#colander

Time of the Season - Freeman Dodsworth , 2025.

American , b. 1950s

These are the ingredients that you need...

4 cups of whole milk

1/2 cup of heavy cream cream or whipping cream

1/4 teaspoon of salt

3 tablespoons of lemon juice. I squeeze my own, but you can just buy the juice itself. I add a little extra to the recipe because I love the light, tangy, lemony flavor it gives the cheese...

Pour the milk and cream into a pot and add the salt. You're going to bring it to just under a boil, stirring constantly so the milk heats evenly and doesn't burn. I use a food thermometer to check the temperature. If you don't have one, you can just watch the pot, and at the first sign of a bubble rising to the top indicating it's about to boil, take it off of the heat.

While I heat the milk and cream, I set up a colander with cheese cloth in it, and I put that in a bowl to drain the cheese when it's done.

This is what the milk and cream mixture looks like a it heats up. I set it on medium heat. It'll take a little time to get just under the boiling point. Keep stirring, but don't stir too much or it'll take a long time to get to the proper temperature.

Once you have reached 210°F or have seen the first bubble indicating a boil and that you should take the mixture off of the heat, remove the pot to a cool place. I place a rack on my counter and put the pot there.

Then add the lemon juice. Stir this mixture as little as you can, but make sure that you incorporate all the lemon juice throughout the milk and cream. Then, leave it alone. It needs time for the curds to form, and they're very delicate. Don't touch the pot or the mixture again for an hour. At that point, it'll look like this

You can see the curds. 🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗

Now, you gently scoop out the cheese and put it in the cheese cloth in the colander in the bowl. As you can see, Petey is anxiously awaiting the cheese!! You may have to empty the juice as it accumulates in the bowl from the cheese as you scoop it into the bowl so it can drain thoroughly. That juice is called the whey. I always start feeling like Little Miss Muffet at this point in time because i have curds and whey!! 🤣🤣🤣

When all the curds are in the cheese cloth and you have emptied the bowl of any whey, you let it drain for an hour, and voila, you have fresh homemade ricotta cheese!!!

It's easy and fun and delicious!! I hope that you enjoy making the cheese as much as I do. It gives me a feeling of satisfaction and it's delicious so... 😁😍😋

My wonderful and amazing boyfriend decided to take the reins and actually finish my colander hat!! AND WOWZA!!! He did such a good job!!!

I gave him the materials I had and we had a consultation about how I wanted it to look before he just took off!! My general theme was space + my character ref!!!

He’s the bestest sweetest man ever and I love him!!! Thought y’all would like to see it!!! So here’s him modeling it (I’m camera shy)!!!!