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Cheese from Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige, Prov. Trento

Casàda con la tenzaCasàda

A boundary entry, set by rennet rather than by a long fermentation. Raw part-skimmed cow milk, sometimes with a natural milk starter, is warmed to 32–34 °C and set with calf rennet; before the vat curd is cut for cheese, a portion of the uncut curd (tenza) is taken out. Each portion is covered with half-whipped cream and eaten at once as a dessert.

Fully documentedCheeseTraditional food product (PAT, Provincia autonoma di Trento)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe sheets give the milk blend, not doses. Each portion is a small irregular cylinder of 100–150 g.
Evening cow milk, skimmed by letting the cream riseabout 1/3[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Whole morning cow milkabout 2/3[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Natural milk starter (lattofermento)Optional[pat-sheet]
Bovine (calf) rennet[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Cream, partly whipped[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starteroptional natural milk starter (lattofermento)
Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: The cream rises off the evening milk before it joins the morning milk

Step 1 of 5
Blend skimmed evening milk with whole morning milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The evening milk is skimmed by letting the cream rise naturally; additives and preservatives are banned.

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 boundary entry, set by rennet rather than by a long fermentation. Raw part-skimmed cow milk, sometimes with a natural milk starter, is warmed to 32–34 °C and set with calf rennet; before the vat curd is cut for cheese, a portion of the uncut curd (tenza) is taken out. Each portion is covered with half-whipped cream and eaten at once as a dessert.

Key numbers
Temperature32–34 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Warm and add rennet

What makes this one different

It is the uncut rennet curd taken from the vat before cheesemaking goes on, so it is never cut, cooked or ripened. Its sister casàda con la ricotta uses whey ricotta in place of the curd.

Rind
None; smooth, shiny, milk white
Size
Irregular small cylinder about 3 cm across and 12 cm long

Related ferments

Variants

  • Casàda con la ricottaWhey ricotta replaces the rennet curd

Safety

Made from raw milk and eaten fresh; the PAT sheet limits storage to 2 days at 4 °C. 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

Angelo Michele Negrelli, a leading figure of Primiero from the later 1700s to the earlier 1800s, recalls it in his memoirs, where going "a casada" had become a saying; made on alpine farms and in village dairies, now carried on by the Primiero dairy cooperative.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
Process times
The sources we found give no figure for how long any of its steps take.
  1. [pat-sheet] Provincia autonoma di Trento, Trentino Agricoltura, Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, sheet 'Casàda' (updated 27 December 2013; copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Casàda'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Casàda' (id 775)web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov