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Cheese from Italy, Campania, the Picentini mountains: Montella, Bagnoli Irpino, Cassano Irpino, Nusco, Volturara Irpina and Serino

Caciocavallo podolico dei Monti Picentini

This caciocavallo is made in the Picentini mountains only from the raw milk of Podolica cows, which graze outdoors all year, moving between about 1200 m in summer and 400 m in winter. The curd drains in cloths and sours for one to two days before it is stretched with boiling whey and water. The 1–2 kg cheeses age from 15 days to more than six months, a few producers up to two years.

Fully documentedCheese19 days – 20 daysCampania traditional food product (PAT)Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo fixed amounts; the regional sheet lists the ingredients as local cow's milk, natural rennet and salt.
Raw whole cow milkOnly from Podolica cows raised in the area[pat-sheet]
Natural calf or kid rennetLiquid calf rennet or kid paste, chosen for the piquancy wanted (ONAF)[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Boiling whey, mixed with boiling water for stretching[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt, as brine[pat-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 19 days – 20 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactobacilli36–37 °C

What changes: Natural rennet goes into raw Podolica milk warmed to 36–37 °C

Step 1 of 6
Warm the raw milk and add rennet
Time
Not documented
Temperature
36–37 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacilli
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

This caciocavallo is made in the Picentini mountains only from the raw milk of Podolica cows, which graze outdoors all year, moving between about 1200 m in summer and 400 m in winter. The curd drains in cloths and sours for one to two days before it is stretched with boiling whey and water. The 1–2 kg cheeses age from 15 days to more than six months, a few producers up to two years. Made in 6 steps over 19 days – 20 days. The longest step, tie with raffia and age, takes at least 15 days (Regione Campania 2020). Streptococci and lactobacilli, the major groups in the wooden-vat biofilms of the nearby Caciocavallo Podolico Lucano, where lactobacilli dominated the ripened cheese does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 15 daysReported[pat-sheet]Tie with raffia and age
Temperature36–37 °CReported[pat-sheet]Warm the raw milk and add rennet

What makes this one different

It is made only from the milk of Podolica cows that live outdoors all year, which gives little but rich milk. The curd sours in cloths for one to two days before it is stretched with boiling whey.

Rind
Clean; alabaster white when young, straw to reddish-yellow when aged
Size
About 1–2 kg; round with a raffia-tied head

Related ferments

Safety

The regional notes name raw milk, tinned vats and wooden tools as the risks, with Staphylococcus aureus, high bacterial counts and somatic cells as the problems of raw milk. They are handled by testing the milk, good hygiene and discarding faulty cheeses. ANSES advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheeses other than pressed cooked cheeses such as Gruyère or Comté, because of Listeria, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus, named with high total counts and somatic cells as the risk of using raw milk.

History and sources

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

ONAF reports that breeders on the Alburni mountains once shared milk in turns, so that those with few cows could still make a cheese. The cows follow the old drove roads (tratturi) between summer and winter pastures.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura, Prodotti tradizionali, Caciocavallo podolico dei Monti Picentini (updated 16 March 2020; copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [busetta2023] Busetta G., Garofalo G., Barbera M. et al. 2023, Metagenomic, microbiological, chemical and sensory profiling of Caciocavallo Podolico Lucano cheese, Food Research International 169, 112926 (abstract)paper
  3. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), Caciocavallo podolico dei Monti Picentini cheese sheet, with the Regione Campania notesweb
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov