[Sca-cooks] Cream cheese?
Sharon Palmer
ranvaig at columbus.rr.com
Thu Aug 4 14:19:38 PDT 2011
>-----Original Message-----
>>the king and his hunting party came across the hut of a dairy
>>farmer making ricotta and, being ravenous, asked for some. Frederick pulled
>out his bread loaf, poured the hot ricotta and whey on top
>
>That sounds more like curds and whey than ricotta, which is made *from*
>whey.
>
>Ranvaig
>
>It says that the farmer is making ricotta not that it was ricotta and it
>sounds like the product is in the cooking stage, so yes, curds and whey.
>Ricotta is curds without the whey.
>
>De
>
I wonder if there might be a translation issue here. Does the
original really use the word "ricotta"? Because ricotta is
specifically made from the leftover whey after other cheesemaking.
From wikipedia:
Ricotta is an Italian dairy product made from sheep (or cow, goat,
buffalo) milk whey left over from the production of cheese. Although
typically referred to as ricotta cheese, ricotta is not properly a
cheese because it is not produced by coagulation of casein. Rather it
is made by coagulating other milk proteins, notably albumin and
globulin, left over in the whey that separates from the milk during
the production of cheese. In fact, ricotta is safely eaten by
individuals with casein intolerance.
Ricotta (literally meaning "recooked") uses the whey, a limpid,
low-fat, nutritious liquid that is a by-product of cheese production.
Most of the milk protein (especially casein) is removed when cheese
is made, but some protein remains in the whey, mostly albumin. This
remaining protein can be harvested if the whey is first allowed to
become more acidic by additional fermentation (by letting it sit for
12-24 hours at room temperature). Then the acidified whey is heated
to near boiling. The combination of low pH and high temperature
denatures the protein and causes it to precipitate out, forming a
fine curd. Once cooled, the curd is separated by passing through a
fine cloth.
Ranvaig
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