Now that we have 37 pounds of “dry” cottage cheese frozen for the year for our family…

…I’ve switched to making ricotta cheese.

Here’s what I do:

In my large *THICK BOTTOMED* canning/stock pot, I add the milk. The reason I say *THICK BOTTOMED*, is because this is REALLY EASY to burn, as it gets heated to 180°. I have burnt several batches in a thinner pot, even though I whisked it the entire time… 😦 So, hence my advice to USE A THICK BOTTOMED POT and WHISK CONTINUALLY, lol! 🙂

Once it reaches 180°, remove it from the heat. I add raw apple cider vinegar, slowly. I stir with a large metal spoon, and once I can feel the clumpiness of the curds forming, I stop pouring in the vinegar.

Next I scoop the curds out with my hand-held strainer and allow them to drain in a bowl lined with a large colander.

I weigh the strained curds, and for each pound of curd, I add 5 oz. of whey back in, and process until smooth.

Then, I freeze the whey for future uses like in whey soup and to cook noodles & beans in, etc.

LOTS of wonderful, probiotic benefits to liquid whey…NOT-TO-BE-CONFUSED-WITH the powdered stuff you can buy at the store.

The Weston A. Price Foundation is a wonderful place to begin researching that… 🙂

Most of the whey I freeze is in 1 cup “ice-cubes”. This is the amount needed to make 1 serving of whey soup…Michael’s favorite! 🙂

Sometime, I’ll get that recipe posted, as well.