[Sca-cooks] Ricotta non mascarpone

[Dragon]

smcclune at earthlink.net wrote:
>-----Original Message-----
> >From: Dragon <dragon at crimson-dragon.com>
> >
> >I've never seen a cheese recipe that uses such a low temperature that
> >does not also use a live culture and/or rennet as the coagulant.
> >
> >Doesn't mean they don't exist, only that I have never seen one.
><<<
>
>I started with the one quoted in Mark Grant's "Roman Cookery":
>
>"Bassus, Country Matters:
>The best method for making what are known as curds is to pour sharp 
>vinegar into new earthenware pots and then to put these pots on a 
>slow fire.  When the vinegar begins to boil, take it off the flame 
>so it does not bubble over and pour milk into the pots.  Place the 
>pots in a store or some other place where they will not be 
>disturbed.  The next day you will have curds that are much better 
>than those made with a great deal of fuss."
>
>But because I didn't have new earthenware pots to put in the fire, I 
>decided to approximate the effect by warming the milk slightly.  I 
>guesstimated that if you started with really fresh milk, it would be 
>about body temperature; the heat from the boiling vinegar and the 
>earthenware pots might raise the temperature by about five degrees 
>or thereabouts.  I do boil the vinegar before adding it, though I've 
>forgotten a time or two and it still works, just not as quickly.
>
>After the curds form, I transfer them to a cheesecloth bag and hang 
>them up to let them drip for a couple of hours.  The resulting 
>cheese is more like a cream cheese than a solid, sliceable cheese 
>(though it does become more solid the longer it hangs).  There is a 
>slight tang to it from the vinegar, but it's not unpleasant.
---------------- End original message. ---------------------

I am going to surmise that the call for "new earthenware pots" is 
because the pots they would have been using were probably not glazed 
and previously used ones may harbor spoilage organisms in the pores 
of the clay. Unglazed earthenware is quite porous, new, unused pots 
would have been sterilized in the firing process and that is probably 
the only time they would have been heated hot enough for a prolonged 
period to destroy all possibility of contamination. Now of course 
they would not have known that the problems arose from organisms but 
they would have been observant to the effects.

I believe that the temperature of the milk would have been raised 
further than you think. But without experimenting with it and 
measuring it, I can't be sure of that. It is very likely that the 
milk would have been near body temperature because it likely would 
have been used fairly quickly after milking the animal.

You could use glazed pots for this, the only reason earthenware was 
commonly used at the time was because it was what was readily 
available. I am not certain about when high-fire ceramics began to be 
used but they are definitely towards the later end of the time scale 
and probably not common in classical Roman times.

I think this bears some experimentation.

Every modern recipe for an acid curdled cheese that I have seen does 
it at a much higher temperature and with a smaller quantity of acid. 
The acid is definitely more active at higher temperatures as the 
types of acids used for this are "weak" acids which do not fully 
dissociate. Higher temperatures result in more hydrogen ions forming 
as more acid molecules dissociate.




Dragon

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  Venimus, Saltavimus, Bibimus (et naribus canium capti sumus)
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