(no subject)

[camwyn]

A thing I have observed, which I will continue to keep an eye open for, since it is about Science and therefore requires Data Points to confirm:

If a course or a cookbook or something else of that nature says it is about Science and Cooking both, and if the cuisine involved is at all European-based, it will require you, at some point, to make ricotta cheese.

Possibly paneer. But most likely, ricotta cheese.


(Guess who got a test recipe from the folks at America's Test Kitchen this weekend.)

Comments

[hellkitty]

I LOVE America's Test Kitchen's books! Let us know how it turns out!

[camwyn]

Will do! This is my second test for them, the first one being for their vegetarian/vegan cookbook. (It was a chickpea noodle soup recipe and it turned out really well, but I felt that if you are going to call a thing '$SUBSTANCE Noodle Soup' it should have more noodles than what they called for.)

[telophase]

We were testing recipes for them for a while! It's how I know I can recommend the pancakes and blueberry muffins in their first gluten-free cookbook.

We were on the gluten-free list, and then on the Cook's Country list for a while.

[ymfaery]

Is it hard to make ricotta cheese? >.>a

[camwyn]

Nah. Get half a gallon of milk- pasteurized, not ultra-pasteurized- and put it in a pot. Bring the milk temperature up to 190 degrees (I had an instant-read meat thermometer on hand so I used that). Turn off the heat and add 1/4 cup of white vinegar. Stir it briefly and briskly, then take out the spoon and walk away for five minutes. When you come back it should look kind of gross and weird, with clumpy white stuff in yellowy-greeny-clear liquid. The acid has caused the proteins to coagulate and take most of the fats with them; that's the lumpy stuff. The yellowy stuff is the whey, which is the liquid component. Strain this through a fine strainer that's been lined with a layer of cheesecloth and let the resultant lumpy stuff sit and drip about another five minutes, then put the lumpy stuff in a bowl and salt it to your liking, or don't salt it at all if you don't want to. That's ricotta cheese.

Do whatever you want with the whey. I've never been much good at finding uses for it. Traditional ricotta is actually made from cooking the whey left over after other cheeses are made, but unless you're taking a cheesemaking class, nobody's going to fuss over that fact.

[ymfaery]

So basically not hard if you have the equipment/whatevers in stock and a little time. :)

[ceitfianna]

I have one of their cookbooks, a big collection and love their stuff. Some of their choices don't always work for me, as they might prize lasting over flavor but the recipes are always great.