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Cheese from Italy, Calabria, province of Reggio Calabria, the Aspromonte foothills of the Ionian side

Caciocavallo di CiminàU casucavallu

Caciocavallo di Ciminà is a pasta filata cheese of the Aspromonte foothills, made from raw Podolica cow's milk with 5–10% goat's milk. The milk is set with kid rennet at milking warmth, 25–30 °C, and the curd ferments for 4–10 hours on a board before it is stretched in boiling water. It is eaten fresh within a few days, as a small two-headed cheese, or aged for months as a classic one-headed caciocavallo.

Fully documentedCheese2.3 days – 2.7 daysCalabria traditional food product (PAT); Slow Food PresidiumFamily: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe regional sheet gives the milk shares as a percentage of the vat and the brine strength; it fixes no batch size.
Raw whole cow milk90–95%Podolica cows of the Aspromonte foothills, one or two milkings[pat-sheet]
Raw goat milk5–10%[pat-sheet]
Kid rennetNatural rennet from the kid's stomach[pat-sheet]
Brine1 kg salt per 5 litres of water[pat-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.3 days – 2.7 days

Start
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25–30 °C

What changes: Kid rennet goes into the mixed cow and goat milk while it is still warm from milking

Step 1 of 6
Set the milk at milking warmth
Time
Not documented
Temperature
25–30 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The curd is ready when the wild-olive stirring stick (ugliastru) stands upright in it on its own.

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

Caciocavallo di Ciminà is a pasta filata cheese of the Aspromonte foothills, made from raw Podolica cow's milk with 5–10% goat's milk. The milk is set with kid rennet at milking warmth, 25–30 °C, and the curd ferments for 4–10 hours on a board before it is stretched in boiling water. It is eaten fresh within a few days, as a small two-headed cheese, or aged for months as a classic one-headed caciocavallo. Made in 6 steps over 2.3 days – 2.7 days. The longest step, hang astride a pole to dry and ripen, takes at least 2 days (Regione Calabria 2005).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 2 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Hang astride a pole to dry and ripen
Temperature25–30 °CReported[pat-sheet]Set the milk at milking warmth

What makes this one different

Ciminà's caciocavallo adds a little goat's milk to Podolica cow's milk and sets it at 25–30 °C, about the warmth of milk just after milking. The small two-headed fresh form is made here, and ONAF calls it a unique case among cheeses.

Milk
90–95% Podolica cow, 5–10% goat, raw
Rind
Fresh: none, smooth shiny white; aged: thin, fairly hard, wrinkled, whitish-yellow
Size
Fresh two-headed 0.4 kg; aged 1.0–3.0 kg

Related ferments

Variants

  • Two-headed (a due testine)Small, elongated, about 400 g, eaten very fresh.
  • One-headed (a una testina)Classic oval with one head, 1–3 kg, aged from a few months to a year.

Safety

Made from raw milk. The fresh form is dried 2–3 days; the aged one-headed cheese ripens at least a month (ONAF). CDC advises pregnant women, adults over 65 and people with weak immunity to avoid cheese made from raw milk.

History and sources

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

Families making it recall at least three generations, about 100 years. It was the meal of field workers and herders, eaten with local salame, capocollo, soppressata and bread. The name of Ciminà is said to come from the Greek for a place rich in wild cumin. Slow Food says the cheese has been made there from time immemorial and that output peaks from March to June.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Calabria, Prodotti agro-alimentari tradizionali, Scheda prodotto Caciocavallo di Ciminà (scanned sheet, January 2005; copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), Caciocavallo di Ciminà cheese sheetweb
  3. [slowfood-cimina] Fondazione Slow Food, Presìdi, 'Caciocavallo di Ciminà'web
  4. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov