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Cheese from Italy, Lombardia

Fiorone della ValsassinaFiorone

Whole raw cow milk is warmed to 30–33 °C with farm whey as starter and calf rennet, and the curd is left 24 hours at 20 °C to sour. It is then lifted into cloth-lined moulds, drained 12–24 hours and salted. Small logs are eaten fresh after 5–6 days, or washed with salt water and ripened about a month in a cave.

Fully documentedCheese37 days – 38 daysTraditional food product (PAT, Lombardia)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give temperatures and times but no batch size or doses. A log weighs about 200 g.
Whole raw cow milkFreshly milked, usually one make a day; alpine milk is also used[lombardia-pat][onaf-sheet]
Farm whey (natural lactic starter)[lombardia-pat][onaf-sheet]
Calf rennet[lombardia-pat][onaf-sheet]
Salt[lombardia-pat][onaf-sheet]
Paprika, or pepper, garlic and chivesSpiced version only, on request[onaf-sheet]
Starterfarm whey (natural lactic cultures)

Total time across the recorded steps: 37 days – 38 days

Start
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30–33 °C

What changes: Farm whey and calf rennet go into raw milk warmed to 30–33 °C

Step 1 of 6
Warm the milk, add whey and rennet
Time
Not documented
Temperature
30–33 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: soft 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

Whole raw cow milk is warmed to 30–33 °C with farm whey as starter and calf rennet, and the curd is left 24 hours at 20 °C to sour. It is then lifted into cloth-lined moulds, drained 12–24 hours and salted. Small logs are eaten fresh after 5–6 days, or washed with salt water and ripened about a month in a cave. Made in 6 steps over 37 days – 38 days. The longest step, wash and ripen in a cave (aged version), takes 30 days (Untitled product page 'Fiorone della Valsassi…).

Key numbers
Main step30 daysReported[lombardia-pat][onaf-sheet]Wash and ripen in a cave (aged version)
Temperature30–33 °CReported[lombardia-pat][onaf-sheet]Warm the milk, add whey and rennet

What makes this one different

The rennet curd is left to sour a whole day at 20 °C before it is drained, and it is made as a small log, not a wheel. The sheet says the aged version has the microflora of Taleggio.

Rind
None on the fresh cheese; a very thin straw-yellow skin on the aged one
Size
Small log 5 cm across and 7 cm high, about 200 g
Season
Made all year, mostly March to September

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk, soured for a day at 20 °C and eaten fresh after only 5 or 6 days. Raw milk can carry Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria, and CDC warns of serious illness, most of all for vulnerable people. ANSES advises pregnant women, people with weak immune systems, people over 65 and young children to avoid raw-milk cheese, except pressed cooked cheeses such as gruyère and comté.

History and sources

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

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [lombardia-pat] Untitled product page 'Fiorone della Valsassina' (descriptive text; the file names no issuer), hosted by ONAF under a Regione Lombardia file nameweb
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Fiorone della Valsassina' (the sheet's note names ERSAF, the Lombardia regional agency for agriculture and forests, as its source)gov
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Fiorone della Valsassina' (id 985)web
  4. [cdc-raw-milk] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Raw Milk (31 January 2025)gov
  5. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov