Geek Food (?)

More from archive.org. This is an episode of Geek Food--from what I can discover, Geek Food was an audio blog that made the jump to video and then disappeared. But I liked how this couple made pizza for a housefull of people. I hadn't thought about using a white sauce as a base on pizza before--and the idea of melting cream cheese into it is a great one.



Of course, I immediately thought that a fresh cheese might be better than the cream cheese, but I do recognize that they were under the gun on the pizza. Oh, and check out how their mise en place were set up so nicely beforehand.

A recipe I've used to make fresh cheese (called variously fresh, ricotta, or quark) is pretty simple:

8c whole milk (3.8% mf)
 1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons vinegar

• heat the milk and salt to ~203°F / 95°C--this should be done slowly over a lower heat and take about 40 minutes
• add the vinegar and stir slowly about three times. This will clabber the milk.
• remove from heat and let stand ~20 minutes (this give the milk time to finish clabbering.
• skim off the curds and allow to drain in cheesecloth for about half an hour.

et voilà! fresh cheese! Use immediately, or, if storing, try to use it within the next two days.