Brad and Babish Make Ricotta Cheese

This has the easiest name ever.

Binging with Baj, we'll do that again.

(blip)

Binging with Bajib, Babish.

(laughter)

One more.? (blip)

Hey guys, today on It's Alive, we have a guest with us.

You might recognize him.

Andrew Rea from Binging with Babish, on YouTube.

Hey what's up guys.

Welcome back to Binging with Babish.

For this week I am craving a Parmesan hero.

He's going me today in the test kitchen

where we're going to be making some ricotta cheese, aka,

pot cheese, aka rigott.

It depends where you're from or what you're doin'.

Pot cheese?

Pot cheese, oh, we'll get there Babish.

(playful music)

(blip) Oh Babish how rude of me.

Before we get goin' you want a little kombucha.

I don't know if you've seen the show but we,

Wait ready, ready V?

(pop) (both exclaim)

[both] Cheers.

Thanks for having me. A little pre ricott.

(playful strings music)

Ooh.

That's really nice.

I guess we'll get started.

We'll go grab the cream and the milk.

I guess I'll bring old Babby with me here.

Can I call you Babby?

(laughs) You'd be the first

but now guess you're not gonna be the last.

Let's do it. (chuckles)

We got our own little box.

Ooh. B and BB forever.

I shoulda drew a heart around it.

(chimes)

How freakin' cute would that be?

(camera shutter clicks)

To the table Vinny. Let's do it.

Thanks for getting the door babe.

Thanks Vin.

Real easy, we're gonna need seven cups of milk.

You can go ahead and pour that right up.

I'm gonna just keep on yappin'.

When making ricotta, it's pretty simple.

Alls ya need is milk, cream, we have some salt

and then an acid.

You can use lactic acid like, cheese making lactic acid,

You could use vinegar, you could use lemon juice.

Whatever you're into.

Some have different reactions

and form different curds a little differently.

For our application, I found distilled white vinegar

to work out just, just great.

Ah yeah.

A little bit more.

Got be precise, there we go. That's freakin' perfect.

You got an eye like a laser.

And then one cup of heavy cream.

This is gonna add like some fat to the situation?

Or does it added flavor?

Yeah, you know maybe a little bit of both.

And this ain't rocket surgery.

If you're over a hair, no big deal.

I'm using a dutch oven, Staub.

Love these guys.

We're gonna use that to heat it up.

You want somethin' with, you know, you don't want

like a real throwaway, got it for two dollars and 99 cents

at the bodega saucepan.

Cause it's gonna burn the bottom.

So next where gonna heat this right up.

Alright I'm gonna turn this on.

If you wanna pour.

I believe in you Babbish. I got ya, look.

You're puttin' way too much faith in my abilities here.

I didn't go to culinary school.

That's cool.

I did.

I didn't learn anything.

Alright you can pour that right in there.

There we go.

Oh, too fast.

Oh no (bleep).

I'm just kidding it's fine. (chuckles)

We're gonna let that heat up and it gets a little boring

but it's a temperature thing.

So I go this here.

That instant read thermometer.

So, we're just gonna let this get up to

we're gonna hit 200 degrees.

Alright.

So it's gonna take a little while.

We can stir it as it goes.

(playful music)

Yeah, you know you're asking pot cheese, alright.

So we developed this recipe, manicotti.

Can I just say, I feel like I'm saying it wrong.

Manicotti.

Manicotti. Manicotti.

Yeah.

But how is it correctly said?

Manicotti.

Oh, perfect. (laughs)

Every Christmas my dad makes that.

Alright he makes, he gets this little crepe pan.

I was asking him I go, Dad what's the filling you use?

He goes,

Was it like four cups of pot cheese.

Then I go, Pot cheese?

Dad, wrong kind of, I not tryna get everyone at work high.

You know, not this time.

But he told me.

I guess in the old world it was called pot cheese

because they made it in a pot.

[Andrew] Well that just makes sense.

[Brad] Very literal.

(playful music)

Yeah so we'll just keep an eye on it.

I don't like puttin' it on real hot,

'cause you don't want to burn the bottom.

And I just like to keep it moving while I'm heatin' it.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

Stirring milk.

So, how's your week?

How's my week? Yeah.

Week's been great.

You know, a little snow never slowed me down, I love it.

Oh my God it looks beautiful out there.

Yeah it's like a,

look at that Vinny, it's like a snow globe.

[Andrew] It's all going up.

[Brad] Magic.

[Andrew] The snow's goin' up.

[Brad] We get some crazy wind down here.

[Andrew] Oh, okay.

Now I get a lot of flak

for measuring in fahrenheit, by the internet.

They get mad. Oh I bet.

You know, the internet can be a silly place sometimes.

I guess it depends what you're doin'.

When you're making what?

Do they give you a hard time.

Like, temping a steak?

Anything?

Anything, yeah.

I man, knock it off.

Alright, so we're getting pretty close.

We're at 170, just about 178.

So, you want to go ahead.

Over there I set aside,

there's some distilled white vinegar.

And then you can get some of the that

good ol' Ben Jacobson salt

that you were nibblin' on before.

Uh huh. Two teaspoons of salt?

[Brad] Yeah two teaspoons.

Make it three Babish, I'm feeling a little crazy.

Let's go wild.

[Brad] Let's get a little wild bud.

Here we go.

Three.

Don't tell nobody.

[Brad] And then I got that nice little

liquid measuring cup.

It only goes to four but just use your imagination

if there was a fifth.

Right about there.

Measured.

How we doin' on temperature?

We're at

Where are we at?

174 and climbing.

175 and climbing captain. (dramatic music)

Batten down the

Flood the tanks.

Is that what they do? (chuckle)

Tank four flooded. (laughter)

Mmm, I love this stuff.

[Brad] You know how many feet are in a fathom Babish?

Yeah but I wanna make sure that you know how many.

Six feet in a fathom.

Vinny, you might want to fact check that.

Six feet?

[Brad] Six feet in one fathom.

I'm gonna be honest.

My guess would've been a thousand.

Well, boy you were off. (laughs)

So when it gets to 200 I'm just gonna turn it off.

And then Babish, your gonna come in

with the acid and the salt.

Yeah.

I'm ready.

Yeah you are.

(Woman sneezing)

Oh, bless you. Bless you.

198.

You wanna go head and turn it off.

I think it's just gonna carry over.

It's gonna come up.

If I have to turn the heat back on I'm gonna be pissed.

I'm gonna flip out.

Alright, heat's goin' back on.

We're gonna give it a quick blast. (laughs)

We got one shot here.

200 Babish.

(bleep) oh, here we go.

[Brad] Pour.

Beautiful pour job. That's it.

Thank you.

I'm gonna give it a little stir.

Just to get it all incorporated.

Look you can, it's like magic.

Turn it off, yeah, thank you.

And then you just leave it.

Boom.

[Babish] Ooh, look at that.

[Brad] Yeah, just let that sit.

You can already see the curds forming.

They're gonna just sit on the top.

And in about ten minutes

just about all of it'll setting to curd.

And then underneath it will just be like a yellowish

kindaclearish liquid.

And what that is, is the whey.

And that's the byproduct.

Let's take a bucho break.

Yeah, let's take a buch break.

I like where your head's at Babish.

(playful music)

So, check this out Vinny.

Come on in here bud.

So underneath here.

Alright, you see that liquid, it's all separated.

It's kinda clear, kinda yellow.

Kinda looks like whey.

So we're gonna go ahead and strain that.

[Babish] Looks like whey cause it is whey really.

It's definitely whey, yeah.

Oh, before we get it goin' here, we're just gonna.

We got one of these nice Chinois.

You know, the fine mesh strainer.

And then we're also gonna line that

with a little bit cheesecloth.

Cause we're making cheese.

Okay.

A little drapey drape.

Now hold on one second Babish.

A little something I learned.

They ain't gonna teach you this is in culinary school.

Alright.

Cause when you pour, these things, the cheesecloth

always goes dropping down, makes a freakin' mess.

So what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna clip it on here.

That's,

Right good idea. Genius idea.

Well let's not get crazy.

I'll do a little pouring, you hold that.

Okay.

Teamwork. (ding)

Here we go.

Moment of truth Vinny.

Is that not super hot?

[Brad] No.

[Babish] Oh, alright.

It looks delicious.

I'll scrape that out.

Yeah, and then just get a little vibration.

Perfect.

(rustling)

(blip)

You're doing a great job. How?

[Brad] Jiggle, jiggle.

Thank you.

Place that right in there.

Here we go.

And then what we have left here is,

this is just the whey.

What do you use this for?

Is there any use for this?

Yeah, so I mean people.

Oh, Claire perfect.

I'm so glad you're here.

Yeah, what's up?

Claire Saffitz.

What are some of the things that you,

Have you ever used whey?

Um.

Thanks Claire.

Look so it's already looking like cheese.

We've been draining this for about,

about five minutes.

I don't want this to be super, super dry.

I want it to have some moisture in it.

So we're gonna go ahead and call that.

Six minutes, done drainin'.

I'ma go head and take my cheese making clips off.

You can get these on Amazon, maybe at Staples.

Definitely on Amazon, maybe at Staples

office supply store.

(laughs)

[Babish] Oh yeah.

Yeah, so I'm just gonna give it a little shake.

Maybe it's a little wet.

What do you think Babish?

It's a little wet.

Little wet? Little wet.

Alright we'll wait a little bit.

So you don't squeeze this at all.

I don't.

I kinda let nature I'm not suggesting you do.

do its thing. I'm just curious.

I feel like squeezing it, we're gonna start

to push some of the finer parts of the cheese

deeper into the cheesecloth, if not out.

Might make out exit, our dismount, a little sloppy.

Alright, well I want a solid ten on that dismount.

That was a dumb joke.

Let's not put that in. (laughs)

Leave that out Vinny.

Yeah good luck with that.

So let that wait.

We'll give it another four minutes.

We'll do another five minutes.

Enjoy.

Oh, this is yours. (laughs)

(playful music)

Alright that's been about five, six minutes.

Total drain time we're looking at about 11 minutes.

I think it's pretty good.

Looks pretty good, feels good.

Wanna give it a little.

(coughs)

Alright, great. (laughs)

[Brad] Vinny, get in here bud.

[Babish] That's some ricotta if I've ever saw it.

If I've ever seen it. Ricotta.

Look at that.

[Brad] Let me get a couple spoons.

We'll do a little tasty taste.

I just gonna taste it right now.

[Brad] Moroco you wanna have a little?

Wanna get in on this?

[Morocco] Sure.

Chris Morocco, senior food editor.

What's up? Nice to meet you.

Sorry hand's sticky, it's from the ricotta.

It's alright.

We just call him Babish on the show.

Good ol' Babby, whatever.

Or Babs. Babs.

Give it a little taste, eases right out.

You did this with lemon or?

This is with distilled white vinegar.

Cause that one you made before was like, pretty lemony.

Pretty good.

Very lemony.

That's why I, audible.

Mmhmm. That's pretty good.

That's pretty nice.

Pretty nice, not bad.

Did you put salt in there?

Yeah, two teaspoons.

But he measured it so I don't know.

Wait we did three three scoops of it remember.

Oh, we did three that's right.

We did do three.

Look Vinny, you wanna zoom in real quick.

Nice little curd structure.

It's not cottage cheese, it's ricotta.

Nice little bounce to it.

Yeah, springy.

It's not grainy.

No it's not.

And it's very smooth.

Buttery.

Like Chris was saying, nice little tang.

So I think the three teaspoons of salt is clutch.

Well I'm glad I had that idea then.

To do it. Glad you're here.

What's some of your favorite things to do with ricotta?

I like putting it in, this is actually not true,

(laughs) Just lie.

Just tell me lies.

I normally do not like putting in in lasagna.

But this is really good ricotta.

It's very smooth.

I think if we add a little bit of the whey back

get it nice and creamy.

I think it would be really good in lasagna.

Lets go make some lasagna.

Lets go get bingi and bab--

Let's get weird.

Tune in, check out on YouTube, Binging with Babish.

And we're gonna go over to his place

and make a little lasagna.

With ricotta.

Maybe I'll bring some buch.

Sounds good to me.

You gonna be there? Let's get weird.

Alright, cool. Hopefully I'll be there.

Great!

Hope you don't break into my place.

Well that's ricotta.

Thanks guys, thanks for tuning in.

Bon appetit.

Bon appetit, baby.

[Brad] We killed it. (chuckles)

Stop following me.

[Brad] Yeah, good luck with that.

I can tell you're doing the close up.

I see the lens.

[Brad] I love when Andrew's here.

To all the beautiful Babishkas out there,

Bubby loves you. (laughter)

Bubby.

Bubby, babby.

Bubby.

Bubby.

That's like, it's an old story,

we're really gonna get off track on this one.

There's an old story of a family member.

And somehow we were related to her.

She was like a great aunt of something.

Bubby, get me a drink, bubby.

That's it.

(laughter) Alright.

(blip)

A lot of people have a lot of mixed feeling about lasagna.

I know how Garfield feels about lasagna.

Garfield? Yeah.

New Jersey? The cat.

Oh. (laughter)

(spirited music)

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