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Cheese from Italy, Piedmont

Castelmagno PDOCastelmagno

Raw cow milk, sometimes with 5–20 % ewe or goat milk, is set with calf rennet at 30–38 °C. The curd rests at least 18 hours, then sours under whey from earlier batches for two to four days before it is milled fine, salted, wrapped in cloth and pressed. The cheeses ripen at least 60 days in cool, damp caves, where they may be pierced and grow blue-green veins.

Fully documentedCheese2.1 months – 2.2 monthsPDO (EU, registered 2 July 1996)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe specification gives temperatures and times but no batch size. A cheese weighs 2 to 7 kg.
Raw cow milkFrom no more than four consecutive milkings; may be partly skimmed by surface creaming[castelmagno-oj2009]
Raw ewe and/or goat milk5–20 %Optional[castelmagno-oj2009]
Liquid calf rennetAt least 70 % chymosin[castelmagno-oj2009]
Whey from earlier batchesThe rested curd is soaked in it to ferment[castelmagno-oj2009]
SaltMixed into the milled curd; extra dry salting of the rind allowed[castelmagno-oj2009]
Starternone; the specification forbids starter cultures, and the curd ferments in whey from earlier batches

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.1 months – 2.2 months

Start
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What changes: Starting material: raw cow milk from up to four milkings

Step 1 of 8
Collect the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus lactis
Lactobacillus plantarum
L. casei
S. thermophilus
Lactobacilli

Milk may be stored up to two days (four milkings), cooled to no lower than 6 °C. Output: raw cow milk, sometimes with ewe or goat milk.

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, sometimes with 5–20 % ewe or goat milk, is set with calf rennet at 30–38 °C. The curd rests at least 18 hours, then sours under whey from earlier batches for two to four days before it is milled fine, salted, wrapped in cloth and pressed. The cheeses ripen at least 60 days in cool, damp caves, where they may be pierced and grow blue-green veins. Made in 8 steps over 2.1 months – 2.2 months. The longest step, ripen in cool, damp caves, takes at least 2 months (European Commission 2009) and runs at 5–15 °C (European Commission 2009). Lactococcus lactis and Lactobacillus plantarum, L. paracasei and L. casei do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 2 monthsSet[castelmagno-oj2009]Ripen in cool, damp caves
Temperature5–15 °CSet[castelmagno-oj2009]Ripen in cool, damp caves

What makes this one different

The curd is fermented for days under old whey, then milled, salted and pressed. This gives the crumbly paste, and old cheeses may vein blue-green from the natural cave moulds.

Milk
Raw cow milk, with 5–20 % ewe or goat milk allowed; no pasteurisation or thermisation
Ripening
At least 60 days in caves at 5–15 °C and 70–98 % humidity
Size
15–25 cm across, heel 12–20 cm, 2–7 kg
Composition
Fat at least 34 % of dry matter

Related ferments

Variants

  • Di AlpeggioMilk from animals on summer pasture (May to October, at least 90 % local flora), made above 1,000 m.
  • Prodotto della montagnaLabel term for all Castelmagno, since every cheese is made above 600 m.

Safety

Made only from raw milk; pasteurisation and thermisation are not allowed, and the cheese must ripen at least 60 days. One study isolated Streptococcus agalactiae, a mastitis pathogen, early in manufacture. Sixty days of ageing alone did not remove E. coli O157:H7 in a test on other raw-milk cheeses. In Gouda and Cheddar made from milk deliberately contaminated with it, counts fell below 5 CFU/g after about 100 days, but it stayed detectable by enrichment past 270 days. 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.

Hazards the sources name: Streptococcus agalactiae (isolated early in manufacture, in winter batches).

History and sources

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

The PDO was registered on 2 July 1996 (Regulation (EC) No 1263/96). The specification names piercing the cheeses by hand with long iron needles as the traditional technique for their blue-green veins.

  1. [castelmagno-oj2009] European Commission 2009, Castelmagno PDO, amendment application and summary (IT-PDO-0217-0006), Official Journal of the EU C 320, 24.12.2009, p. 27spec
  2. [eambrosia-castelmagno] European Commission, eAmbrosia register record for 'Castelmagno' (PDO-IT-0006), protection date 2 July 1996, Regulation (EC) No 1263/96, OJ L 163gov
  3. [dolci2008] Dolci P. et al. 2008, Microbial dynamics of Castelmagno PDO, a traditional Italian cheese, with a focus on lactic acid bacteria ecology, International Journal of Food Microbiology 122(3):302–311 (abstract)paper
  4. [dolci2010] Dolci P. et al. 2010, Microbial diversity, dynamics and activity throughout manufacturing and ripening of Castelmagno PDO cheese, International Journal of Food Microbiology 143(1–2):71–75 (abstract)paper
  5. [bertolino2011] Bertolino M. et al. 2011, Evolution of chemico-physical characteristics during manufacture and ripening of Castelmagno PDO cheese in wintertime, Food Chemistry 129(3):1001–1011 (abstract)paper
  6. [damico2010] D'Amico D.J., Druart M.J., Donnelly C.W. 2010, Behavior of Escherichia coli O157:H7 during the manufacture and aging of Gouda and stirred-curd Cheddar cheeses manufactured from raw milk, Journal of Food Protection 73(12):2217–2224 (abstract)paper
  7. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov