Two out of three attempts at cheesemaking turned out perfectly so I’m not complaining about my ricotta failure. I followed a recipe I found on the internet, not one from the book. It was my attempt at making ricotta from whey. I had almost two gallons of whey from the two batches of cheese and one batch of yogurt. I think I did everything according to the recipe but, after reading and researching more, everything I saw said that the whey needed to be as fresh as possible, some even said within hours of having made the cheese. Some of mine was 3 days old, some was 2 days old and some was 1 day old. Maybe it was that? Maybe I just didn’t read the recipe right? But here sits a whole pot of whey . . where I should have had ricotta. 🙁
The cheesemaking lady said that if you make ricotta from a single small batch of whey, you’re going to get about 4 T. of ricotta. I’m not going to that trouble just so I can use my whey immediately. I can still give it to the chickens or pour it around blueberries so it doesn’t go to waste.
But, I wanted to let you know that with all new things, sometimes there’s failure, or in the least, imperfection. If you never try anything new .. you never fail. So . . we move on and either I make ricotta from fresh ingredients (as opposed to whey) or we buy our ricotta!
Whey
They whey started out like it was supposed to.
Whey
After adding the citric acid and salt, it was supposed to turn more greenish . . and it did, but that’s all it ever did. So, I’m not sure I’ll try that experiment again, simply because it takes several days to accumulate enough whey to make it worthwhile and if the whey needs to be used within a few hours . . I’m never going to have good results. There are ricotta recipes that use fresh milk so if I feel the need to make ricotta, I’ll start with fresh milk.
katie z. says
I’m sorry it didn’t work out, but I love that you are always trying new things! Thanks for sharing.
Pam says
That’s the whey it goes! Sorry, I could not resist.
Better luck next time.
Firelei Jones says
I haven’t tried it, but I understand you can use the whey to make bread. Discussions on the Facebook Instant Pot group. Just an FYI.
Kay L Ford-Sollimo says
If you decide to buy, I highly recommend Poly-O as the very best tasting brand in the whole wide world. No connection here, just a fan who will not ever buy a different brand since the first taste of this one. I have a neighbor who used to wait until visits with relatives on Long Island to get hers before it became available here near Philadelphia – that’s when I learned about it.
Helen Hubert says
You got me making yogurt last year, so thank you for that. I save all the whey and freeze it if I can’t use it immediately. I use it in place of pretty much any liquid when baking, and I throw it into soups/stews.
Now, you got me started on cheese!!! I just made yogurt cheese and plan to try a couple others. I guess you could say you’re my mentor.