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Cheese from Italy, Liguria

Brùzzobrùsso

Ewe-milk ricotta from the upper valleys of Imperia is drained, packed into small lidded wooden tubs and left to sour and ferment for about a week, stirred every day. Grappa or another spirit, vinegar, olive oil and pepper or chilli go in, depending on the village. The result is a creamy, greyish, sharp spread eaten on bread.

Fully documentedCheese7 daysPAT (traditional agri-food product of Liguria); Slow Food Ark of TasteFamily: Whey cheese (heat-precipitated whey protein) family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedEach village has its own additions and no amounts are recorded.
Ewe-milk wheyLeft from pecorino making; it must be acid enough[onaf-sheet]
Grappa, another fermenting spirit, or vinegarVaries by local tradition[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Olive oil[pat-sheet]
Black pepper or chilli[pat-sheet]
Salt (in some areas)[pat-sheet]
Starternone added

Total time across the recorded steps: 7 days

Start
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70–90 °C

What changes: Heat and acid make the whey proteins rise as soft white flakes

Step 1 of 4
Heat the ewe whey to make ricotta
Time
Not documented
Temperature
70–90 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacilli
Lactobacillus kefiri
L. plantarum

Heat and the whey's own acidity make the whey proteins flock together and rise to the surface.

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

Ewe-milk ricotta from the upper valleys of Imperia is drained, packed into small lidded wooden tubs and left to sour and ferment for about a week, stirred every day. Grappa or another spirit, vinegar, olive oil and pepper or chilli go in, depending on the village. The result is a creamy, greyish, sharp spread eaten on bread. Made in 4 steps over 7 days. The longest step, ferment in a cool cellar, stirred daily, takes 7 days (Regione Liguria (agriligurianet)). Lactobacilli, 33 strains of 10 species including Lactobacillus kefiri, L. paracasei, L. plantarum and L. paraplantarum, in Ricotta forte, a related southern Italian fermented ricotta does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step7 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ferment in a cool cellar, stirred daily
Temperature70–90 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Heat the ewe whey to make ricotta

What makes this one different

It is not a cheese made from curd but ricotta left to ferment in wooden tubs, sharpened with spirit, vinegar and pepper. The Piedmont brus is related but often made from old cheese.

Other milks
A park leaflet also lists cow or goat ricotta, left to ferment in a cool, damp, dark place and stirred gently every day from the bottom up (Alpi Liguri park leaflet)
Season
Made from February to October, following the sheep's lactation (ONAF sheet)
Packing
Sold in small plastic tubs or glass or ceramic jars

Related ferments

Safety

It is kept in a cool cellar or a fridge while it ferments, and the ONAF sheet classes it as a fresh cheese. CDC advises pregnant women, newborns, adults 65 or older and people with a weakened immune system to avoid unheated fresh soft cheeses such as queso blanco and requesón.

History and sources

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

Early-19th-century Piedmontese and later Sanremo dialect dictionaries describe brus and brùsso as strong fermented pastes, the second as hard ricotta macerated with salt and pepper and stirred often. It fell out of use for about twenty years and returned with the Slow Food Ark of Taste listing for the Valle Arroscia brùzzo.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Liguria (agriligurianet), Prodotti tradizionali, Brùsso dell'alta valle Arrosciagov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF, Brùzzo, technical sheet (PAT Liguria)web
  3. [alpi-liguri-map] Parco naturale regionale delle Alpi Liguri, I prodotti tipici delle Alpi Liguri (map leaflet), entry 'Il brusso'gov
  4. [baruzzi2000] Baruzzi F., Morea M., Matarante A., Cocconcelli P.S. 2000, Changes in the Lactobacillus community during Ricotta forte cheese natural fermentation, Journal of Applied Microbiology 89(5):807–814 (abstract)paper
  5. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov