Ricotta 

Cheese 
 
Ready in ​35 minutes 
Serves ​3 people 

Ingredients and Equipment 

● 4 cups whole milk 
● ¼ tsp citric acid 
● Refined sea salt  
● Cheesecloth  
● Colander 
Ricotta draining in a colander 
● Thermometer 

Preparation 
1. Using a medium pot on the stove, heat 
the milk to 175 degrees F, then add the 
salt. Keep it on the heat. 
2. While the milk is heating, line a colander 
with cheesecloth and set it aside.  
3. Once the milk reaches about 190 degrees 
F, move it off the heat, quickly add the 
citric acid, stir vigorously a few times, 
then don’t touch it for 5 minutes. 
4. After 5 minutes, the curd and whey 
should be completely separated (see the 
second photo). 
5. Pour the curd and whey over the 
cheesecloth. Let the whey drain out of 
the curd for about 20 minutes. 
6. After the curd has drained for a while,  Experiment: What I Tried 
break it into smaller pieces with your 
fingers. Let it sit for 10 more minutes.  For my experiment, I made two batches of 
ricotta: one with store-bought whole milk, 
7. Remove the curd from the cheesecloth, 
which is about 3.7% fat, and one with whole 
add salt to taste, and enjoy! 
milk from James Ranch, which is about 4.5% 
fat (the difference in fat content is due to the 
breed of cow that the milk comes from).  
Tips 
Both of these kinds of milk were 
● Step 3: Watch the milk carefully after 
non-homogenized. When milk is 
you add the salt, because the milk 
homogenized, that means that the milk was 
might overflow as it gets close to its 
shaken vigorously to break up the fat 
boiling point. 
globules and evenly distribute them 
● Step 5: This is called cutting the curd. 
throughout the milk. James Ranch does not 
It helps release excess whey that is 
homogenize their milk, so I used store bought 
trapped between curd.  
milk that was not homogenized to keep that 
  variable consistent. 

  I made cheese using each type of milk, and I 

found that the milk from James Ranch 
  produced a much higher yield of cheese. The 
store-bought milk produced about 130 
grams of ricotta, while the James Ranch milk 
produced about 150 grams of ricotta. So, to 
increase your yield of cheese, use milk with 
the highest fat content possible. 
 

Science: Why This Works 

Milk is a mixture of water, fat, lactose, and 
proteins. The solids (fat, lactose, proteins) are 
suspended in the water; cheese is the result 
of coagulating the solids (called curd) and 
separating them from the water (called 
whey). The milk with a higher fat content in 
my experiment produced a greater yield of 
cheese because there are more milk solids in 
  the form of fat that can be coagulated into 
Milk immediately after citric acid was added. You can see  cheese. 
the curd coagulating on top. 
There are two primary types of protein in 
  milk, casein and albumin. Most cheeses are 
made from casein proteins, but traditional 
ricotta is made from albumin proteins.  eat as cheese. The liquid left over, whey, can 
However, it’s difficult to isolate enough  be discarded, or used to water plants or 
albumin proteins to make a significant  drink.  
amount of cheese, so most people (myself 
One other thing I noticed about my cheese 
included) use whole milk. So, this ricotta is 
was that the batch made from James Ranch 
made of the casein and albumin proteins 
milk was slightly more yellow in color than 
found in whole milk. 
the batch made with store-bought milk. This 
Casein proteins arrange themselves in  color is from beta-carotene, a type of 
bundles called micelles. The surfaces of  pigment (that comes from grass) that our 
micelles are negatively charged, so they repel  bodies convert to Vitamin A. Cows that have 
one another. In order to make cheese, the  a diet based on grass produce milk with high 
bundles of casein must stick together. Adding  levels of beta-carotene. The cows that 
an acid introduces positively charged  produced both types of milk were grass-fed, 
hydrogen ions, which bond to some of the  but the James Ranch milk was much fresher 
negative ions on the micelles and neutralize  and not pasteurized. I believe this is why it 
the charge. The pH where the charge  appeared slightly more yellow. 
becomes neutral is called the isoelectric 
point. Then, the micelles can coagulate to   
form the curd. 
Personal Commentary 
I learned this cheese recipe from Becca 
James, of James Ranch, over Osprey Week. I 
love cheese, and always have, but I hate 
cooking. On a rainy day in March, we huddled 
by the fire while she taught us how to heat 
The process of micelle coagulation  the milk and keep our workspace clean to 
Albumin proteins are amino acid chains  make the perfect ricotta cheese. Learning 
wound tightly into bundles. Heating the milk  how to make this cheese shifted my mindset 
causes the albumin proteins to denature, or  towards cooking; I became more interested 
unwind. In their denatured state, there are  in the chemistry of certain foods, and I now 
more positively and negatively charged  enjoy making food for myself and others.  
surface areas, so the protein chains become  Many thanks to Becca and her husband Dan 
attracted to one another and coagulate.  for giving me James Ranch milk and 
answering my questions! 
 
 
   
The process of whey protein (albumin) denaturation   
The casein and albumin proteins coagulate   
together to form the curd, which is what we 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
https://www.cheesescience.org/coagulation.
html 
https://www.uoguelph.ca/foodscience/book-
page/heat 
http://vlab.amrita.edu/?sub=3&brch=63&si
m=158&cnt=1 
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles
/252758.php 
http://ansci.illinois.edu/static/ansc438/Milkc
ompsynth/milkcomp_breed.html