablespoon buttermilk to 1 cup of cream.

Instructions:

1. In a double boiler bring the fresh cream up to 180 degrees.
2. Cool to room temp in a cold water bath. Add the buttermilk, cover, and let sit at room temp. for 24-48 hours.
3. Stir and refrigerate.
4. The batch will keep approximately 3-4 weeks, refrigerated

Method 2
Ingredients:
1 cup cream
1 1/2 cups pasteurized whole milk
1/2 cup buttermilk

Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl over warm water.
2. Raise the temperature of the mixture to (68 degrees to 70 degrees F) and let it stand for 12 to 24 hours or until it is sufficiently sour and thick enough to cling firmly to a spoon.
3. Keep in the refrigerator until you want to use it.
4. For a richer heavier sour cream combine 2 cups of pasteurized heavy cream with 5 tablespoons of cultured buttermilk and incubate as before.
5. For better texture refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.

How to Make Chevre (goat cheese) II

This is a copy word for word of the instructions my goat raising, cheese making, crazy friend, Atsiylah, gave me on how to make cheese. I plan on finding a source of goat milk soon so I can make goat cheese for my cheese eating surrender kitty, Ed and his human friends.

French Chevre uses a culture, so you need to buy some or get ahold of some rennet (yuck!) It can be done either way. The conversion is 10 lbs of milk = 1 lb of finished cheese, but cat's love whey.

1. Using a standard of 1 gallon of milk (raw and whole), rapidly bring to 86 degrees F.
2. Once you hit 86 kill the fire and add your culture or rennet.
3. Mix it all in and make sure it's blended well.
4. Let the pot sit for 6-8 hours when the curd forms. Line a strainer with butter muslin ( double layer cheese cloth will work too), and slowly dump everything into the strainer ( save the whey for critters with a bowl under the strainer if you like).
5. Let the wet cheese sit in the strainer over night. Next day gather up the ends of the muslin and slowly twist them up to form a bag that the curd is sitting in.
6. Twist gently to get a few more drips out, then hang the whole thing up to drip dry still in the muslin. It should take 1 day in temps of 70 F or hotter.
7. Once your cheese is reasonably dry, take it in a large mixing bowl with a large spoon (or just use a food processor) and mix in 2 Tbs of salt and if you like other spices or flavor types. Once well mixed, bag and chill.

White Cheese / Cheaters Chevre (Soft cheese) use a gallon of whole raw milk, bring to 100 degrees F and hold temp for 60 seconds, kill fire and add either 1/2 cup of vinegar or 1 c of lemon juice, stir and do same as with true chevre.

Cream Cheese (Soft cheese)- First make a culture by adding 2 Tbs. of yeast to 1 c warm whole goats milk and let grow for 24 hours, pour off 1/2 every 24 hours and add 1 c warm whole milk every day. (Pour add pour add etc.) After a week you have a viable live culture
Now this is easy, add a culture to 2 c of warm milk, 24 hours later heat the new curds over very hot (NOT BOILING) water for 1/2 an hour. [ I'm assuming in a double boiler? ] Lightly press in a cheese cloth or butter muslin to drain excess whey, mix in salt and sugar to taste and chill.

Sweet Cheese (Hard or semi-soft cheese depending on drip only or drip and press)- Bring 1 Gallon milk to a boil, add 1 pint of buttermilk and 3 eggs whipped, softly stir in adding up to 2 Tbs. of salt and same of sugar as to taste. When the curds separate drain and should be pressed, but it's good either way.

There you have it kids, Kitchen Chemestry at it's finest. It sounds easy enough, but we'll see once I try it.

How to Make Chevre (Goat Cheese)

Since some of the recipes I'm going to include require different cheeses, I will in my best way describe how to make some of them. The first one is goat cheese. My friend who lives in Santa Barbara taught my nine year old daughter how to make chevre, which is a goat cream cheese, this is the closest I could come to the steps she described. I am waiting on confirmation from my friend on her technique. There is a nice recipe for goat cheese cheesecake in a few days, so stay tuned! If my instructions leave a little to be desired, here is another way to make goat cheese.

If you have access to goats or their milk, this is fairly easy to make and it will save a bundle when the recipe calls for goat cheese or cream cheese. The recipe can also be used with whole cows milk. This recipe does not call for Rennet so temperature is very important.

Basic Goat Cheese
fairly easy

Ingredients & Tools:

a large stainless steel cook pot, large enough to hold a gallon of milk, then some
1 colander
cheesecloth
1 gallon goats milk
1/2 cup lemon juice (lime juice or vinegar can be used)
salt to taste

1. Put milk into large stainless steel cook pot and slowly heat until milk is between 190 and 200 degrees.
2. Slowly add the lemon juice while stirring until all is added and mixed thoroughly into the milk, but only until it is added. Do not over-stir! It will curdle as it is supposed to do.
3. Let cool undisturbed until it is around 100 degrees (not too hot to handle with your hands) Add salt to taste, and SLOWLY either cut the curd, or stir, don't break it up into pieces smaller than a quarter. *see note*
4. Drain the cheese into a cheese cloth lined colander. If you use fine cheesecloth, double or triple it's thickness. Take the 4 corners of the cheesecloth and bring them together and tie them.
5. Hang the "dripping" cheese for about 4 hours.
6. Untie the cheese, mold it and chill.

*Note: If you are wanting ricotta, break the curd up into VERY small pieces.*

Do not use aluminum utensils and rubber sometimes has a "smell" to it that can transfer to the cheese, so use stainless steel. Depending upon the time of hanging you, can make anywhere from a ricotta (1 hr) to a hard cheese (12 hours). This cheese keeps for about 5 days in the refrigerator, but doesn't last long enough in our house. My son will eat a pound in one setting along with his cat friend Ed. Ed comes running when you say the word Chevre, lol.