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Cheese from Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige

Casàda con la ricottaCasàda con la poìna

A fresh dessert of whey ricotta (poìna) under half-whipped cream. Whey left from cheesemaking is heated to 85–89 °C and curdled with agro, wine vinegar or magnesium sulphate; the ricotta that floats up is skimmed off and drained about 8 hours. It is a heat-and-acid set, not a ripened ferment, and is eaten at once.

Fully documentedCheese8 hTraditional food product (PAT, Trento)Family: Whey cheese (heat-precipitated whey protein) family

Recipe

Amounts from a sourcePortions of about 100–150 g. The sheet gives the curdling agent as 0.3–0.5 %, without saying of what; read it as of the whey.
Cow whey from the cheese makeFrom Bruna, Grigio Alpina and other cows fed meadow hay or pasture, no silage; no additives or preservatives allowed[pat-sheet]
Agro, wine vinegar or magnesium sulphate0.3–0.5 %The sheet gives the 0.3–0.5 % range with the list of curdling agents[pat-sheet]
Cream, half-whippedOnce whipped in a wooden plunger churn (batilat), now in a blender[pat-sheet]
Starternone; the curd is set by heat and acid

Total time across the recorded steps: 8 h

Start
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What changes: Starting material: the warm cow whey left from cheesemaking

Step 1 of 5
Take the whey from the cheese make
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The whey left after the milk has been set and the Casàda con la tenza taken off.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

A fresh dessert of whey ricotta (poìna) under half-whipped cream. Whey left from cheesemaking is heated to 85–89 °C and curdled with agro, wine vinegar or magnesium sulphate; the ricotta that floats up is skimmed off and drained about 8 hours. It is a heat-and-acid set, not a ripened ferment, and is eaten at once. Made in 5 steps over 8 h. The longest step, drain in baskets, takes 8 h (Provincia autonoma di Trento 2013).

Key numbers
Main step8 hReported[pat-sheet]Drain in baskets
Temperature85–89 °CReported[pat-sheet]Heat the whey and add acid

What makes this one different

The ricotta form of the Casàda dessert, a typical dish of Primiero made in two versions, with curd and with ricotta. It uses ricotta cooked from the whey instead of the fresh rennet curd (tenza) of Casàda con la tenza.

Size
Small irregular cylinder, about 3 cm across and about 12 cm long (ONAF sheet), and about 100–150 g (PAT sheet)

Related ferments

Safety

A heat-set fresh product with no ripening. Eat it at once or keep it at 4 °C for at most 2 days.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Casàda was made in summer dairies, on farms and in village cooperative dairies; the name comes from the farmhouses. A diary by A. M. Negrelli shows "going to casàda" as a common phrase. When the village dairies closed, the Primiero district dairy took over the tradition.

  1. [pat-sheet] Provincia autonoma di Trento, Trentino Agricoltura, traditional product sheet 'Casàda' (updated 27 December 2013; copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Casàda'web
  3. [wp] Wikipedia, Casàda (the two versions, eaten fresh or within two days, recognised traditional product)wiki