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

[Huette von Ahrens]

Here is what the Oxford Companion to Food says
about whey cheese:

Whey cheeses, which are made in many countries,
are a useful way of using up the enormous amounts
of whey left over from normal cheese-making.  The
two main kinds are typified by ricotta and
mysost.
Sérac (see Beaufort) is another interesting
example.

Mysost is a purely Norwegian cheese.  'Myse'
means 'whey' and 'ost' means 'cheese'.  Standard
mysost, primost, is made from cow's milk whey;
gjetost is made from goat's milk whey; flötost is
enriched with cream.  All kinds are quite sweet
in taste, and rather resemble cheesy fudge; a
likeness increased by the colour, which ranges
from very pale to medium brown.  There are kinds
which are sweetened further with brown sugar. 
Some others include spices: caraway, cumin or
cloves.

Under Beaufort, in addition to describing this
cheese, there is this notation:

The whey left over from Beaufort proper is used 
to make Sérac (from the Latin 'serum' meaning
'whey').  Sérac is a white cheese, lean and
compact like Italian Ricotta.  Together with
Tomme, Sérac used to constitute the staple diet 
of the mountain people, who kept their Beaufort 
to sell at market, since it was their sole means
of earning money.

And as for your definition of cheese, while
correct, my dictionary has this added meaning:

2 : something resembling cheese in shape or
consistency.

In looking at the etymology of the word 'cheese',
I find this:

often attrib [ME 'chese', fr. OE 'cese'; akin to
OHG 'kasi' cheese; both from a prehistoric WGmc
word borrowed from L. 'caseus' cheese; akin to OE
'hwatherian' to foam, Skt 'kvathati' he boils.]

In looking up ricotta in the OED, I did and
didn't find the word exactly, but I found this:

Ricoct: Obs. [ad. It. "ricotta"'a kinde of fresh
cheese and creame' (Florio).] See quote.

1583 Munday 'Eng. Rom. Life' 62 "Two Quatrines
woorthe of Leekes, one Quatrine bestowed in
Ricoct, which is harde Cruds to make Cheese.

So, in period, Florio considered ricotta to be a
fresh cheese.  I am not sure if this is the 1598
dictionary or the 1611 one.

Huette


--- "Decker, Terry D."
<TerryD at Health.State.OK.US> wrote:
> 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
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
>
http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks


=====
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they 
shall never cease to be amused.

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search
http://shopping.yahoo.com