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Cheese from Italy, Veneto

Formaggio Casato del GardaCasato gardesano

Raw cow milk is set with calf rennet at 35–37 °C, and the curd is kneaded by hand with salt into small discs that dry on wooden boards and ripen for months. The aged cheese is cut into 2–3 cm cubes, packed in glass jars and covered with local extra-virgin olive oil for at least 3 months, which softens the paste.

Fully documentedCheese4 months – 8 monthsTraditional food product (PAT, Veneto)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedMade in small amounts for the family; the sheets give no batch size or doses. The cubes are 2–3 cm a side, packed in jars of any size.
Raw cow milk, whole or part-skimmed, from one milking[onaf-sheet]
Calf rennet powder, dissolved in a little milk or water[onaf-sheet]
Salt, kneaded into the curd[onaf-sheet]
Extra-virgin olive oil from the Verona hills or GardaGarda Orientale PDO or Veneto Valpolicella PDO oil[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 4 months – 8 months

Start
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shapes, not to countS. macedonicus35–37 °C

What changes: Calf rennet stirred into the warm raw milk sets it at 35–37 °C

Step 1 of 5
Set with calf rennet
Time
Not documented
Temperature
35–37 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
S. macedonicus

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 cow milk is set with calf rennet at 35–37 °C, and the curd is kneaded by hand with salt into small discs that dry on wooden boards and ripen for months. The aged cheese is cut into 2–3 cm cubes, packed in glass jars and covered with local extra-virgin olive oil for at least 3 months, which softens the paste. Made in 5 steps over 4 months – 8 months. The longest step, ripen the small cheeses, takes 30 days – 5 months (ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters)). Streptococcus macedonicus does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 5 monthsReported[onaf-sheet][pat-sheet]Ripen the small cheeses
Temperature35–37 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Set with calf rennet

What makes this one different

An aged farm cheese finished under olive oil. Months in the oil soften the paste and blend its flavour with the oil, and the cubes keep without a rind.

Form
No rind; 2–3 cm cubes in glass jars of olive oil
Output
Made only now and then by very few Verona dairies, mostly for family use

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk and aged before it goes into the oil.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus, enterotoxigenic strains; in Monte Veronese, a related PDO cheese of the Lessinia, S. aureus numbers were above the Italian tolerance limit in 78 % of instances.

History and sources

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

Once kept for special days on the richer farm tables of the Verona foothills, where people needed rich food for field work. A few producers have revived it.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Veneto, Atlante dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali del Veneto, 'Formaggio Casato del Garda', p. 144 (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Formaggio Casato del Garda'web
  3. [treu2017] Treu L, de Diego-Diaz B, Papadimitriou K, Tsakalidou E, Giacomini A, Corich V. 2017, Whole-genome sequences of three Streptococcus macedonicus strains isolated from Italian cheeses in the Veneto region, Genome Announcements 5:e01358-17 (strains from Asiago, Monte Veronese and a malga cheese)paper
  4. [poli2007] Poli A, Guglielmini E, Sembeni S, Spiazzi M, Dellaglio F, Rossi F, Torriani S. 2007, Detection of Staphylococcus aureus and enterotoxin genotype diversity in Monte Veronese, a Protected Designation of Origin Italian cheese, Letters in Applied Microbiology (abstract)paper