Have you looked for a youtube video of the process? When I make ricotta, when you add the lemon juice, it curdles. Another thing, it is possible that the milk is ultra pasteurized, as well. It is becoming more common and is not always noted on the jug. I seem to recall that can effect the process as well.

As it turned out, the panic was premature. Several hours after posting, it was bedtime, the cooked mixture was fully cooled, and it looked no different.

So I lined a bowl with the towel, poured the liquid in, and refrigerated it overnight, NOT TRYING to strain it at all til the next morning. In the morning it looked more like I remembered, with the curds larger and much less free liquid. I lifted the towel with contents, shifted it into a strainer that tightly fit that bowl, and moved it back to the refrigerator. Amount of fluid that drained out naturally was almost 2 cups, which looked and tasted like cream, just a little cheesy. (I used that in my coffee and in the cream of broccoli soup I made for dinner that night) The cheese still looked too moist, so I tied the towel and hung it over a bowl on the counter, and squeezed gently off and on for a few hours, til bedtime. Liquid that came out then looked like whey, about a cup. Refrigerated overnight again. Cheese was still soft, but we needed to make the tiramisu. I was a day behind since I had not drained it when I had planned. I weighed it and we had 35 ounces, over 2 pounds. I know weight measure is not the same as fluid measure, but it is hard to believe we could get this much considering how much fluid drained out (~ 3 cups). Cheese volume I did not measure, but it looked around 2 ý cups.

I have written this into my notes so I remember it for next year. I wonder if in increasing the recipe, I should not have also increased the lemon juice used to make the curdling start.

So the tiramisu came out? I hope so!

Thanks for posting your follow-up. I haven't made mascarpone, so have been very interested in your experiences.

The tiramisu came out great. I think my homemade mascarpone is a little more moist than the store bought one. So my finished servings are not as firm as commercial tiramisu. But the taste is great. It does get runnier as it is stored past the first day, but that is the egg whites collapsing. We like it that way, though it is not attractive. If you are serving it all the first day, that is not an issue. For all I know, maybe bakeries add unflavored gelatin or some other stabilizer to their tiramisu.

I think, to compensate, I could use fewer egg yolks. Maybe I will try that next year. Or try to extract more moisture. I read somewhere about setting the cheese, once drained, out on layers of paper towels and changing the towels as they soaked through.

But the mascarpone is so easy to make it is a great trade off. The cost is also a fraction of buying finished mascarpone. You just have to start 2 days in advance of when you want to assemble the tiramisu. We made it with homemade this year and last, and with commercial in 2012. We thought the taste was really fresh and light, too, compared to commercial.

Thanks for the report!

Great to hear that it all came right in the end. :)

That sounds delightful.

I made mascarpone the other day for some stuffed mushrooms I'm serving tomorrow. The recipe I found only used heavy cream and lemon juice, no milk. I used a cup of cream since I need so little and it is ultra-pasturized (can't find it any other way in my area). Still worked! It looked pudding-like when I put it in the strainer but firmed up nicely in the fridge.