Rigouta

It is made from the whey left over from another cheese, not from milk — which is why it must be used within days.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (whey), dairy (milk).

Ingredients

4 litres fresh sheep's whey, from cheesemaking
500 ml whole sheep's or cow's milk (optional, for yield)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar (only if needed)

Method

IT IS MADE FROM THE WHEY LEFT OVER FROM ANOTHER CHEESE, not from milk -- which is why it must be used within days. That is the whole thing. When a hard cheese is made, the curd is taken out and a great deal of cloudy whey is left, and that whey still holds the albumin and globulin proteins that rennet does not coagulate. Heated to 80 to 90°C those proteins come out of solution as a fine white floc that rises and is skimmed off. So this is a second cheese from a by-product, and it is the reason it is so lean, so mild and so perishable: there is almost no fat in it to preserve it, and it is a three-day cheese at best.
THE WHEY MUST BE FRESH -- THE SAME DAY. Within a few hours of the first cheese. Whey sours fast, and sour whey gives a floc that tastes sharp and bitter rather than sweet and milky. If it has already soured there is no fixing it.
IT IS HEATED TO 80 TO 90°C AND NOT BOILED. A thermometer is worth using. Below about 80°C the proteins do not come out; at a rolling boil the floc breaks up into particles too fine to collect and the yield collapses. The surface should be steaming and barely moving.
IT IS NOT STIRRED ONCE IT IS HOT. Stirred gently on the way up, then left absolutely alone from about 75°C. The floc forms as a delicate raft on the surface and stirring shatters it -- which is the commonest reason a batch yields almost nothing.
VINEGAR IS A LAST RESORT, NOT AN INGREDIENT. If nothing has risen by 90°C the whey was too sweet or too old, and a tablespoon of vinegar will force it. It also makes the cheese faintly sharp, so it goes in only if the floc has failed to appear.
IT IS SKIMMED WITH A SLOTTED SPOON AND DRAINED IN BASKETS, NOT PRESSED. Lifted gently into small baskets or a muslin-lined sieve and left to drain by gravity for two or three hours. Pressed, it goes dense and rubbery; drained, it stays the loose moist curd it should be and takes the shape of the basket.
A LITTLE MILK CAN BE ADDED FOR YIELD AND IS AN HONEST COMPROMISE. Five hundred millilitres into four litres of whey. Four litres of whey alone gives a disappointingly small amount; the milk increases it considerably at the cost of making the result slightly richer than a pure whey cheese. Worth knowing rather than discovering.
The fresh whey poured into a wide pan with the optional milk and the salt.
Heated SLOWLY, stirred gently, to about 75°C.
FROM 75°C ONWARDS NOT STIRRED AT ALL.
Brought to 80 to 90°C and held there, until a fine white FLOC rises as a raft on the surface. NOT boiled.
If nothing has risen by 90°C, the vinegar added and given 2 MINUTES.
The floc SKIMMED GENTLY with a slotted spoon into small baskets or a muslin-lined sieve.
DRAINED BY GRAVITY 2 to 3 HOURS. NOT pressed.
TESTED: it should be loose, moist and very mild, and hold the basket's shape when turned out. A tiny yield means it was stirred hot or the whey was stale.
Eaten within 3 DAYS, with olive oil and bread or in pastries.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Tunisia · All recipes