Ricotta

Ricotta (from the Latin recocta, boiled again ') is the Italian name for a fresh cheese made from sheep and / or cow's milk, which is the addition of fresh milk / cream to the whey and precipitation by acid obtained (usually citric acid) at 90 ° C. The curd is removed by gently skimming at the liquid surface.

Whey

Sweet whey

The sweet whey used in the manufacture of Ricotta is a waste product from the manufacture of other cheese; Although whey contains no casein, but other proteins, primarily albumin.

Fresh ricotta cheese, which is produced exclusively from sweet whey, tastes mild and sweet, is virtually fat-free.

Acid whey

The ricotta production remaining after the greenish liquid ( acid whey ) can be recycled or disposed of as animal feed. The greenish color comes mainly from contained in the milk riboflavin.

Specialties

A ricotta specialty is the Italian ricotta al forno. For this purpose, about 2 kg of ricotta baked in a round baking dish in the oven to a kind of heavy " ricotta pie " with dark brown to black crust. After cooling, the now relatively compact cheese due to evaporation and coagulation of protein removed from the mold and cooled and protected from drying out one to two weeks, cooled and vacuumed up to two months are stored. The baked ricotta is under the crust, which is CONSUMED according to taste ( too dark, or even burnt bodies should be cut off before serving ), white inside with a cut-resistant, but crumbly dough, which reminds the taste of smoky cheese cake, mild with subtle toasty aromas. The cheese is alone or with some fresh vegetables or bread as a small meal or together with marinated roasted vegetables as a starter.

Ricotta is also available in a smoked cheeses as ricotta affumicata available from goat's milk. He comes from Mammola in Calabria, he receives the PAT quality brand ( Prodotti Agroalimentari Tradizionali ) for Traditional agricultural products '.

In Sicily, ricotta is mainly used for the production of cassata and cannoli.

A similarity to the ricotta has the Greek myzithra. In the German-speaking Alpine countries, a similar cheese comes under the name of forties in the trade.

Production

The technical challenge of the traditional production is to remove the heat labile whey proteins from the serum. Simple heating is not sufficient, since although the whey proteins were denatured, but still so finely distributed ( " disperse " ) to believe that removal by conventional means of dairies would be impossible. Now one uses the help of the caseins, which had indeed removed by the caseation, but adds by adding a certain volume fraction of milk again. By heating the milk - serum mixture to 90 ° C. It is now also to denature whey.

The whey obtained in the preparation of other cheeses, such as mozzarella, or Pecorino is heated to 70 to 80 ° C to set the whey thick. The heat along with the natural acidity makes the albumin, a protein in the whey clot. The coagulate the albumin include the dissolved substances in the whey of milk, such as milk fat, minerals and vitamins, a. In a second step, the ricotta mixture is again heated by the liquid separates from the ricotta cheese. The resulting cheese is then skimmed off in basket to prevent the remaining liquid can drain off.

In contrast to the system but the casein- whey proteins are then precipitated onto the caseins and bind covalently to each other. The casein micelles serve as a sort of anchor points for the denaturation of the whey proteins. The heat-stable, acid-labile but casein micelles - and with them the whey proteins - are subsequently precipitated with acid. The auftreibende after a short time protein mass can be removed with a ladle. In addition to these traditional production are nowadays well filtration methods available to gain whey proteins directly and without acidification can.