Little Green Cheese

Cheese making at home with Gavin Webber the Cheeseman

How to make Ricotta Salata

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Ricotta Salata is a great way to use up leftover whey.  Simply make the Ricotta using your favourite recipe, then salt and press, turning a few times and adding some extra salt along the way.

Deliciously firm and creamy at 14 days or hard and able to be grated at 90 days.

Ricotta Salata

Ingredients

Equipment

Method

  1. If you haven’t already, add 1 Tablespoon of cheese salt to the Ricotta and mix thoroughly.
  2. Scoop Ricotta into a cheese cloth lined cheese basket.  Press at 5 kg / 11 lbs for 30 minutes.
  3. Remove from basket, rub over the surface with 1 teaspoon of cheese salt, then turn and rewrap.  Press at 10 kg / 22 lbs for 6 hours.
  4. Remove from basket again, rub over the surface with 1 teaspoon of cheese salt, then turn and rewrap.  Press at 10 kg / 22 lbs for 12 hours.
  5. Take the cheese out of press, unwrap and air dry for 2 to 3 days until touch dry.
  6. Mature at 13C/55F at 80% humidity for 14 to 90 days.  It’s delicious fresh after 14 days, or the longer you mature this cheese, the harder it becomes and is ideal for grating.

Ricotta Salata

You can pick up cheese making supplies and equipment for Ricotta Salata over in our store; Little Green Workshops.  I recommend the Mozzarella and Ricotta Kit, which is perfect for making this cheese.

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Bloomy Ricotta

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This cheese was a fortuitous accident!  By mistake I made a Bloomy Ricotta.

About seven weeks ago, I made normal whey ricotta from the leftover whey from two cheeses, Camembert and Queso Fresco.

Bloomy Ricotta
Bloomy Ricotta

The starter culture that I used for both was Sacco MO36R, and I added Penicillium Candidum to make the Camembert.

Once I finished making both the Camembert and Queso Fresco, I heated the remaining whey to 92°C (197.6°F) and recovered the Ricotta with 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar.  I drained using butter muslin, and added 2 teaspoons of salt to the cheese.

For those of you after the whey ricotta video tutorial; https://youtu.be/1fdYZ8T45JE

Anyway, it was too salty, so I left it in the kitchen fridge and forgot about it for 7 weeks until my wife found it and questioned me about it.

It appears that the whey still had enough P. Candidum left in it to breed in the conditions that I stored it.  I kept the Ricotta in an airtight container in the kitchen fridge at 4°C (39.2°F).

Here’s the quick video I put together to show you this creation.

 

I believe that the additional salt helped preserve the cheese better for longer.  Normally I would only add 1 teaspoon of salt to Ricotta made from 6 litres (1½ gal) of whey, but got distracted and over salted.

I am actually surprised that the P. Candidum imparted a lot of flavour into the cheese and somehow reduced the overall saltiness.  It could be my tounge playing tricks on me, but this was certainly an improvement on the original Ricotta!

So all these little events led to the creation of my Bloomy Ricotta.  Blooming marvelous I say!

If you are after supplies to recreate this cheese, please visit Little Green Workshops.

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LGC 046 – Acid Coagulated Cheese

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In today’s episode I talk about the subtle differences between the main acid coagulated cheese that should be a staple in the home cheese makers repertoire; Paneer, Whey Ricotta, Whole milk Ricotta, and Ricotta Salata.

Cheese news is about a Listeria infected cheese recall from Whole Foods, and what the signs of infection are.

This week’s questions are:

  • Charlotte from South Africa: Why don’t I use pH measurements in my recipes?
  • Taryn from Australia: What type of starter culture should I use for a Caerphilly?
  • Frieda from NSW, Australia asks: Is pink mould okay on my blue cheese, and how do I get more veins? How do I stop my Camembert from being too moist on the bottom?
  • Colin from New Zealand: Can I put chopped onion into cheese or what is a better alternative?
  • and a Voicemail testimonial from Annie!

Don’t forget that you can leave a question via the contact us page, or leave a voicemail below.

Also if you are looking for good quality cheese making kits, supplies, and equipment, you can get them from Kim and me over at Little Green Workshops.  We now ship our products all over Australia and New Zealand!

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