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Cheese from Italy, Marche

Caprino al lattice di fico

Raw goat milk, still at milking temperature, is set by stirring it with a notched fig twig whose latex curdles the milk instead of rennet. The curd is broken to rice-grain size, drained in moulds, pressed by hand and dry-salted for up to two days. It is eaten fresh or aged from one month to about a year.

Fully documentedCheese32 days – 12 monthsTraditional food product (PAT, Marche)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedTraditional method with no fixed batch size or dose; the maker stirs with the twig until the milk sets. Cheese size varies.
Raw whole goat milkFrom goats on open pasture, forage and cereal and legume mixes[pat-sheet]
A fig-tree twig, notched so its latex runsThe latex is the coagulant; left in too long it makes the cheese bitter[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt, for dry-salting[pat-sheet]
Starterthe native bacteria, which tinned copper kettles and wooden tools preserve

Total time across the recorded steps: 32 days – 12 months

Start
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36–38 °C

What changes: A notched fig twig turns in the warm milk and its latex sets the curd

Step 1 of 5
Set with a fig twig
Time
Not documented
Temperature
36–38 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacilli

A notched fig twig is dipped in the milk and turned until the milk sets. It takes skill, because too long in the milk makes the cheese bitter. Output: curd.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

the fig latex is the coagulant, in place of rennet

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 goat milk, still at milking temperature, is set by stirring it with a notched fig twig whose latex curdles the milk instead of rennet. The curd is broken to rice-grain size, drained in moulds, pressed by hand and dry-salted for up to two days. It is eaten fresh or aged from one month to about a year. Made in 5 steps over 32 days – 12 months. The longest step, ripen and age, takes 30 days – 12 months (Regione Marche 2014). Mesophilic lactococci and mesophilic lactobacilli, which reached about 8 and 7.5 log CFU/g over 90 days of ripening in Cilentana, a related raw goat cheese of Campania that relied on the milk's own microbiota does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 12 monthsReported[pat-sheet]Ripen and age
Temperature36–38 °CReported[onaf-sheet][pat-sheet]Set with a fig twig

What makes this one different

The milk is set with latex from a notched fig twig instead of rennet, a method from the past that was recovered for this cheese. Women once drew the latex.

Season
Made from spring to autumn
Shape
Cylinder with flat faces, size varies; few small eyes

Related ferments

Variants

  • FrescoSoft ivory or grey rind; soft paste.
  • StagionatoHard straw-yellow rind; semi-hard to hard paste; up to about a year.

Safety

Made from raw goat milk. Fresh cheeses are young raw-milk cheeses; aged ones ripen at least a month. 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.

Hazards the sources name: Coliforms (still about 5.5 log CFU/g at day 90), E. coli and coagulase-positive staphylococci (about 2.8 and 2.6 log CFU/g at day 30; below the counting limits of 10 and 100 CFU/g by day 60) in four batches from one farm of Cilentana, a related raw goat cheese of Campania; S. aureus was still found in one 30-day cheese; Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes were not detected in any sample.

History and sources

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

Women once drew fig latex to set milk. Montefeltro cheesemakers kept the method and still use wooden tools and tinned copper kettles. The regional sheet cites G. Picchi's 2001 guide to the Montefeltro.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Marche, decree 73/CSI of 11 March 2014, Annex B, traditional product sheet 'Caprino al lattice di fico' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Caprino al lattice di fico'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. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov