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Cheese from Italy, Campania

Caciotta di capra dei Monti Lattaricaciotta 'e zi' Maria

Raw whole milk from Napoletana and other local goats is set with a kid paste rennet, often made by the farmer from air-dried kid abomasum. The curd is broken to corn size, hand-filled into moulds and left to drain until the next day, salted dry or in brine, and eaten fresh or after 2–40 days.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedFarm production with no doses in the sheets; cheeses weigh 400 g to 1 kg.
Raw whole goat milk from the farm's own goats[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Kid paste rennetOften farm-made from a whole kid abomasum air-dried 30–40 days, pounded and kept under a film of olive oil[onaf-sheet]
Salt (dry or brine)[onaf-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days – 40 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Raw whole goat milk is filtered and warmed for setting

Step 1 of 6
Filter and warm the raw milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
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

Raw whole milk from Napoletana and other local goats is set with a kid paste rennet, often made by the farmer from air-dried kid abomasum. The curd is broken to corn size, hand-filled into moulds and left to drain until the next day, salted dry or in brine, and eaten fresh or after 2–40 days. Made in 6 steps over 2 days – 40 days. The longest step, ripen briefly, takes 2–40 days (ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters)). Mesophilic lactococci and mesophilic lactobacilli, which dominated Cilentana, a related raw goat cheese of Campania that relied on the milk's own microbiota does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–40 daysReported[onaf-sheet]Ripen briefly

What makes this one different

A raw-milk goat caciotta from the endangered Napoletana breed, set with farm-made kid paste rennet and ripened only 2–40 days.

Rind
Thin, white to pale straw, clean or lightly bloomed; basket marks or smooth
Size
400 g to 1 kg; truncated cone or double truncated cone
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is raw and whole, with no heat treatment. The cheese is eaten fresh or after 2–40 days in cool, dry rooms. The CDC warns that raw-milk foods can carry Campylobacter, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella and Salmonella, and that good farm practice cannot guarantee their absence. Children under 5, adults over 65, pregnant women and people with weak immunity are most at risk.

Hazards the sources name: Coliforms, E. coli and coagulase-positive staphylococci in raw goat milk and early Cilentana, a related raw goat cheese of Campania; Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes were not detected there.

History and sources

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

The Romans named the range Montes Lactarii for its milk. The Napoletana goat, now close to extinction, still grazes half-wild there, and the caciotta has been made for generations in Pimonte.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Campania, Prodotti tradizionali, 'Caciotta di capra dei Monti Lattari' (regional page, last updated 13 March 2015; copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Caciotta di capra dei monti Lattari'web
  3. [cilentana2026] Casalino L, Di Paolo M, Egidio M, Polizzi G, Peruzy MF, Mazzocca R, D'Anza E, Marrone R. 2026, Physicochemical and Microbiological Characterization of Cilentana Goat Cheese, Foods 15(18):3226 (a related raw goat cheese of Campania, not this cheese)paper
  4. [cdc-raw-milk] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Raw Milk (food safety page)gov