[Sca-cooks] Re: ricotta as "fresh cheese"?

[Barbara Benson]

Greetings,

To me "fresh" has always meant "newly made" when referring to cheese. I have
used Ricotta as a substitute for fresh cheese with a great deal of success,
but I have often wondered myself if it was a good substitution. The reason
for my misgivings are the same as have been stated here. When you make
"fresh" cheese whey is your by-product. You then make Ricotta from that. Now
you have freshly made the Riccotta from the whey, which makes it fresh
ricotta, but would a medieval mindset consider that "fresh" cheese? I think
(but could  be wrong ) the main consideration here would be milk solids and
therefore fat content.

Now, there has been about 10 minutes since I wrote that last sentence and
now. I realized that what I had wrote was based on things that I have
learned by talking to people but I could not recall exactly where I knew it
from. SO - I searched the web for "Fat content of Ricotta" and found this
fascinating site:
http://www.milkingredients.ca/DCP/article_e.asp?catid=145&page=441

Not period but full of more information about cheese than I have ever
thought about. And, the info on Ricotta seems to say that I am mistaken in
my assumptions about how Ricotta is made. So, I now know less than I thought
I knew. I am still up in the air as to weather or not Ricotta is a suitable
substitution for "fresh cheese".  I will follow this thread interest and
hopefully we can arrive at some conclusion.

Glad Tidings,
Serena da Riva


> How can you tell it's ricotta as opposed to something else?
> And while I'm definitely not an expert on anything, let alone foods or
> cheese, I've always thought of ricotta as belonging in the fresh-cheese
> category, if only because my brain has categorized fresh cheeses as
> "those ones you have to refrigerate" vs., say a "cured" (?right word?)
> cheese like cheddar or roquefort or something. Perhaps the confusion
> lies in what we think of when we say a "fresh" cheese?
> --maire's two pence worth....