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

[Decker, Terry D.]

Now that I've had some coffee, I may be a little clearer.

What you consider cheese depends on how tightly you adhere to the technical
definition, which is "a food made from curd of milk seperated from the
whey."  Ricotta made by cooking the whey and condensing it, so under the
technical definition, it isn't a cheese.  It is called "cheese" because it
resembles cheese.  Picky, picky, picky, right?

Fresh cheese is cheese which has not been fermented, which usually means a
soft, unripened cheese (I can't think of any other kind of fresh cheese, but
I haven't tried them all).  In general, fresh cheese will taste sweeter and
milder than other cheeses.

Under the strict definition, ricotta (and cream cheese) aren't cheese at
all.  Most people, however, ignore the precise differences and consider them
cheese.  In the latter case, ricotta would be considered a fresh cheese.

When fresh cheese is called for, I tend to use drained cottage cheese or
fresh mozzarella (if I can find it), but I would use ricotta if it was what
I had available.  

Bear


> 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....
> 
> Terry Decker wrote:
> > 
> > I'd say your cheesemaker is correct.  Ricotta is a 
> condensed whey product
> > and definitely not fresh cheese.  That being said, there is 
> a 16th Century
> > painting of formed ricotta being eaten by a group of people 
> from a plate
> > using spoons.
> > 
> > Bear
> > 
> >      I'm curious to get responses from this group --
> > how appropriate is ricotta as a "fresh cheese"
> > substitute in redactions, in your opinion?  Thought
> > I might hear from some more cheese-knowledgeable
> > folks than myself.  After all, blessed are the
> > cheesemakers.  ;)  :)
> > 
> >               -- Ruth