Comments on: Cheesy Beginnings

By: dan

dan — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 03:33:11 +0000

Arden, I’m not really sure what your question is – do you mean using those vinegars to make the ricotta? It won’t make any significant difference, the acid stays behind in the liquid, the fat and protein are what coagulate out. There’s little to no flavor from them, and you’d have to start figuring out adjustments for different acidity levels in order to have the coagulation work right – particularly something like balsamic that has a very low acidity level, same with something like Meyer lemons (even regular lemons are more difficult as you have to figure out the acidity of your lemon juice). You might get a very faint coloring (I’ve used red wine vinegar, at most the cheese comes out a very, very faint pinkish tinge), or perhaps with an herbal one some of the particulate matter would strain out with the cheese. But you’d be best off adding the flavorings after the ricotta is made – treat it as a canvas and work from there. As to pure white ricotta not being useful for artisan bakers, I think you’d find many of them would disagree.

By: Arden

Arden — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 02:43:53 +0000

I’m wondering what could be done w/ savory versions of ricotta made w/ a variety of flavored acitics, an aged balsamic, herbal infusions of vinegar, even myer lemons… What do you know about such combinations? As an artisan baker using a pure white ricotta is simply not required. Do you have any references or recipes ? I look forward to your tasty reply.
Take care

By: SaltShaker » Blog Archive » Filled and Tied

SaltShaker » Blog Archive » Filled and Tied — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:41:11 +0000

[...] In New York I never could have simply said one day, “hey, I think I’ll take a course in basic cheesemaking” or, “I keep hearing about all this molecular gastronomy stuff, let me go find out what [...]

By: SaltShaker » Blog Archive » Pickles n Cheese

SaltShaker » Blog Archive » Pickles n Cheese — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:36:19 +0000

[...] all, I started it, posting about taking a cheesemaking class and all – and giving great detail on how to make ricotta, and then an amazing cream cheese substitute. And then I simply abandoned them. Not the cheese, the [...]

By: SaltShaker » Blog Archive » Land of Nightingales and Roses

SaltShaker » Blog Archive » Land of Nightingales and Roses — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:08:05 +0000

[...] various recipes and discussions – it’s a fresh cheese, made in a process very similar to the ricotta process I detailed not so long ago – the two differences seemed to be simply that the milk was heated to a [...]