Homemade ricotta cheese made in an Instant Pot is super quick, easy and an extremely yummy way to make ricotta cheese in your very own home – with only 3 ingredients needed! Printable recipe included.
This post is part of an original TIDBITS recipe, first seen HERE on tidbits-cami.com. But I'm bringing it back from the archives for Instant Pot Yogurt Button Lovin' week!
Clippin' right through Instant Pot Yogurt Button Lovin' week! And we're going back to cheese! I'm gonna assume that's okay with everybody, because, well . . . cheese.
Did you know you could make ricotta cheese at home? And that it will be super easy and taste better than store bought? AND you can make it in your Instant Pot? No, you're not pressure cooking it per se, but the pressure cooker makes it that much easier! Read on for details!
The ricotta cheese is made using the yogurt function, of course!
Cami introduced me to this amazing toast topper idea, that I highly suggest you slather all over some Instant Pot Whole Wheat Crusty Bread. A generous scoop of ricotta cheese + a generous scoop of plain Greek yogurt + a liberal swirl of honey and mix it all up. Smear that on some warm crusty bread, add some blueberries and drizzle more honey on top. Wowzer!
My kids and I love Cami's Healthy Banana Ricotta Muffins. Manicotti is also a favorite around my house, where we use plenty of ricotta cheese for the stuffing.
In an ideal world, I would love to make most everything homemade – bread, ranch, pizza sauce, yogurt, etc, etc. But in reality there's this thing called life, and it's just not allowing that kind of time.
Instant Pot Ricotta however is so easy and quick, and, most importantly, tastes better than store bought, that it's one of those things I actually do make often. No, not every time, playing dress up with fluorescent eye shadow with my daughter still takes priority over cheese.
For a smoother, creamier ricotta, strain for a shorter amount of time.
Now, let's talk details. Follow the simple printable recipe to learn how easy it is to make in a Instant Pot. But here are a few things you need to consider or have on hand before you begin.
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- The Instant Pot makes this easy with a push of the button and does not scorch the bottom, which is why this is my preferred method.
- You will need something to strain the curds from the whey. Here are 3 options:
- A colander lined with 2 layers of cheesecloth.
- Nut Milk Bags
- Or this handy yogurt strainer which is my personal favorite
- You can experiment with 2% milk, but you will get more whey and less ricotta with reduced fat milks.
- Distilled white vinegar can be used in place of the lemon juice. I like the taste and consistency I get with the lemon juice better.
- Don’t throw away the whey! It can be used as a buttermilk substitute or I've recently started using it in place of water in our whole wheat bread or this Crusty Bread.
It's absolutely better than store bought, it's easy, and it's cheap, it's Instant Pot Ricotta!
Be sure and check out the other Yogurt Button Lovin' recipes from this series. Mozzarella, Burrata, Yogurt, Skyr, Crusty Bread.
PrintInstant Pot Ricotta Cheese
Instant Pot Ricotta Cheese is quick, easy and so creamy delicious. You'll also save money by making this at home.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 60 minutes
- Yield: 2 Cups 1x
- Category: Cheese
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- ½ gallon whole milk
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- ⅓ cup lemon juice
Instructions
- Combine the milk and salt in the pot of the Pressure Cooker. Put the lid in place and set valve to seal position. Press the yogurt feature and press adjust until it says boil.
- When the Instant Pot beeps, remove the lid (it won’t have built up any pressure), give the milk a stir and then use a thermometer to check the temperature. Press saute and warm the milk to 190 degrees, stirring often.
- When the milk reaches 190 degrees, unplug the pressure cooker and add the lemon juice. Give it a very gentle stir. The milk will start to separate immediately.
- Let the pot of milk sit undisturbed for 10 minutes. The milk will separate into white, milky curds and watery, yellow colored whey.
- Without stirring it, pour the curds in either a colander lined with a double layer of cheesecloth, a nut milk bag, or a handy yogurt strainer.
- Let the ricotta drain for 10-60 minutes depending on how thick you want it. If it becomes too thick, you can stir some of the whey back into the ricotta.
- Scrape the ricotta into a bowl. It can be used right away or stored in an airtight container for up to a week.
Keywords: ricotta, homemade cheese, cheese
I would love to hear if you give it a try or if you have any questions we can help you with! Thanks for being here, and don't forget to pin the recipe for later.
*This post contains affiliate links, thank you!
Welcome! I’m Marci, wife to my motorcycle dream man and mother of 3. I have a passion for creating and cooking delicious masterpieces in my kitchen and am ecstatic to share my discoveries on TIDBITS! I like my food tasty, wholesome, memorable, and always, ALWAYS followed by dark, salty chocolate.
Can you use a 2% milk? It is what I have on hand.
Melisaa, yes that will work, it will just yield less.
I have made numerous batches of yogert and always strain out the whey with a colander under coffee filters. No problems. Great yogert. With the left over whey I freeze into ice cube trays and place into zip lock bags, which I use for soups, chili verda, marinade, etc. I want to learn to make some sort of cheese with the left over whey, but it seems the cheese recipes shown always start off with whole or 2% milk. Not my left over whey. Help. What cheese can a make with my left over whey. Help…
Tony, I’ve never tried making cheese with the whey, if you try it, I would love to hear what you did!
can you make ricotta with nut milk? if so…. same procedure?
Sue, I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think so.
I followed your recipe exactly and it’s the best ricotta cheese I’ve ever had! Thank you!
★★★★★
Cory, It’s sooo much better than storebought, right!? Try it with manicotti asap!
Your readers should be aware of a problem with this Instant pot recipe. I have had 2 fails. This is most upsetting with a 4 litre jug of whole milk. I found another recipe that’s says 200 degrees so now hen the Boil cycle of the Yogurt cycle stops I now continue to heat using Sauté. I discovered that the temperature is only actually 175 degrees when the Boil cycle is finished and that’s why it failed. 200 degrees is fail proof..
Oops I just reread your recipe and see that you do instruct to continue heating. I think that this is not the recipe I used when I had the fails.
Hi Marci,
Love love love this..I tried.. it was so easy to do. Delicious never buy store bought again! Thankyou so much
★★★★★
Sara, it’s pretty amazing, right!?
Re UHT milk
I read on recipes.instantpot.com website homemade ricotta
Ultra high temperature (UHT) pasteurized milk changes the protein in the milk and prevents it from curdling. Do not use this milk for ricotta.
L
Lydia, thanks for the info!
I always try to bring mine up to 195 F and then I add about half a teaspoon of citric acid to the pot. I find the heat and the small amount of acid does the trick together, without making the ricotta taste acid. As soon as I add the acid, it usually starts forming. I think in the rare times it did not work is because the milk had a higher than normal pasteurization. This denatures the whey protein ahead of time, preventing it from coming off.
Leon, smart! I want to try this next. You don’t use lemon juice or vinegar at all then?
Hi, Marci
Thank you 🙂 Yes, both will do as source of acid, but I prefer for most of the work to be done by the heat. When making paneer, I use the acid from citric or lemon juice(natural source of citric acid) exclusively and not heat 🙂
This sounds so interesting to make ricotta in the instant pot. Quick question, has anyone tried making it with Fairlife lactose free whole milk? Curious is you think it would work. Thanks for the feedback
Michelle, I’ve never tried that. If you do, let me know how it goes! I’m very curious
Don’t know what you mean by the adjust button. My instant pot doesn’t have one. So if I press yogurt, how do I get to boil?
Debirah, Which model do you have?
I own the instant pot 6 quart duo. I was finally able to figure it out from another person’s comment. I had to hit the yogurt button twice. There was no information in my manual or in the recipe. I’m happy to say that after an hour of research and trial and error, it came out wonderful. Thank you for getting back to me.
Great! I love homemade ricotta!
Would this ricotta recipe work with organic and/lactose free milk?
Julie Lee, I don’t think the organic part will be an issue, but the lactose free might. Sorry! I’m not sure, I’ve never tried it with anything but cows milk.
I ruined an entire 4 litres of whole milk following this recipe and the same thing happened a long time ago when I used some other IP recipe. (I had forgotten why that hadn’t turned out) As far as I’m concerned, the temp needs to reach 200 degrees (just before it boils) in order to achieve consistent success.
Janice, That’s so disappointing! What percentage of milk fat did you use?
It seems the whole point of an IP is that one not have to pull out thermometers and manually check temperatures (bring to 190)
So this seems another “sledge hammer to drive a tack” over-use of an IP.
Why not just boil the milk in a saucepan to 190 and skip the IP altogether?
Peter, the yogurt boil cycle for me is a convenience factor. You could absolutely do it in a pan on the stove top, but I find the gentle heating cycle of the yogurt button to be just the right temperature to heat it gradually without burning. You can of course achieve that on the stove top as well if that’s how you prefer to do things. I like to think of it as another convenient use for the pressure cooker.
I think the point is how to do it if you don’t have a yogurt button. Seems the answer is don’t because you lose the convenience factor.
I have an Instant Pot Lux that doesn’t have a yogurt button. Any idea how I can make ricotta in that?
Monique, The IP just makes it easier to warm the milk to the proper temperature, but you can just hit saute and use a thermometer to take it to 190 degrees.
So far my favorite thing has been cheesecake, but I am still a newbie. Trying to figure out perfect rice pudding.
So far it would be lasagna! It was done in no time, and my family just loved it!
I think I made a good stew and some good pork shoulders. My most frequent use is for hard boiled eggs to take to work for breakfast.
I’ve only had my Instant Pot for a few weeks and so far my favorite recipe is Shrimp Scampi Paella! It’s spectacular and cooks in 5 minutes!
I purchased your book and made vanilla! Saving pits in the freezer to make almond extract and can’t wait to try some more recipes!
Thank you for a beautiful book!
Nancy