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Cheese from Italy, Lazio

Burrata di bufala

Burrata di bufala is a raw buffalo-milk pasta filata pouch filled with cow cream and shreds of stretched curd. The milk is soured with the previous day's whey, set with calf rennet at 36–37 °C, and the curd ripens for a few hours before it is stretched in boiling water. The sealed pouch is firmed under cold water, brined 12 hours and eaten at once.

Fully documentedCheese13 hTraditional food product (PAT, Lazio), with access to hygiene derogationsFamily: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

Burrata di bufala, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Popo le Chien, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
No fixed amounts recordedThe sources give times and temperatures but no amounts. Each burrata weighs about 400 g.
Raw whole buffalo milkEvening milking (chilled) and morning milking, filtered through a cloth[arsial][onaf-sheet]
Whey starter (siero-innesto)Whey from the previous day's cheesemaking, soured for 24 hours[arsial][onaf-sheet]
Liquid calf rennet[arsial][onaf-sheet]
Cow creamFor the filling, with shreds of buffalo pasta filata[arsial][onaf-sheet]
SaltBrine[arsial]
Starternatural whey starter (previous day's whey, soured 24 h)

Total time across the recorded steps: 13 h

Start
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36–37 °C

What changes: The previous day's soured whey and calf rennet go into raw buffalo milk at 36–37 °C

Step 1 of 7
Add whey starter and rennet to raw milk
Time
45 min
Reported
Temperature
36–37 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: rennet curd.

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

Burrata di bufala is a raw buffalo-milk pasta filata pouch filled with cow cream and shreds of stretched curd. The milk is soured with the previous day's whey, set with calf rennet at 36–37 °C, and the curd ripens for a few hours before it is stretched in boiling water. The sealed pouch is firmed under cold water, brined 12 hours and eaten at once. Made in 7 steps over 13 h. The longest step, firm under cold water and brine, takes 12 h (ARSIAL).

Key numbers
Main step12 hReported[arsial][onaf-sheet]Firm under cold water and brine
Temperature36–37 °CReported[arsial][onaf-sheet]Add whey starter and rennet to raw milk

What makes this one different

Unlike Apulian burrata it is made from raw buffalo milk, while the filling uses cow cream. The idea, the sources say, was to use up the small scraps left from buffalo mozzarella.

Rind
None; glossy porcelain-white skin
Size
About 400 g; sack shape
Fat
60–70 % fat in dry matter

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk; the ONAF sheet relies on curd acidity and on stretching to about 64–65 °C in the core to cut contaminating microbes. The ARSIAL sheet keeps it 24 hours at 6–8 °C. The CDC advises refrigerating perishable food at 40 °F (about 4 °C) or colder to slow bacterial growth, so that sheet's range is warmer. The CDC says raw milk products can carry Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella and Salmonella. CDC advises pregnant women, newborns, adults 65 or older and people with a weakened immune system to avoid any cheese made from raw milk.

History and sources

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

An old product of buffalo farming in the marshy Tyrrhenian plains of Lazio, born of the farm habit of wasting nothing. Only a few dairies still make it.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [arsial] ARSIAL, Lazio patrimonio agroalimentare, tra biodiversità e tradizione, Formaggi, Burrata di bufala, p. 148gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet Burrata di bufalaweb
  3. [pat-lazio] Regione Lazio, Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, Allegato I, Regione Lazio (2025), no. 79, marked for hygiene derogationgov
  4. [onaf] ONAF, scheda formaggio 'Burrata di bufala' (id 814)web
  5. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov
  6. [cdc-raw-milk] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Raw Milkgov