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Cheese from Italy, Sicilia

Caci figuratiInuzzi

Small stretched-curd cheeses modelled by hand into horses, cattle, deer, hens and other figures, made as gifts and for festivals. They follow the Nebrodi provola method; raw cow milk is set with lamb or kid paste rennet, the curd sours for about a day, then strips are stretched in water at 80–85 °C and shaped. The figures are firmed in cold water, brined about a day and dried in cool, airy rooms.

Fully documentedCheese32 days – 3 monthsPAT (traditional agri-food product of Sicilia)Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo amounts are recorded. The regional list gives about 0.5 kg per figure and the ONAF sheet up to 0.5 kg.
Raw whole cow milkTwo successive milkings, filtered[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Lamb or kid paste rennet[pat-sheet]
Hot waterFor stretching the curd[onaf-sheet]
SaltAs a saturated brine[pat-sheet]
Starternatural microflora

Total time across the recorded steps: 32 days – 3 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countS. thermophilusL. paracaseiEnterococcus33–36 °CMilk proteinGel (curd)

What changes: Lamb or kid paste rennet sets raw cow milk in a wooden vat

Step 1 of 7
Set with paste rennet in a wooden vat
Time
1–1.3 h
Reported
Temperature
33–36 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
S. thermophilus
L. paracasei
Enterococcus
Lactic acid bacteria
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

Small stretched-curd cheeses modelled by hand into horses, cattle, deer, hens and other figures, made as gifts and for festivals. They follow the Nebrodi provola method; raw cow milk is set with lamb or kid paste rennet, the curd sours for about a day, then strips are stretched in water at 80–85 °C and shaped. The figures are firmed in cold water, brined about a day and dried in cool, airy rooms. Made in 7 steps over 32 days – 3 months. The longest step, dry and ripen in cool, airy rooms, takes 30 days – 3 months (ONAF). Natural microflora. In Provola dei Nebrodi, made the same way up to the stretching, lactococci and Streptococcus thermophilus made up most of the lactic acid bacteria identified from the wooden vats, and Lacticaseibacillus paracasei and Enterococcus those from the ripened cheese does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 3 monthsReported[onaf-sheet]Dry and ripen in cool, airy rooms
Temperature33–36 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Set with paste rennet in a wooden vat

What makes this one different

The cheese is made like Nebrodi provola up to the stretching. After that the maker models the curd by hand into animal figures instead of plain balls or pears.

Size
About 0.5 kg in the regional list, up to 0.5 kg in the ONAF sheet; figures of horses, cattle, sheep, deer, hens and others

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk. ANSES advises pregnant women, people over 65, young children and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheese.

History and sources

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

Antonino Uccello recorded old cheesemakers' accounts of the old techniques, and the figures were shown at the Sicilian ethnographic exhibition in Palermo in 1892. An oral tradition says they began as an edible toy to get children used to eating cheese. In Contessa Entellina makers modelled horses, fawns and hens.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Siciliana 2018, Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali (D.M. 16 febbraio 2018), Caci figuratigov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF, Caci figurati, technical sheet (PAT Sicilia)web
  3. [busetta2023] Busetta G. et al. 2023, Effect of commission implementing regulation (EU) 2020/1319 on the bacterial composition of PDO Provola dei Nebrodi cheese, International Journal of Food Microbiology 394:110188 (abstract)paper
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov