Say Cheese... Part 1

So, my latest experiment has been making a sort of hard cheese without using cheese cultures like most hard cheeses have. It all started when I decided to try making ricotta salata, after I was given two liters of whole, un-homogenized milk by a friend cleaning out her fridge before she went on holiday. I followed the directions, but I do think they could have been a little clearer about the drying process.

I left the cheese to dry out on a plate in the fridge, rubbing it periodically with salt, as per the directions. I wasn't sure what to expect, but what I got was this odd, hard, crackly skinned yellow hocky puck type thing. It looked like something that had hitched a ride in from another planet. Not very appetizing looking, but it was certainly some kind of happy accident. Once I'd sliced it open, I realized that under the weird rind, the inside was a very smooth, fairly dry, salty firm cheese that was extremely tasty. Especially with fresh, homegrown cherry tomatoes. Oh yes.

Hubs demanded I make more of it. (Partly, I think, because he wants me to impress at the Saturday arvo dinner we're having with friends.)

So here I am, at round 2. I bought 4 liters of milk this time (four 1 liter bottles, same kind of milk; they were discounted!), and made two batches, following the same cooking directions. I did do it slightly differently at the end though:

I pressed them for a while in the ricotta basket, like the instructions said, but then I pulled them out, salted them, wrapped them in a single layer of cheesecloth, then pressed them again, using a small plastic cheese dip container saved from who knows when. I'd poked a few holes in the bottom of the container and weighted it.

Once firm, I pulled the cheeses out, placed them on plates, and I've been rolling them in salt and drying their plates periodically all afternoon. I'm going to see what kind of rind I can get on these babies by Saturday. Check them out:

The salt is doing a good job drawing out the extra moisture, though I think one did end up getting pressed longer than the other. One is a little softer to the squish (yes, that is an official technical term: a "squish" being the act of gently squeezing an object with the fingertips while attempting to avoid causing damage.)

One is already beginnign to show signs of developing the yellow rind. We'll see how it goes. I'll post an update on the day of reckoning. Oh yeah, and I guess I should post the recipe, shouldn't I? It's below.

Ricotta Salata

Whole Milk Ricotta

2L whole milk
1 tsp citric acid diluted in 1T water
1 tsp salt
1ml of calcium chloride

1. Add calcium chloride and salt to milk in a pot
2. Heat milk to 90C while stirring constantly. Once you have reached 90C, take pot off the heat.
3. Stir in citric acid.
4. Ricotta should start to curdle immediately.
5. Leave ricotta to cool 1-4 hours.
6. After 1-4 hours the ricotta should be firm enough to scoop into the draining basket.
7. Leave ricotta to drain 20 minutes in the basket before serving.  

Happy cheese making!