[Sca-cooks] Ricotta non mascarpone (was RE: NOTT feast report(VERY long) (was fish))

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On May 1, 2008, at 10:17 AM, Nick Sasso wrote:

> I am curious why everyone is saying:
>
> "You can make ricotta using whey from cheesemaking for non-acid  
> coagulated
> cheeses but not from cheese that use lemon juice or vinegar as the
> coaggulant"
>
> The lactochemistry lesson stopped short of answering that question :o(
>
> niccolo difrancesco

One hypothesis to check, perhaps, and I haven't, is whether proteins  
respond differently to different pH's under high heat as they do to  
different enzymes. In short, enzymes are proteins that are basically  
denatured when boiled - this is how blanching vegetables works to keep  
them green. Acids and bases remain, more or less regardless of  
predictable kitchen temperatures.

So, for example, when you make a strong ale by boiling your wort well  
past the protein rest stage to re-dissolve those proteins you'd  
normally want to settle out, it's not diastase or amylase that are  
doing this: they're dead and gone; it's the heat. It may be that the  
acids that will denature proteins under some temperatures won't work  
in the same way under other, higher temperatures.

If that makes any sense.

Adamantius





"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter