I didn't intend to start a food blog here, but I've been spending most of my free time experimenting in the kitchen so this is the product of my leisure. The Ricotta was pretty successful and the recipe actually yielded about what it said it would maybe even a little over. I used cheese cloth to drain out some of the liquid because its, you know, cheese cloth - it says it right there in the name so I figured it would be the right tool for the job, but it wasn't. The weave was pretty loose so I layered it and the little curds got in between the layers forcing me to have to scrape them and squeeze them out. All in all though, a successful and easy experiment and the product was incorporated perfectly into a batch of lasagna. I tried to save the whey, but it made quite a bit and was taking up a lot of room in our narrow side-by-side fridge.
My next experiment was yogurt and it was just as easy. After cooking the milk, inoculating it with a sample of commercial yogurt and then leaving the mix to sit on a heating pad for eight hours for the bacteria to propagate, I was left with a mildly tangy yogurt with the consistency of cream of wheat. I think if I had cooked it longer, it would have made for a thicker product and I will try that next time.
With these successes, I am trying now to show some restraint in my efforts. Sam discovered what I was up to and reminded me of my tendency to exhaust myself quickly on a project in a way that cannot be sustained for long. So I am delaying my jump into more complicated processes trying to consume as much of what I produce before moving on to the next thing, So after I finish eating this tub of yogurt, easily a week's supply for me, I will be taking on my next challenges: bean sprouts, ravioli, baguettes, croissants, and then its on to canning.
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