Hello and welcome to Episode Seventeen of Page Turn: the Largo Public Library Podcast. I'm your host, Hannah!
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The Spanish Language Book Review begins at 8:52 and ends at 11:41
The English Language Transcript can be found below
But as always we start with Reader's Advisory!
The Reader's Advisory for Episode Seventeen is How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness by Michel Pollan. If you like How to Change Your Mind you should also check out: Blue Dreams by Lauren Slater, The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda, and Island by Aldous Huxley.
My personal favorite Goodreads list How to Change Your Mind is on is About the Most Complicated Thing in the Universe.
Today’s Library Tidbit is a cheese tidbit!
You may have attended one of Hilary’s Cheese and Butter programs in the ideaLAB. If you haven’t managed to snatch a spot in the program I can personally attest that the ricotta recipe we’ll go over today makes for delicious cheese. While we’re going to focus more on ricotta today and different recipes you can make with fresh ricotta, you will find recipes to other fresh, no aging, cheeses in the show notes. All these cheese vary only in the amount of milk fat, the amount of acid or starter added, and how they are drained of excess whey. The science of cheese is fascinating.
The basic idea of cheese making is the removal of water from milk. There are several different ways to do this depending on the cheese desired. As we are focusing on unripened cheeses, cheeses that are not aged, I’ll just briefly mention that some cheeses are ripened with bacteria and some are ripened by mold. The two different types of bacteria used are mesophilic bacteria which lives at room temperature but dies at higher temperatures, this results in a smoother more mellow cheese, and thermophilic bacteria which lives at higher temperatures and makes sharper, harder cheeses. Cheeses ripened with mold are soft, runny or even blue.
Unripened cheeses and ripened cheeses are all started the same way. Milk is curdled and the curds are separated from the whey. However, there are different techniques to get to this phase. There are four different categories of unripened cheeses: cheeses created with acid only, cheeses created with acid and heat, cheeses created with acid and rennet, and cheeses created with rennet only. The most common acid used in home cheese making recipes is lemon juice, however some cheeses are also created with a starter or with buttermilk. Rennet is an enzyme that curdles milk.
The cheese we’re talking most about today, ricotta, is created using heat and acid. Traditionally ricotta is made from reheating the whey left behind in other cheese making endeavors, however, most people will never have enough left over whey to make it in this way. So you can also make ricotta with milk. It is recommended to use milk with high milk fat contents. You cannot make cheese from less than 2% and will have problems at 2%. Also do not use Ultra-high-temperature (or UHT) processed milk. You can try to use it to make cheese, however, the curds won’t cling together properly and you will have less cheese at the end.
To make fresh ricotta at home heat 1 quart milk and 1 cup heavy cream in a 2 quart saucepan. Once it reaches a boil remove it from the heat. Add the juice of one lemon and a dash of salt. Stir this mixture well and then allow it to stand for 20 minutes. Line a colander with cheesecloth and place it in your sink, pour the mixture into the lined colander and drain the whey. Leave it to stand in the colander slowly draining at room temperature for 2 hours then press it lightly. Although the length of time draining is up to your personal preference. If you like a wetter ricotta drain out less whey. If you like a drier ricotta place a small weight on the draining mass or drain...
