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Cheese from Italy, Sicilia

Canestrato vacchinoCanistratu

Raw whole cow milk, sometimes mixed with sheep or goat milk, is set at 35 °C in a wooden vat with lamb paste rennet, broken to rice-size grains and packed by hand into rush baskets. The filled baskets are dipped in hot whey at 80 °C and drained on a sloping board. Cheeses for ageing are then dry-salted twice, ten days apart. It is sold fresh as unsalted tuma or once-salted primosale, or ripened for months as secondosale and stagionato.

Fully documentedCheese18 daysTraditional food product (PAT, Regione Siciliana, D.M. 16 February 2018)Family: Whey-cooked rennet curd family (halloumi type)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no doses; ONAF notes the salt amount depends on the cheese and cannot easily be measured. Wheels weigh 5–20 kg.
Raw whole cow milk, sometimes mixed with sheep and/or goat milk[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Lamb paste rennet[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Fine sea salt[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Black peppercorns or chilli flakesOptional, added to the curd at moulding[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
StarterNo culture is added; the curd forms through the natural microflora of the milk (ONAF sheet)

Total time across the recorded steps: 18 days

Start
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35 °C

What changes: Lamb paste rennet goes into the warmed raw milk in a wooden vat

Step 1 of 7
Warm the milk and set with lamb rennet
Time
Not documented
Temperature
35 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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 cow milk, sometimes mixed with sheep or goat milk, is set at 35 °C in a wooden vat with lamb paste rennet, broken to rice-size grains and packed by hand into rush baskets. The filled baskets are dipped in hot whey at 80 °C and drained on a sloping board. Cheeses for ageing are then dry-salted twice, ten days apart. It is sold fresh as unsalted tuma or once-salted primosale, or ripened for months as secondosale and stagionato. Made in 7 steps over 18 days. The longest step, dry-salt twice, takes 10 days (ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters)).

Key numbers
Main step10 daysReported[onaf-sheet]Dry-salt twice
Temperature35 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Warm the milk and set with lamb rennet

What makes this one different

The filled baskets are scalded in 80 °C whey. One make is sold at four ages under different names, from unsalted tuma to stagionato.

Rind
None when fresh; then rough with basket marks, yellowish white to ochre
Size
Faces 18–35 cm across, side 12–28 cm, 5–20 kg
Season
Made February to October (ONAF)

Related ferments

Variants

  • Tuma fresca, primosale, secondosale, stagionatoThe same cheese at increasing age and number of saltings
  • AromatizzatoBlack pepper or chilli in the curd

Safety

Made from raw milk with no added starter. Fresh tuma is not salted, and primosale is salted once and is only 8–10 days old. Secondosale (2–4 months) and stagionato (over 4 months) are salted twice and aged longer. ANSES, the French food safety agency, names Listeria, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli as the main hazards of raw-milk cheeses. It advises pregnant women, people over 65, people with weak immunity and young children not to eat raw-milk cheeses, except cooked pressed ones such as Comté.

History and sources

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

Gabella rent contracts from the 1400s list it as part of the rent, and a 1412 price list names it "cacio vacchino" (PAT sheet and ONAF).

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Siciliana, Prodotti Agroalimentari Tradizionali (2018), D.M. 16 February 2018, sheet 'Canestrato vacchino' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Canestrato vacchino'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Canestrato vacchino' (id 1226)web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov