Saag
Following up on my last entry: Do you have any idea how hard it is to find ricotta in Minneapolis on short notice? Practically impossible, it turns out. Rainbow didn't have any, Whole Foods' only offering was labeled "Lemon Ricotta," which didn't sound right at all, and Lunds only had aged ricotta, as hard as mozzarella
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This is possibly the easiest cheese in the world to make:
1gal milk (makes ca. 1 lb cheese). Whole is better, but you can use skim.
Acid (1/4 cup lemon juice or vinegar, or 1 tsp citric acid - might be called "sour salt" in a grocery - honestly you just need protons. You could do it with HCl and it would seriously be completely fine as long as you got the concentration right. You could even play around with wine or something but you'd probably need a lot; wine is pH ca 3-4, lemon juice is pH ca 2-3. This is a tenfold difference in [H+] of course.)
THOSE ARE YOUR ONLY INGREDIENTS!
To make ricotta: heat to 200F, add acid, stir, it will riccotify rapidly. Shouldnt take long and it will be obvious when you're done.. the reason milk is opaque is it's an OIW (oil in water) emulsion and light can't pass through it coherently.
The reason this works this way is the secondary structure of the casein protein allows it to be solvated by water. Protonation of the relevant moities on casein changes the shape, denatures the protein, and causes it to be insoluble in water. Precipitation ensues. When the protein (casein) precipitates, the emulsion is broken. The supernatant/liquid fraction will be about the color of piss. Filter through cheesecloth. You're done.
Love, your brother.
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