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Cheese from Italy, Toscana

Formaggio caprino delle Apuane

A summer goat cheese of the Apuan Alps, made from April to September or October by a handful of herders. Raw goat milk is warmed to 30–35 °C in a kettle, or used at milking warmth, and set with rennet, or at times on its own. The curd is broken, rewarmed to 30–35 °C, moulded, salted from time to time and ripened 40–60 days on wooden boards or in caves.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no amounts; the cheese is a small to medium round of variable weight. About 5 producers made an average of 4000 kg a year over three years.
Raw whole goat milkFrom local herds; the goats give about 1 litre a day at best[tos-apuane][onaf-apuane]
RennetCalf liquid rennet (ONAF); at some times of the season the milk sets without it[tos-apuane][onaf-apuane]
SaltDry salt, put on from time to time[tos-apuane][onaf-apuane]

Total time across the recorded steps: 40 days – 2 months

Start
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30–35 °C

What changes: Starting material: raw goat milk, warmed to 30–35 °C in a kettle

Step 1 of 7
Warm the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
30–35 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: warm raw 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

A summer goat cheese of the Apuan Alps, made from April to September or October by a handful of herders. Raw goat milk is warmed to 30–35 °C in a kettle, or used at milking warmth, and set with rennet, or at times on its own. The curd is broken, rewarmed to 30–35 °C, moulded, salted from time to time and ripened 40–60 days on wooden boards or in caves. Made in 7 steps over 40 days – 2 months. The longest step, ripen, takes 40 days – 2 months (Regione Toscana (ARSIA)).

Key numbers
Main step40 days – 2 monthsReported[tos-apuane]Ripen
Temperature30–35 °CReported[tos-apuane]Warm the milk

What makes this one different

A mountain herders' cheese whose milk sometimes sets without rennet. Its curd is only rewarmed to the setting heat, 30–35 °C, and it ripens 40–60 days, longer than the Alto Mugello goat tomino, which is matured about 30 days.

Rind
Thin, fairly smooth, whitish-yellow
Size
Small to medium cylinder; weight variable
Season
April to September or October

Related ferments

Safety

Raw-milk goat cheese ripened 40–60 days. ANSES advises pregnant women, people over 65, people with weak immunity and young children to avoid raw-milk cheeses.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, the main hazards ANSES names for raw-milk cheeses.

History and sources

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

The regional sheet says the production area was originally the whole northern Apuan Alps, and that the summer move of the herds to the high pastures has very distant origins. Today only a few producers remain, and ONAF says the region lists the cheese as at risk of being lost.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [tos-apuane] Regione Toscana (ARSIA), prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, sheet 'Formaggio caprino delle Apuane' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-apuane] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Formaggio caprino delle Apuane' (PAT Toscana)web
  3. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov