What to do with all that milk? whole milk ricotta to the rescue!

What to do when your family doesn’t consume as much milk as usual, but you have a milk delivery coming again this week? We don’t like wasting milk either, so here is a fun, quick and easy cheese to enjoy and make use of that extra milk.

8 cups of milk can be old or even slightly sour even

1/4 cup lemon juice, or 1/4 cup white vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt 

Put all ingredients into a heavy bottom stock pot and heat to 190 degrees (if you don't have a good thermometer this is as close to a simmer as possible without much simmer; it will be steaming a lot, but not boiling), stirring throughout. If you step away for long while making, it will scorch and ruin, so keep stirring. Once it gets to temp, remove from heat and allow it to rest (no stirring) for 20 min.

 After 20 min of unheated rest, place a colander into an empty bowl and layer the colander with damp fine #90 cheese cloth or tea towel. Pour contents of the pot into the bowl and allow liquid (whey) to pour through the colander into the bowl. Tie the corners of the towel together and loop over a cabinet pull so that it drips into the bowl. Drain the whey for 15min for up to 2 hours, depending on how dry you like your ricotta. Store finished ricotta in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks or in the freezer for up to six months! 

Makes 1 1/4 cups.

P.S. What to do with the whey at the end?

You will have a good deal of whey at the end of making ricotta. You don’t have to throw it away. It has many great uses. You can use the whey as whey for pancakes, any baked products, soups or as water replacement for when you cook grains. You can also feed it to your hogs or chickens or for your dog. For more concrete recipes using whey check out the Nourishing Traditions cook book. Sally, the author, has many ideas of how to utilize whey.