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Cheese from Italy, Lazio

Conciato di San Vittore

Ewe milk from two milkings is part warmed and part heat-treated, then set with kid paste or calf powder rennet at 38–40 °C. The hazelnut-size curd is lightly pressed in baskets, brined briefly and held 4–5 days at 8 °C. Its damp surface is then rubbed with pepper and about 15 herbs and spices, and it ripens 45–90 days at 12–15 °C.

Fully documentedCheese49 days – 3.1 monthsTraditional food product (PAT, Lazio)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe ARSIAL sheet gives the milk split, temperatures and times but no batch size or amounts of herbs. A cheese weighs 1–1.5 kg.
Whole ewe milk from two milkingsEvening milk chilled, morning milk used at once; Sopravissana, Camosciata and Massese ewes[arsial-conciato][onaf-sheet]
Kid paste rennet or calf powder rennet[arsial-conciato]
Salt (brine, not saturated)[arsial-conciato]
Black and white pepper with about 15 herbs and spicesIncluding wild thyme, bay, juniper, sage, rosemary, wild fennel, anise, garlic, coriander and basil; hand-picked in the Valle di Comino and the Mainarde[arsial-conciato][onaf-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 49 days – 3.1 months

Start
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What changes: Starting material: ewe milk from the evening and morning milkings

Step 1 of 9
Collect the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacilli

Output: ewe milk from the evening and morning milkings.

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

Ewe milk from two milkings is part warmed and part heat-treated, then set with kid paste or calf powder rennet at 38–40 °C. The hazelnut-size curd is lightly pressed in baskets, brined briefly and held 4–5 days at 8 °C. Its damp surface is then rubbed with pepper and about 15 herbs and spices, and it ripens 45–90 days at 12–15 °C. Made in 9 steps over 49 days – 3.1 months. The longest step, ripen, takes 45 days – 3 months (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…) and runs at 12–15 °C (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…). Mesophilic lactic flora does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step45 days – 3 monthsReported[arsial-conciato]Ripen
Temperature12–15 °CReported[arsial-conciato]Ripen

What makes this one different

Its damp rind is rubbed with pepper and about 15 herbs before ripening. Unlike the conciato romano of Campania, it is not aged in jars, ripens only 45–90 days and tastes milder.

Rind
Very thin, light straw, covered with the herb rub
Size
Cylinder of 1–1.5 kg
Season
Made September to June

Related ferments

Safety

Part of the milk (30 %) is heated to 62 °C for 5 minutes before setting; the rest is warmed only to 37 °C. The ONAF sheet lists the milk as raw or thermised, and the cheese ripens 45 to 90 days. ANSES, the French food safety agency, links raw-milk cheese to 34 % of salmonellosis, 37 % of listeriosis and 60 % of enterohaemorrhagic E. coli outbreaks in France over ten years. It advises pregnant women, people with weak immunity, people over 65 and young children not to eat raw-milk cheeses, except pressed cooked cheeses such as Gruyère or Comté.

History and sources

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

The ARSIAL sheet calls it an ancient cheese of the Samnite civilisation, praised by Cicero and Martial (Epigrams XIII, 30). It says the Samnites needed food that kept all year and began treating cheeses with herbs, which it says stopped bacterial growth.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [arsial-conciato] ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultural development), Lazio patrimonio agroalimentare, tra biodiversità e tradizione, PAT sheet 'Conciato di San Vittore', p. 163gov
  2. [pat-sheet] ARSIAL, analytical product sheet 'Conciato di San Vittore' (portal copy, partly broken; gives 100% ewe milk and a September–June season)gov
  3. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Conciato di San Vittore'web
  4. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Conciato di San Vittore' (id 834)web
  5. [mormile2013] Mormile A., Scarano L., Ariano A., Murru N., Vollano L., Anastasio A. 2013, Microbial characteristics of Conciato Romano: an artisanal cheese made from raw sheep's milk, Italian Journal of Food Safety 2:e46, doi:10.4081/ijfs.2013.e46paper
  6. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov