The buttermilk we make at Pepe Saya is REAL, fresh buttermilk. Traditional buttermilk like ours is the whey left over from churning créme fraiche (soured cream). Once the crème fraiche is churned it splits into butter and buttermilk. The beauty of using buttermilk in your cooking is its pH of under 4.5 and the flavour of the cultured cream. It adds depth of flavour to cakes, batters, salad dressings, pancakes and when marinating meats. The other recipe it is perfect for is buttermilk ricotta – spread it on bread, salads or with some fresh basil and tomato (Mrs Peps favourite).
Making your own ricotta may seem scary, but it is once of the simplest things to make. You heat the buttermilk with milk, turn the heat off and watch it split, that’s it. My recipe works on a 1L buttermilk to 2L of milk ratio, giving you 700gm of ricotta. The acidity of the buttermilk will curdle the milk, then you are left with beautiful fresh buttermilk ricotta. Add a pinch of salt if you like…or don’t! For this recipe you need to use traditional buttermilk, you will find the cartons at the supermarket are made with skim milk powders and cultured flavour, they are not the same.
Ingredients
- 2L full cream unhomogenised full cream milk, I used Tilba Milk from the markets
- 1L Pepe Saya Buttermilk
Method
- In a pot, combine the milk and buttermilk together and bring them slowly up to heat, stirring gently every few minutes, until the milk solids rise to the surface and form curds. You want to bring it up to 75-80◦C.
- When it hits this temp, turn off heat and let sit for 10-15 minutes to split, scoop it out (the solid parts). You can use what you have to strain it, you don’t need fancy tools– skimmer/pasta strainer spoon, sieve, muslin cloth. If you watch me make it, I use a skimmer.
- Enjoy warm or cold. Add a pinch of salt, or don’t!
This makes 700gm of ricotta.
Easy as that!