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Cheese from Italy, Piemonte

Caprino valsesianoCrava

Raw goat milk, usually freshly drawn and still at 30–35 °C, is set with calf rennet in about an hour. The curd is broken to maize or rice size, warmed to about 35 °C, rested 5 minutes under the whey and put into small moulds. It is salted the same day or the next morning and ripened up to 15 days; a larger Crava of 2–4 kg ripens for months.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe regional sheet sets the rennet by the time it should take, about an hour, and gives no batch size. Each small cheese weighs 0.2–0.5 kg.
Raw whole goat milk, usually freshly milkedEvening milk is often kept and made up with the morning milk[pat-sheet]
Calf rennet, liquid or still often powderDosed to set the milk in about one hour[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt, dry or as brine[pat-sheet]
Starternone; the milk is not soured beforehand

Total time across the recorded steps: 15 days

Start
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shapes, not to countLactococcus lactisL. mesenteroides30–35 °C

What changes: Calf rennet sets the freshly drawn goat milk in about an hour

Step 1 of 5
Set with calf rennet
Time
1 h
Reported
Temperature
30–35 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus lactis
L. mesenteroides

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

Raw goat milk, usually freshly drawn and still at 30–35 °C, is set with calf rennet in about an hour. The curd is broken to maize or rice size, warmed to about 35 °C, rested 5 minutes under the whey and put into small moulds. It is salted the same day or the next morning and ripened up to 15 days; a larger Crava of 2–4 kg ripens for months. Made in 5 steps over 15 days. The longest step, ripen, takes up to 15 days (Regione Piemonte 2015). Lactococcus lactis and Leuconostoc mesenteroides, the main bacteria of a related Piedmont raw goat milk cheese, Robiola di Roccaverano PDO, made with an added natural milk culture does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepup to 15 daysReported[pat-sheet]Ripen
Temperature30–35 °CReported[pat-sheet]Set with calf rennet

What makes this one different

A small Valsesia goat cheese made with a light warming of the curd to about 35 °C and a short 5-minute rest under the whey, then ripened only up to two weeks. A large Crava follows the same method and ripens for months.

Size
Tall cylinder 8–10 cm across with a 3–6 cm side, 0.2–0.5 kg; a large Crava of 2–4 kg
Season
From spring to late autumn (ONAF sheet)

Related ferments

Variants

  • Small caprino0.2–0.5 kg; up to 15 days.
  • Large Crava2–4 kg, same method; ripened several months.

Safety

Made from raw goat milk and eaten within about two weeks, so it is a young raw-milk cheese. Keep it cold. 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

The regional sheet cites a 1969 article on the tomini and robiole of the Vercelli area and the 1969 Touring Club food guide. The cheese size followed the milk the family had that day.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Piemonte, D.D. 24 July 2015 n. 460, Schede tecniche prodotti PAT 2015 (BU38S1, 24 September 2015), category D product 07 'Caprino valsesiano o Crava' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Caprino valsesiano'web
  3. [biolcati2021] Biolcati F, Ferrocino I, Bottero MT, Dalmasso A (2021) The Bacterial and Fungal Microbiota of "Robiola di Roccaverano" Protected Designation of Origin Raw Milk Cheese. Frontiers in Microbiology 12:776862paper
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov