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Cheese from Italy, Piemonte

Caprino presamico piemonteseTuma 'd crava

A name that groups Piedmont's rennet-set goat tome and tomini with no historic name of their own. Whole goat milk, raw or pasteurised, is set with calf rennet at 35–38 °C in 30–60 minutes, cut to walnut or hazelnut size and left some hours in moulds without pressing. It is salted and ripened at 8–10 °C for at least a week, up to 60 days for larger cheeses.

Fully documentedCheese7 days – 2 monthsTraditional food product (PAT, Piemonte)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe rennet dose is the regional sheet's, per 100 litres of milk, enough to set it in 30–60 minutes. Most cheeses weigh 100–500 g, some 1–2 kg.
Whole goat milk, raw or pasteurised, from two or more milkings[pat-sheet]
Calf rennet (rarely goat rennet, liquid or paste)20–40 cc per 100 litres of milk[pat-sheet]
Fine salt, or brine[pat-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 7 days – 2 months

Start
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35–38 °C

What changes: Calf rennet sets the goat milk at 35–38 °C in 30–60 minutes

Step 1 of 5
Set with calf rennet
Time
30 min – 1 h
Reported
Temperature
35–38 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: curd.

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

A name that groups Piedmont's rennet-set goat tome and tomini with no historic name of their own. Whole goat milk, raw or pasteurised, is set with calf rennet at 35–38 °C in 30–60 minutes, cut to walnut or hazelnut size and left some hours in moulds without pressing. It is salted and ripened at 8–10 °C for at least a week, up to 60 days for larger cheeses. Made in 5 steps over 7 days – 2 months. The longest step, ripen, takes 7 days – 2 months (Regione Piemonte 2015) and runs at 8–10 °C (Regione Piemonte 2015).

Key numbers
Main step7 days – 2 monthsReported[pat-sheet]Ripen
Temperature8–10 °CReported[pat-sheet]Ripen

What makes this one different

A name coined to group Piedmont's rennet goat cheeses. Rennet sets it in under an hour, so the curd is cut, unlike the slow acid-set caprino lattico.

Shape
Cylinder 8–12 cm across with a side 3–6 cm high (ONAF page)
Size
Cylinder, usually 100–500 g, sometimes 1–2 kg

Related ferments

Safety

May be made from raw milk and eaten after a week or more, so a raw-milk cheese here is very young. Keeping it cold does not make it safe, because the CDC says Listeria can grow in the refrigerator. 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-curd cheeses such as Gruyère or Comté.

History and sources

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

The name does not appear in old texts; it groups the goat cheeses called tuma or tumin 'd crava in dialect. The ONAF sheet says many historical documents show goat cheeses were made in Piedmont for centuries, among them taxes on the products, economic statistics and the reports of royal inspectors.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Piemonte, D.D. 24 July 2015 n. 460, Schede tecniche prodotti PAT 2015 (BU38S1, 24 September 2015), category D product 06 'Caprino presamico piemontese' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Caprino presamico piemontese'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Caprino presamico piemontese' (id 450), which gives the shape as 8–12 cm across with a 3–6 cm side and says the cheese may be ripened from a few days to 2–3 monthsweb
  4. [cdc-listeria-causes] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, How Listeria Spreads (web page)gov
  5. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov