34 ms·

if you put milk in a pot, heated and added lemon until it separated sounds like you made ricotta, not cream cheese. Cream cheese is more like yogurt actually (

if you put milk in a pot, heated and added lemon until it separated sounds like you made ricotta, not cream cheese. Cream cheese is more like yogurt actually (I'm sure I've had some brands that where really just yoghurt with very low water percentage). Maybe the culture they use is different, but I've left homemade greek yogurt straining in the fridge and forgot about it for an extra day and it came out exactly like cream cheese.

sircastor 3y ago
I understand that cottage cheese, cream cheese, and ricotta are all quite similar, and much of it has to do with how you handle removing the whey, or what you do with the curds afterwards.
- bernawil 3y ago
  cottage cheese and ricotta, yes, note the clumpy texture. That's what you get when you heat enough and cook the milk with an acid, it clumps into that typical texture. But cream cheese is more like yogurt. You put the culture in the milk, add some sugar to feed it, heat it until barely warm and store until it thickens and can be separated from the whey by straining. The process is similar for both, just not sure if they use different cultures.
  - sircastor 3y ago
    Thanks for mentioning this - the instructions that I'd found for making cream cheese had suggested essentially making ricotta, and running it through a food processor until creamy. While this did produce some sort of cheese, it wasn't what I was looking for. I did more research and just as you said, Cream cheese starts with a yogurt, drains the whey off and then is pressed. Some approaches combine yogurt (made with Milk) and sour cream. Anyway, it's obviously a complex and broad topic. You've gotten me pointed in the right(er) direction.
fuzztester 3y ago
>if you put milk in a pot, heated and added lemon until it separated sounds like you made ricotta, not cream cheese. Interesting. That is basically how paneer is made. Then you strain off the whey after the milk "splits", and hang the paneer up to drain, wrapped in a porous cloth, for a few hours. Then you can eat it straight away, either raw (delicious that way too), or deep-fried alone, or in some recipe for a dish having paneer as an ingredient. The raw paneer lasts for a few days in the fridge. The whey can be drunk as is, or used instead of or in addition to water for cooking.
- OJFord 3y ago
  Correct that is (unpressed) paneer, not ricotta - the latter should be the acid-split curds from the whey left from a rennet-set cheese; the result is much creamier (and of course much much lower yield).
  - fuzztester 3y ago
    Right, thanks, I forgot to mention the need to press the paneer for a while, if you want to make cubes for cooking. That is both for giving it shape and firmness, and removing more of the whey, after which it will fry or cook better without falling apart.
    - OJFord 3y ago
      Oh I wasn't meaning to correct you - you mentioned draining, and I know some people don't press it any more than under its own weight like that. (I do prefer it a bit firmer personally though - just not as far as the stuff we get in shops in the UK, which is like rubber.) I just meant that up-thread cheese sounds like paneer because it is (on its way to being), ricotta is/should be slightly different.
      - fuzztester 3y ago
        Got it now. And yes, rubbery paneer is not good.
- 3y ago
taejo 3y ago
Ricotta is properly made from the whey which is a by-product of making another cheese. Additionally, the souring comes not from lemon, but from fermentation of the whey itself. However, it's true that the term is commonly used in home cooking for plain fresh cheeses made from whole milk. Your strained Greek yogurt sounds similar to labneh, which is delicious!

sircastor 3y ago

I understand that cottage cheese, cream cheese, and ricotta are all quite similar, and much of it has to do with how you handle removing the whey, or what you do with the curds afterwards.

bernawil 3y ago
cottage cheese and ricotta, yes, note the clumpy texture. That's what you get when you heat enough and cook the milk with an acid, it clumps into that typical texture. But cream cheese is more like yogurt. You put the culture in the milk, add some sugar to feed it, heat it until barely warm and store until it thickens and can be separated from the whey by straining. The process is similar for both, just not sure if they use different cultures.
- sircastor 3y ago
  Thanks for mentioning this - the instructions that I'd found for making cream cheese had suggested essentially making ricotta, and running it through a food processor until creamy. While this did produce some sort of cheese, it wasn't what I was looking for. I did more research and just as you said, Cream cheese starts with a yogurt, drains the whey off and then is pressed. Some approaches combine yogurt (made with Milk) and sour cream. Anyway, it's obviously a complex and broad topic. You've gotten me pointed in the right(er) direction.

fuzztester 3y ago

>if you put milk in a pot, heated and added lemon until it separated sounds like you made ricotta, not cream cheese. Interesting. That is basically how paneer is made. Then you strain off the whey after the milk "splits", and hang the paneer up to drain, wrapped in a porous cloth, for a few hours. Then you can eat it straight away, either raw (delicious that way too), or deep-fried alone, or in some recipe for a dish having paneer as an ingredient. The raw paneer lasts for a few days in the fridge. The whey can be drunk as is, or used instead of or in addition to water for cooking.

OJFord 3y ago
Correct that is (unpressed) paneer, not ricotta - the latter should be the acid-split curds from the whey left from a rennet-set cheese; the result is much creamier (and of course much much lower yield).
- fuzztester 3y ago
  Right, thanks, I forgot to mention the need to press the paneer for a while, if you want to make cubes for cooking. That is both for giving it shape and firmness, and removing more of the whey, after which it will fry or cook better without falling apart.
  - OJFord 3y ago
    Oh I wasn't meaning to correct you - you mentioned draining, and I know some people don't press it any more than under its own weight like that. (I do prefer it a bit firmer personally though - just not as far as the stuff we get in shops in the UK, which is like rubber.) I just meant that up-thread cheese sounds like paneer because it is (on its way to being), ricotta is/should be slightly different.
    - fuzztester 3y ago
      Got it now. And yes, rubbery paneer is not good.
3y ago

taejo 3y ago

Ricotta is properly made from the whey which is a by-product of making another cheese. Additionally, the souring comes not from lemon, but from fermentation of the whey itself. However, it's true that the term is commonly used in home cooking for plain fresh cheeses made from whole milk. Your strained Greek yogurt sounds similar to labneh, which is delicious!