This delicious Instant Pot ricotta cheese can be made in any electric pressure cooker with a yogurt function. Super easy and hands off method, with tasty results.
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Hello friends!
I’m back again with another awesome recipe for you.
First I’ll give you some background.
One day I was making this homemade ricotta, which is a pretty easy recipe. But the lazy girl in me wondered if I could make it even easier. It’s not that babysitting a pot of milk on the stove is hard. But there are plenty of times when I just want to walk away for a few minutes (maybe even take a nap?) without worrying about the milk boiling over.
Well that’s when I got the idea for making ricotta cheese in the Instant Pot.
Most Instant Pot models have a yogurt function (you’ll need one for this recipe). Actually this ricotta cheese recipe can be made in any electric pressure cooker that has a yogurt function.
I’ll walk you through the steps so you can see how easy this method is.
Steps for Recipe Success
Add the milk/cream/salt, push the yogurt button (make sure it says “boil”) and walk away and put your feet up for a second.
While you’re snoozing, the Instant Pot will heat the milk to 180 degrees F for you.
Once the Instant pot has reached 180 degrees it will beep and the screen display will say “Yogt”.
That beep is your cue, my friends. Wake up and turn off the instant pot. (It’s not going to hurt anything if you sleep a few extra minutes and miss it, so don’t worry about that).
Now stir in the vinegar. Immediately, the milk will start to separate into curds and whey.
Remember Little Miss Muffet? Yep, she’s going to be super jealous right now of what you’ve got going on in that pot.
Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes. At this point the milk curds (cheese) should be well separated from the whey (milky white substance).
Scoop out large curds with a fine mesh strainer into a nut milk bag and set in a bowl with a colander. Or alternately you can use several layers of cheesecloth laid over a colander in a bowl.
I know I’ve told you before, but I love my nut milk bag. It has a wide opening so it’s easy to pour in the milk mixture and it’s easy to wash and reuse. Totally worth it for cheese making.
One of the nice things about using the nut milk bag, is that it’s easy to hang so the whey can drip out.
Let the whey drip for 20-60 minutes, depending the texture of the ricotta you are going for. Less time straining will yield a creamier ricotta while more time straining will produce a drier, fluffier ricotta.
Boom. Done. Easy.
Enjoy, my friends.
Instant Pot Ricotta Cheese
This delicious Instant Pot ricotta cheese can be made in any electric pressure cooker with a yogurt function. Super easy and hands off method, with tasty results.
Ingredients
- 8 cups milk see note
- 1 cup cream
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- ⅓ cup distilled white vinegar
Instructions
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Combine milk, cream, and salt in Instant Pot. Select yogurt function and make sure it says "Boil". The Instant pot will heat the milk mixture to180 degrees. Once it beeps and the screen display says "Yogt", hit cancel to turn off the pot.
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Now stir in the vinegar. Immediately, the milk will start to separate into curds and whey. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
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Scoop out large curds with a fine mesh strainer into a nut milk bag (see note) set in a bowl. Or alternately you can use several layers of cheesecloth laid over a colander in a bowl.
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Pour in remaining milk mixture and, if using a nut milk bag, carefully lift it up out of the strainer and hang so the whey can continue to drip from the bag into the bowl. Let the whey drip for 20-60 minutes, depending the texture of the ricotta you are going for. Less time straining will yield a creamier ricotta while more time straining will produce a drier, fluffier ricotta.
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This ricotta is best used fresh, but will keep refrigerated for about a week.
Recipe Notes
1. I’ve only made this recipe with whole cow’s milk, and I highly recommend it. It’s super creamy and delicious that way. Feel free to try it with other types of milk as you wish.
2. Here’s a stovetop version of this recipe.
3. This is the nut milk bag I have and LOVE. It has a wide opening so it’s easy to pour in the milk mixture and it’s easy to wash and reuse. I highly recommend it!
4. No need to discard the whey. It contains a lot of good nutrients. Do a google search to find out all the ways you can use it.
Recipe Source: Heather @ The Cook’s Treat, adapted for the Instant Pot from this recipe.
All images and text ©The Cook’s Treat
Disclaimer: post contains affiliate links for items on Amazon.
Hello there. Wondering if you could use the whey strained from making yogurt in lieu of vinegar??
I am not familiar enough with the culturing properties of whey to answer this.