Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Italy, Lazio, province of Frosinone, the commune of Ferentino

Caciotta di vacca ciociara (semplice e alle erbe)Caciotta di vacca ciociara

Caciotta di vacca ciociara looks like a caciotta but is made like a pasta filata. Cow's milk is heat-treated at 68–72 °C, soured with mesophilic cultures and set with calf rennet, and the ripened curd is stretched by hand in 95 °C water in a wooden tub and put into cylindrical moulds. It is brined, sometimes smoked or flavoured with chilli, garlic, pepper or truffle, and kept about ten days in a cold room.

Fully documentedCheese11 days – 21 daysLazio traditional food product (PAT)Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo fixed amounts. The regional sheet fixes the temperatures and times, and a brining time of 2 hours per kilogram; cheeses are made in 0.3, 0.6 and 1.0 kg sizes (ONAF).
Whole cow milk, two milkingsFrom local cows; kept at 4 °C, filtered through cloth[pat-sheet]
Mesophilic starter cultures[pat-sheet]
Liquid calf rennet[pat-sheet]
Saturated brine[pat-sheet]
One flavouring for the herb typeChilli, garlic, pepper or truffle, worked into the stretched curd[onaf-sheet]
Startermesophilic starter cultures; liquid calf rennet added 30 minutes later

Total time across the recorded steps: 11 days – 21 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
68–72 °C

What changes: The filtered milk is heated to 68–72 °C for 20 seconds

Step 1 of 9
Heat-treat the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
68–72 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The two milkings are kept at 4 °C before treatment.

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

Caciotta di vacca ciociara looks like a caciotta but is made like a pasta filata. Cow's milk is heat-treated at 68–72 °C, soured with mesophilic cultures and set with calf rennet, and the ripened curd is stretched by hand in 95 °C water in a wooden tub and put into cylindrical moulds. It is brined, sometimes smoked or flavoured with chilli, garlic, pepper or truffle, and kept about ten days in a cold room. Made in 9 steps over 11 days – 21 days. The longest step, keep in a cold room, takes 10–20 days (Regione Lazio (ARSIAL)) and runs at 4 °C (Regione Lazio (ARSIAL)).

Key numbers
Main step10–20 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Keep in a cold room
Temperature4 °CReported[pat-sheet]Keep in a cold room

What makes this one different

It has the cylinder shape of a caciotta but is made as a pasta filata: the curd is stretched in 95 °C water in a wooden tub, moulded and firmed in cool water for 15 hours.

Rind
Thin, smooth, elastic, white; ochre after smoking
Size
0.3, 0.6 or 1.0 kg; cylinder, side 6–8 cm

Related ferments

Variants

  • SemplicePlain, or smoked by traditional methods.
  • Alle erbeFlavoured with one of chilli, garlic, pepper or truffle.

Safety

The milk is heat-treated at 68–72 °C for 20 seconds, and the cheese is kept at 4 °C.

History and sources

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

ONAF places it in the Ciociaria tradition of a wooden tub for stretching, wooden tables for handling and wooden boards for ripening.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Lazio (ARSIAL), Caciotta di vacca ciociara semplice e aromatizzata, analytic product sheet (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), Caciotta di vacca ciociara (semplice e alle erbe) cheese sheetweb
  3. [pat-list] Ministero dell'agricoltura, della sovranità alimentare e delle foreste, Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, Allegato I, Regione Lazio, 2025 (entry 92, Caciotta di vacca ciociara, semplice ed aromatizzata; copy hosted by ARSIAL)gov