Homemade Ricotta Recipe. Make Cheese at Home!

Want to make lasagna, but forgot to buy some ricotta? Don't worry about it, it's easy to make your own, and you'll never notice the difference!

Cheese making can be quite difficult. There are bacteria, and fermentations, and ripening, and critical temperatures required etc. etc.

This recipe is an exception and is really dead easy. All cheese begins through a process that increases the acidity of milk. Most cheese will use a bacterial starter culture to naturally acidify the milk. The differing stain of bacteria used will determine the kind of cheese that you end up with.

This recipe doesn't make cheese through bacterial acidification, but rather you add the acid in the form of vinegar. This acidification of the milk will separate the curds and the whey, and leave you with cheese!

This recipe doesn't make true ricotta, but most people can't tell the difference. This method will save you money, and can be finished in about ten minutes...so why not give it a try.

Ricotta Cheese Recipe

• 1/2 gallon of milk
• 2 Tbls of ordinary white vinegar (lemon or lime juice can be substitute, but you'll have to add a bit more)

Whew, there sure are a lot of ingredients huh?

1. What you do is, add the milk to a large saucepan and turn the heat on medium low. If the heat is too high you can easily scorch the milk.
2. Wait until the milk is almost boiling (small bubbles are starting to come quickly to the surface) and then add your vinegar.
3. Stir it up, and you will see the white milk separate into greenish liquid (the whey) and white solid lumps (the curds)
4. If you don't see this happening, either your heat is too low, or you need to add more vinegar. Wait a minute and let the milk really approach a boil, if it's still not happening, keep adding more vinegar teaspoon by teaspoon until it does.
5. Strain the liquid and reserve the curds. Add salt to taste and you are done. This will work great in any recipe calling for ricotta