This base type corresponds to the feminine form excŏcta – the passive past participle of lat. excoquere 'to decoct'. This is a compound form from lat. coquere 'to cook' and the prefix ex- (cf. DELI 5,1167). It is common in Northern Italy (cf. FEW 3, 278, under *excocta and ita. Treccani under scotta ²). It is not clear why the type was marked as reconstructed by the FEW and REW since the lat. verb excoquere 'decoct' is well documented vgl. Georges, s.v. excoquo). The German forms of this base type, just like Slovenian skuta, represent the Roman substrate words in the Alpine milk processing sector in an almost prototypical manner. Earlier approaches that suggest a derivation from Old High German scotto from Ger. schottlen/schütt(l)en with subsequent borrowing into Romansh must be discarded. Forms as Lombard scoččia [skotʃa] can only be related to the etymon excocta with the connecting and not Old High German scotto. Thus, we must assume the reverse and ascribe the Old High German word to a borrowing from Romansh (cf. early comments to this effect in Idiotikon VIII, 1563, under Schotteⁿ as well as EWD, II, 200).
It should, however, be noted that two phonetic types exist in Ladin:
(a) with an initial [ʃk-] (cf. [ʃkota] in Livinallongo as well as Friaul);
(b) with an initial [tʃ-] (cf. [tʃot(e)] in the remaining Sella region of Ladinia).

romanisch				deutsch.	slowenisch
z.B. valdost. (é)couette	ita. scotta	lad. tʃot(e) ←	← Adstrat	dial. Schotte(n)	dial. skuta
↑	↑			↑ Substrat ↑	↑ Substrat ↑
lat. excocta

This base type is remarkable with regard to semantics because it offers a characteristic example of metonymical polysemy. It denotes the two products that result when the milk is heated or decocted (lat. EXCOQUERE) during coagulation, which are fluid on the one hand and matter, or whey cheese, and the surging protein particles on the other hand (cf. VALTS IV, 204).