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Cheese from Italy, Abruzzo

Caprino abruzzeseFormaggi caprini abruzzesi

Two raw goat-milk cheeses share this name. Around Farindola the milk, seeded with whey, sets by acid in 20–24 hours and is drained in cloth and rush baskets, then kneaded, salted and eaten fresh. In the Sagittario valley the milk is set with rennet in 20–30 minutes, cooked briefly at 35–38 °C, pressed into baskets, salted and aged at least 60 days.

Fully documentedCheese2 monthsTraditional food product (PAT, Abruzzo)Family: Lactic soft-ripened cheese family (goat/sheep/cow lactic curd)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe regional sheet gives times and temperatures but no batch size or doses. The lactic cheese weighs 250–300 g; the rennet cheese 700–800 g.
Raw whole goat milk, filteredA little ewe milk may be added for body[pat-sheet]
Whey or milk starterBrings thermophilic lactic bacteria; used in both types[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Animal rennet, best lamb or kid, liquid or powder (rennet type only)Dose set by the rennet's strength and the milk's acidity[pat-sheet][capre-it-stagionato]
Salt, dry or as saturated brine[pat-sheet]
Starterwhey or milk starter carrying thermophilic lactic bacteria

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 months

Start
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What changes: Raw goat milk is filtered into the kettle and some whey starter goes in

Step 1 of 6
Filter the milk and add starter
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Both types start the same way. The lactic type is then left at room temperature; the rennet type is warmed to setting temperature.

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

Two raw goat-milk cheeses share this name. Around Farindola the milk, seeded with whey, sets by acid in 20–24 hours and is drained in cloth and rush baskets, then kneaded, salted and eaten fresh. In the Sagittario valley the milk is set with rennet in 20–30 minutes, cooked briefly at 35–38 °C, pressed into baskets, salted and aged at least 60 days. Made in 6 steps over 2 months. The longest step, keep cold or age, takes at least 2 months (Regione Abruzzo) and runs at 4 °C (Regione Abruzzo).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 2 monthsReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Keep cold or age
Temperature4 °CReported[pat-sheet]Keep cold or age

What makes this one different

Two goat cheeses under one name: a spreadable acid-set fresh cheese from Farindola, and a harder rennet-set cheese from the Sagittario valley aged at least 60 days.

Size
Cylinder; lactic type 250–300 g, rennet type 700–800 g
Season
October and November (ONAF sheet)

Related ferments

Variants

  • Lactic (Farindola)No rennet; set 20–24 hours, kneaded and salted, eaten fresh; 250–300 g.
  • Rennet (Sagittario valley, Villalago)Lamb or kid rennet, cooked 35–38 °C; aged 60 days to 4–5 months; 700–800 g.

Safety

Both are made from raw milk. The fresh lactic cheese is not aged and is kept at 4 °C, but cold does not make it safe, because the CDC says Listeria can grow in the refrigerator. The rennet cheese is aged at least 60 days. In a challenge test on Gouda and Cheddar, raw milk was deliberately contaminated with a low level of E. coli O157:H7. Counts fell, but it was still detectable by enrichment past 270 days, so 60 days of ageing alone did not eliminate it. ANSES, the French food safety agency, 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.

History and sources

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

Around Farindola, the regional sheet says, mixing goat and ewe milk for cheese is the local habit. In the Sagittario valley goat farming is old. A document dated 874 for S. Maria in Flaturno, an estate in the upper Sagittario valley, lists 120 slaves, and one of them is a goatherd, in Latin a caprarius. De Nino's 1864 report counted 1,128 goats in the Scanno district in 1863, 615 of them around Villalago. The 1930 livestock census found 790 goats and 367 sheep at Villalago, the commune with the most goats in Abruzzo.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Abruzzo, traditional product sheet 'Caprino abruzzese' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Caprino abruzzese'web
  3. [capre-it-stagionato] Capre.it (Il Portale Italiano delle Capre), 'Caprino stagionato abruzzese' (production sheet for the rennet type of Villalago)web
  4. [cdc-listeria-causes] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, How Listeria Spreads (web page)gov
  5. [damico2010] D'Amico D.J., Druart M.J., Donnelly C.W. 2010, Behavior of Escherichia coli O157:H7 during the manufacture and aging of Gouda and stirred-curd Cheddar cheeses manufactured from raw milk, Journal of Food Protection 73(12):2217–2224 (abstract)paper
  6. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov