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Cheese from Southern Italy, where the type began, and the Po plain

Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese familymozzarella

Milk is set with a whey starter and rennet, and the curd is left to sour for hours until a melted sample pulls into long strands. The curd is then kneaded and stretched in very hot water, shaped, firmed in cold water and brined, and eaten fresh or aged.

Fully documentedCheese10 days – 35 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceFamily template, so the ingredients are the ones stretched-curd cheeses share. The only amount is the rennet dose from the Mozzarella di Bufala Campana technical sheet.
MilkMozzarella di Bufala Campana PDO: buffalo milk with at least 7.2 % fat and 4.2 % protein; cow milk for Provolone Valpadana[bufala-onaf][provolone-onaf]
Natural whey starterWhey soured from earlier makes, in the same dairy or nearby dairies for Mozzarella di Bufala Campana[bufala-onaf][provolone-onaf]
Calf rennet18–20 ml per hl milkMozzarella di Bufala Campana dose, strength 1:10,000; Provolone piccante uses kid or lamb rennet paste[bufala-onaf][provolone-onaf]
Hot waterFor stretching the soured curd[bufala-onaf][provolone-onaf]
SaltAs brine[bufala-onaf]
Starternatural whey starter of thermophilic lactic bacteria, or defined thermophilic cultures; some industrial makes acidify with citric acid instead

Total time across the recorded steps: 10 days – 35 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteria34–39 °C

What changes: Whey starter and rennet go into warm milk and it sets

Step 1 of 6
Set the milk with whey starter and rennet
Time
up to 30 min
Reported
Temperature
34–39 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
S. thermophilus
L. delbrueckii
Lactobacillus helveticus

Output: curd.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
gel
Colour
white

Microbes at work in this step

the whey starter brings heat-loving lactic bacteria

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

Milk is set with a whey starter and rennet, and the curd is left to sour for hours until a melted sample pulls into long strands. The curd is then kneaded and stretched in very hot water, shaped, firmed in cold water and brined, and eaten fresh or aged. Made in 6 steps over 10 days – 35 days. The longest step, firm in cold water and brine, takes 25 min – 25 days (Levante A 2023) and runs at 16.5–19.5 °C (Levante A 2023). Salt is 4–18 % (ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori F…). Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step25 min – 25 daysReported[levante2023][provolone-onaf]Firm in cold water and brine
Temperature16.5–19.5 °CReported[levante2023]Firm in cold water and brine
Salt4–18 %Reported[bufala-onaf][levante2023]Firm in cold water and brine
AciditypH 5.2–5.6Measured[bittante2022]Dry and age (provolone)

What makes this one different

The soured curd is melted and stretched in very hot water, which lines the proteins up into fibres. Other rennet cheeses are pressed or moulded without this hot kneading step.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Mozzarella di Bufala Campana PDOWater-buffalo milk; natural whey starter; pinched off by hand.
  • Provolone Valpadana PDOLarge, tied after cold water and aged; dolce (calf rennet) or piccante (kid or lamb rennet paste); may be smoked.
  • Caciocavallo Silano PDOAn oval with a small head, or a truncated cone, made from raw or lightly thermised cow milk.
  • Ragusano PDOA block with a square cross-section, 12–16 kg, hung by ropes to ripen.
  • Queso OaxacaMexico; the paste is kneaded in hot water, stretched into a ribbon, cooled in cold water and wound into a ball.
  • Sulguni (Georgia)The curd sours for at least 5 hours, is cut into thin layers and stirred in very hot water until it stretches; sold as a low cylinder of 0.25–2.2 kg.

Made the pasta filata way

Other pasta filata kinds

Made the same way, each with what its own sources record.

Bebè di Sorrento

Cheese from Italy, Campania

A young, mild cousin of caciocavallo from the Sorrento peninsula, matured within days instead of aged. It is named for its swaddled-baby shape.

Rind
Thin, soft, smooth, white to pale straw
Size
weight about 0.5 kgReported
Season
Made all year, most in demand in summer

Sources: Regione Campania; ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters)

Burrini e burrata di bufalaburrino di bufala

Cheese from Italy, Campania

The filling is butter, not cream and shredded curd as in burrata from Apulia, and the butter is churned from whey cream, not from milk cream. It began as a way to keep butter fresh before refrigerators.

Rind
Skin; smooth, glossy to matt, white to straw as it ages
Size
0.3 to 0.5 kgReported

Sources: Regione Campania; ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters); ONAF

Dil peyniri

Cheese from Türkiye

A Turkish stretched-curd cheese made from cow milk.

Milk
cow milk

Gołka (ser gazdowski)gołka

Cheese from Poland, Podhale and the Silesian Beskids

Gołka is the cow-milk counterpart of oscypek, made from cow milk only, smoked in the home smokehouse rather than the shepherd's hut, and in the past made in autumn and winter when the sheep were dry. In a Podhale study the cow-milk cheeses were shorter, lighter and moister than oscypek, and tourists often call gołka oscypek.

Milk
Cow milk only
Size
6–15 cm long, 0.3–0.6 kg
Composition
Mean 43.9% water and 3.11% salt in 20 market samples

Sources: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MRiRW); MRiRW; Surówka K.; Ceklarz K. 2023

Mshallaleh / Syrian string cheesejibneh mshallaleh

Cheese from Syria

A pasta filata cheese twisted or braided into a rope and seasoned with mahleb and nigella.

Milk
Traditionally cow milk; sheep and goat versions exist
Flavour
Mahleb, often with nigella, anise or caraway
Keeping
Soaked in brine for several weeks before braiding (Wikipedia); the home recipe keeps one week in the fridge

Sources: Wikipedia; Jewish Food Society

Queso crinejaclineja

Cheese from Venezuela

Venezuelan braided pasta filata, precooked like queso de mano and guayanés.

Size
Braid

Sources: Food & Agribusiness World

Queso de hoja (Puerto Rico)queso de hoja

Cheese from Puerto Rico

The curd is scalded in blocks rather than stretched into a rope, then flattened, salted and folded so that it keeps visible layers. The "leaf" in the name refers to these layers.

Milk
Fresh cow milk
Ripening
None described; a fresh cheese
Size
About 6 inches (15 cm) across and 1–2 inches thick, with slightly rounded faces

Sources: Sanders G.P. 1953; Dairy Management Inc. 2008

Queso peraqueso de mano (Boyacá)

Cheese from Colombia, Boyacá

Queso pera is a fresh, unripened pasta filata shaped like a pear. It is said to descend from caciocavallo made by the Italian Del Vecchio brothers, who arrived in Colombia in 1923.

Milk
Fresh cow milk
Composition
46% fat in dry matterReported

Sources: CONtexto Ganadero 2022

Scamorza di bufala

Cheese from Italy, Campania

A buffalo-milk scamorza from the mozzarella area. Its curd sours a full day under whey before stretching, and it is sold plain or briefly smoked over straw.

Rind
Thin elastic skin, waxy after maturing; pearly white, light ochre if smoked
Size
Roughly round with a small head, 0.300–0.350 kg (ONAF)
Season
Made all year

Sources: Regione Campania; ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters); NHS (UK)

Safety

Stretching heats the curd to 50–65 °C, but it does not always destroy pathogens, so a review recommends pasteurised milk for mozzarella eaten fresh. Mozzarella di Bufala Campana is a moist cheese, with at most 65 % moisture. The UK NHS lists pasteurised mozzarella as safe in pregnancy and advises eating unpasteurised soft cheeses only when cooked until steaming hot, because of Listeria.

History and sources

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

The ONAF sheet for Mozzarella di Bufala Campana says the word "mozzarella" first appears in a text by Bartolomeo Scappi, cook to the papal court, in 1570.

  1. [silano-sd2024] European Commission 2024, Caciocavallo Silano PDO, amendment and single document, Official Journal C/2024/2490spec
  2. [rag-eu2019] European Commission 2019, Ragusano PDO, amendment and single document, Official Journal C 2019 (CELEX 52019XC0627(02))spec
  3. [sulguni-gi] Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia, Sulguni, geographical indication specification (Georgian registration no. 10, 24 January 2012), published by the UK governmentspec
  4. [hj2022] Huerta-Jimenez M. et al. 2022, Properties of Oaxaca cheese elaborated with ultrasound-treated raw milk, physicochemical and microbiological parameters, Foods 11(12):1735paper
  5. [bufala-onaf] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP technical sheet, restating the PDO specificationother
  6. [provolone-onaf] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), Provolone Valpadana DOP technical sheet, restating the PDO specificationother
  7. [levante2023] Levante A., Bertani G., Marrella M., Mucchetti G., Bernini V., Lazzi C., Neviani E. 2023, The microbiota of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana PDO cheese, a study across the manufacturing process, Frontiers in Microbiology 14:1196879paper
  8. [goncalves2021] Gonçalves M.C., Cardarelli H.R. 2021, Mozzarella cheese stretching, a minireview, Food Technology and Biotechnology 59(1):82–91paper
  9. [bittante2022] Bittante G., Amalfitano N., Cipolat-Gotet C. et al. 2022, Major causes of variation of external appearance, chemical composition, texture, and color traits of 37 categories of cheeses, Foods 11:4041paper
  10. [nhs-preg] NHS (UK), Foods to avoid in pregnancy (cheese section)gov