Twice a month we feature local restaurants, farms and farmers markets featured on episodes of UNC-TV’s Flavor, NC. This week, we highlight episode six from the first season, in which hostess Lisa Prince highlights Maple View Farm and Panciuto Restaurant in Hillsborough.
“Get ready for your milk mustache,” said Lisa at the beginning of the show. “This episode is on tasty Tar Heel milk and ice cream.” Maple View Farm is a family-run dairy and milk company that has been located in Orange County since the 1960s. In 1996, the farm started bottling their own milk for sale.
In this episode, Lisa visits the farm to follow the process from milking the Holstein herd, bottling the milk and packing the ice cream.
[GotToBeNC]BuaWs3UHSc0[/GotToBeNC]
Lisa also visits with Aaron Vandemark, chef and owner of Panciuto Restaurant, to see how ricotta is made from Maple View milk. More of Aaron’s recipes are also included in the episode. Below is the recipe for homemade ricotta.
Ingredients:
- 1 gallon milk
- ¾ cup cream
- 1 ½ tablespoons salt
- 1 teaspoon of rennet or 1 rennet tablet
- ¼ cup cold water
Preparation:
Place milk and cream in a saucepan and heat to 200 degrees, then transfer it to a cold pot. Add salt, and allow the mixture to drop to 125 degrees. (To speed this up, you can place the pot into an ice bath.) Dissolve rennet or rennet tablet in ¼ cup of water and pour into milk. Stir well, then allow the mixture to rest for 10 minutes. After mixture has rested, then cut an X in the top of the milk with a wooden spoon to check that it has coagulated, then stir well for 20 seconds. Reheat as needed to separate curds from whey.
Ladle the mixture into a strainer over a pot to separate curds from whey, then transfer separated curds into second strainer lined with cheesecloth. Continue with another ladle, drain well in first basket, transfer to second. Continue until you’ve finished. Allow ricotta to remain in a cheesecloth lined basket to drain overnight.