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Cheese from Italy, Calabria

Formaggio caprino della Limina

Fresh raw milk of local free-ranging goats is set with the herder's own aged kid rennet, diluted in a little water, in about an hour. The curd is broken to rice-grain size, lifted by hand into rush baskets on sloping boards, pressed, dry-salted and left a day in the baskets. It is eaten fresh or ripened 8–12 months in cellars, its rind kept oiled with olive oil and a little vinegar.

Fully documentedCheese8 months – 12 monthsTraditional food product (PAT, Regione Calabria)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo doses are given. A cheese weighs about ½ kg on the PAT sheet; ONAF gives 1–2 kg.
Freshly milked raw whole goat milk from local breeds[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Kid paste rennet made by the herders from kid stomachs and aged, dissolved in a little water[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Fine salt[onaf-sheet]
Olive oil and a little vinegar for the rind, sometimes ground red pepper[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
StarterThe ONAF sheet lists no additions to the milk; it is set with the herders' own kid rennet.

Total time across the recorded steps: 8 months – 12 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactobacilli

What changes: The herder's own kid rennet goes into the warm raw goat milk

Step 1 of 5
Set with kid rennet
Time
1 h
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacilli

Milk filtered through a steel strainer (culaturi) is warmed in a pot while stirring; no temperature is given.

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

Fresh raw milk of local free-ranging goats is set with the herder's own aged kid rennet, diluted in a little water, in about an hour. The curd is broken to rice-grain size, lifted by hand into rush baskets on sloping boards, pressed, dry-salted and left a day in the baskets. It is eaten fresh or ripened 8–12 months in cellars, its rind kept oiled with olive oil and a little vinegar. Made in 5 steps over 8 months – 12 months. The longest step, ripen in cellars, oiled, takes 8–12 months (Regione Calabria). Mesophilic and thermophilic lactic acid cocci and lactobacilli, the dominant flora throughout ripening in the related Calabrian goat cheese Caprino d'Aspromonte does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step8–12 monthsReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen in cellars, oiled

What makes this one different

Made only from the milk of free-ranging local goats with the herders' own kid rennet, and its rind is kept oiled with olive oil and vinegar throughout ripening.

Rind
Hard and thin with rush marks, kept oiled with olive oil and vinegar
Size
Cylinder 10–20 cm across, 10–15 cm high (ONAF)
Season
All year, mainly January to late June (ONAF)

Related ferments

Safety

Raw-milk cheese, eaten fresh after a few weeks or ripened 8–12 months. The regional notes list raw milk, tinned copper pots and wooden or rush tools as reasons for the hygiene derogation. ANSES advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheeses other than cooked pressed ones, because of Listeria, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli. Some wheels grow small worms inside while they ripen (ONAF, which does not name the insect). A case report describes myiasis, an infestation by fly larvae, with marked symptoms in a patient who swallowed larvae of the cheese fly Piophila casei (Nocera and Crotti 2009). Do not eat a wheel with live worms.

Hazards the sources name: Hygiene-indicator microbes (the study counted coliforms, E. coli and enterococci), high enough in the related Caprino d'Aspromonte, a Calabrian raw or thermised goat cheese, that several cheeses failed Italian standards; not tested in this cheese; Live larvae (small worms) in some wheels, an insect, not a microbe; a case report describes myiasis, an infestation by fly larvae, in a patient who swallowed larvae of the cheese fly Piophila casei.

History and sources

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

The PAT sheet says that by tradition herders still pay the rent of their pastures with a suitable amount of cheese, and calls goat cheese the oldest of cheeses. It also notes that some breeders have replaced goats with dairy cows, which pay better, so production has fallen.

Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Calabria, Prodotti agro-alimentari tradizionali, 'Scheda prodotto - Formaggio caprino della Limina' (scanned, no text layer; copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Formaggio caprino della Limina'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Formaggio caprino della Limina' (id 1117)web
  4. [caridi2003] Caridi A., Micari P., Foti F., Ramondino D., Sarullo V. 2003, Ripening and seasonal changes in microbiological and chemical parameters of the artisanal cheese Caprino d'Aspromonte produced from raw or thermized goat's milk, Food Microbiology 20(2):201-209 (abstract, read on FAO AGRIS)paper
  5. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov
  6. [nocera2009] Nocera E., Crotti D. 2009, Accidental miasis caused by Piophila casei, a case report, Microbiologia Medica 24(1), doi:10.4081/mm.2009.2554 (abstract)paper