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Cheese from Italy, Piemonte

Beddo

Raw milk from a single milking is left 12 hours in shallow pans so the cream rises and is skimmed off by hand. The milk is renneted at 25–30 °C, cut once to walnut-size curd and ladled into moulds to drain for a day. The flat soft cheese then ripens at least 7 days on wooden boards bedded with hay and is usually eaten within 15 days.

Fully documentedCheese8.5 daysPAT (Regione Piemonte, technical sheet approved by D.D. 24 July 2015, n. 460)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe regional sheet gives the rennet dose per 100 litres of milk. A cheese weighs 0.7–1.0 kg.
Raw cow milk from a single milking, partly skimmed by surface creaming[pat-sheet]
Rennet15–20 cc per 100 litres of milk (average)[pat-sheet]
Clean, well-dried hill or mountain hayBedding for the ripening boards; not eaten[pat-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 8.5 days

Start
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8–12 °C

What changes: Cream rises on the raw milk in shallow pans and is skimmed off

Step 1 of 5
Let the cream rise and skim it
Time
12 h
Reported
Temperature
8–12 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Raw milk from one milking only; the risen cream is taken off by hand.

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

Raw milk from a single milking is left 12 hours in shallow pans so the cream rises and is skimmed off by hand. The milk is renneted at 25–30 °C, cut once to walnut-size curd and ladled into moulds to drain for a day. The flat soft cheese then ripens at least 7 days on wooden boards bedded with hay and is usually eaten within 15 days. Made in 5 steps over 8.5 days. The longest step, ripen on hay-covered boards, takes at least 7 days (Regione Piemonte 2015).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 7 daysReported[pat-sheet]Ripen on hay-covered boards
Temperature8–12 °CReported[pat-sheet]Let the cream rise and skim it

What makes this one different

A raw-milk cheese partly skimmed by letting the cream rise for 12 hours, set at 25–30 °C and ripened about one to two weeks on boards bedded with hay, which give it its thin white skin.

Rind
None when fresh; a thin, slightly wrinkled whitish-straw skin (camisa) after 5–6 days
Size
Flat cylinder 18–30 cm across, side 2–3 cm, 0.7–1.0 kg according to the regional sheet; the ONAF page gives 18–20 cm across and 0.8–1.0 kg
National list
Beddo is named in the Piedmont section of the national list of traditional agri-food products (D.M. 7 February 2019, Gazzetta Ufficiale of 12 March 2019, S.O. n. 9)

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is raw and the ripening is very short. A regional survey found no Salmonella, no Listeria monocytogenes and no staphylococcal enterotoxin, but E. coli up to 10,000 cfu/g and coagulase-positive staphylococci up to 1,000 cfu/g, so the sheet rates its hygiene as average and stresses milk quality, clean boards and clean hay.

Hazards the sources name: Escherichia coli (up to 10,000 cfu/g in a regional survey of samples); Coagulase-positive staphylococci (up to 1,000 cfu/g; no enterotoxin found).

History and sources

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

Oral accounts gathered for the regional sheet place Beddo in the middle of the 18th century, first made by herders from Candelo who took their cattle to summer pasture at Zucca di Sant'Eurosia in Pralungo.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Piemonte, Schede tecniche prodotti PAT 2015, category D product 01 'Beddo' (D.D. 24 July 2015, n. 460, BU38S1 24/09/2015), copy hosted by ONAFgov
  2. [onaf] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), cheese page 'Beddo' (id 441)web
  3. [gu-pat-2019] Ministero delle politiche agricole alimentari, forestali e del turismo, D.M. 7 February 2019, update of the national list of traditional agri-food products, Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 60, 12 March 2019, S.O. n. 9 (Piedmont section lists Beddo)gov