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Cheese from Italy, Sardegna

Ricotta mustia

Ricotta mustia is a boundary entry, set by heat and smoke, not by microbes. Sheep whey is heated to about 60–70 °C with stirring, then to 82–85 °C, and the flakes are pressed in cloth-lined moulds for up to about 24 hours and dry-salted. It is smoked 5–6 hours over the hearth or in a smokehouse and air-dried 2–3 days.

Fully documentedCheese3.2 days – 4.3 daysPAT (traditional agri-food product, Sardegna)Family: Whey cheese (heat-precipitated whey protein) family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give the method, not a batch recipe. Each ricotta weighs 0.8–2 kg.
Whey from sheep cheese (pecorino) makingSarda breed sheep; filtered through a cloth[laore-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Fine saltOne pass of dry salt[laore-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Smoke from the hearth or from aromatic plants[laore-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starternone; heat makes the curd

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.2 days – 4.3 days

Start
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60–70 °C

What changes: The sheep whey is stirred and heated to about 60–70 °C

Step 1 of 6
Heat the whey with stirring
Time
Not documented
Temperature
60–70 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Ricotta mustia is a boundary entry, set by heat and smoke, not by microbes. Sheep whey is heated to about 60–70 °C with stirring, then to 82–85 °C, and the flakes are pressed in cloth-lined moulds for up to about 24 hours and dry-salted. It is smoked 5–6 hours over the hearth or in a smokehouse and air-dried 2–3 days. Made in 6 steps over 3.2 days – 4.3 days. The longest step, air-dry and keep, takes 2–3 days (Laore Sardegna (regional agricultural develop…).

Key numbers
Main step2–3 daysReported[laore-sheet][onaf-sheet]Air-dry and keep
Temperature60–70 °CReported[laore-sheet][onaf-sheet]Heat the whey with stirring

What makes this one different

The smoked member of the Sardinian salted ricottas. It is heated a little less (82–85 °C), pressed only up to a day, then smoked 5–6 hours and dried 2–3 days instead of ripening for weeks.

Rind
None or almost none; amber from smoke
Size
Cylinder 16–18 cm across and 5–6 cm high, or a flattened loaf about 3–4 cm high
Weight
0.8–2 kg
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

The whey is heated to 82–85 °C; the ricotta is salted, smoked and dried, and kept in a cool, dry room or in cold rooms.

Hazards the sources name: Bacillus cereus, found in 5.55% of samples of a fresher, cold-smoked, modified-atmosphere industrial relative of ricotta mustia, never after 45 days at 4 °C (not the traditional product); Enterobacteriaceae, found in 3.17% of the same industrial relative, only after more than 30 days of storage.

History and sources

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

The ONAF sheet says references to the product are found in commercial invoices at least 25–30 years old, most easily around Sassari.

  1. [laore-sheet] Laore Sardegna (regional agricultural development agency), Prodotto tradizionale della Sardegna, sheet 'Ricotta mustia'gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Ricotta mustia'web
  3. [scarano2019] Scarano C., Spanu C., Mocci A.M., Piras F., Demontis M., Murittu G., Pinna G., Santoru A., De Santis E.P.L. 2019, Microbiological and physicochemical properties of smoked ricotta cheese during refrigeration and temperature abuse storage, Italian Journal of Food Safety 8(2):8009. Studies a fresher industrial product developed from ricotta mustia, not the traditional onepaper