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Cheese from Italy, Sicilia

Belicino

Raw milk of Valle del Belice ewes is set at about 36 °C in a wooden vat with lamb paste rennet, and the curd is broken to lentil size while hot water at about 50 °C is poured in. The curd is packed into baskets with pitted, brined Nocellara del Belice olives, held about 4 hours in hot whey, brined the next day and eaten fresh.

Fully documentedCheese28 h – 29 hPAT (traditional agri-food product of Sicilia)Family: Whey-cooked rennet curd family (halloumi type)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe rennet amount is per 100 litres of milk. No other amounts are fixed; wheels weigh 1–5 kg.
Raw whole ewe milkValle del Belice breed; one or two milkings[pat-sheet]
Lamb paste rennet60 g per 100 litres of milk[pat-sheet]
Nocellara del Belice green olivesMatured in saturated brine, then pitted and cut into pieces[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Hot waterAbout 50 °C, poured in while the curd is broken[pat-sheet]
SaltAs a saturated brine[pat-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 28 h – 29 h

Start
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What changes: Starting material: raw ewe milk, warmed and poured into a wooden vat

Step 1 of 7
Warm the milk and pour it into the wooden vat
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The milk is filtered, warmed in a tinned copper or steel kettle over wood or gas, and poured into a wooden tina. Output: raw ewe milk from one or two milkings.

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 of Valle del Belice ewes is set at about 36 °C in a wooden vat with lamb paste rennet, and the curd is broken to lentil size while hot water at about 50 °C is poured in. The curd is packed into baskets with pitted, brined Nocellara del Belice olives, held about 4 hours in hot whey, brined the next day and eaten fresh. Made in 7 steps over 28 h – 29 h. The longest step, dry and eat fresh, takes 24 h (Regione Siciliana 2018).

Key numbers
Main step24 hReported[pat-sheet]Dry and eat fresh
Temperature36 °CReported[pat-sheet]Set with lamb paste rennet

What makes this one different

It is a fresh pecorino with brined Nocellara del Belice olives mixed into the curd. Instead of a long ripening, it is brined, dried for a day and eaten at once.

Season
Made from February to November
Size
1–5 kg; cylinder with flat faces and a slightly convex side
Rind
None; white, moist, basket-marked surface

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk and eaten fresh, with no ripening, so it must be kept cold and eaten within a few days. ANSES advises pregnant women, people over 65, young children and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheese.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, the main hazards ANSES names for raw-milk cheeses.

History and sources

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

The regional sheet says the cheese's origin goes back to the period after the Second World War, but that only in the last forty years has its production become significant.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Siciliana 2018, Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali (D.M. 16 febbraio 2018), Belicinogov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF, Belicino, technical sheet (PAT Sicilia)web
  3. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov