Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Italy, Lombardia

Formaggio d'Alpe misto

A summer pasture cheese of raw whole milk, about 80% cow and 20% goat. The milk is set with rennet at 37–39 °C for about 35 minutes, the curd is broken to rice-grain size while heated to 42–44 °C, rests 10 minutes under the whey and is pressed in hoops. The wheels are dry-salted and ripen 30–90 days in cellars or natural caves.

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe milk is about 20% goat and 80% cow; the sheets give no batch size. A wheel weighs 5–8 kg; ONAF gives 30–35 cm across and 10–12 cm high.
Raw whole cow milkAbout 80%[lom-misto][onaf-misto]
Raw whole goat milkAbout 20%[lom-misto][onaf-misto]
RennetCalf liquid rennet, according to ONAF[lom-misto][onaf-misto]
SaltMostly dry salt[lom-misto][onaf-misto]

Total time across the recorded steps: 31 days – 3 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Starting material: raw whole cow milk with about a fifth goat milk

Step 1 of 7
Mix cow and goat milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: raw whole milk, about 80% cow and 20% goat.

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 pasture cheese of raw whole milk, about 80% cow and 20% goat. The milk is set with rennet at 37–39 °C for about 35 minutes, the curd is broken to rice-grain size while heated to 42–44 °C, rests 10 minutes under the whey and is pressed in hoops. The wheels are dry-salted and ripen 30–90 days in cellars or natural caves. Made in 7 steps over 31 days – 3 months. The longest step, ripen in cellars or caves, takes 30 days – 3 months (ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori F…).

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 3 monthsReported[onaf-misto]Ripen in cellars or caves
Temperature37–39 °CReported[lom-misto]Add rennet

What makes this one different

A Lombard d'Alpe cheese made with goat milk (about 20%) beside cow milk. The regional sheet says its rind is paler than that of an aged all-cow cheese and its paste almost white. It is hard to find because few herders take both cows and goats up to the pastures.

Season
June to September, at the summer pastures (ONAF)
Rind
Thin, straw, paler than an all-cow cheese
Size
30–35 cm across, 10–12 cm high, 5–8 kg

Related ferments

Safety

Raw-milk cheese ripened 30–90 days. The regional sheet credits the ripening for its safety, but ANSES says a residual risk remains in raw-milk cheeses. ANSES names Listeria, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli as the main raw-milk cheese hazards. It advises pregnant women, people over 65, people with weak immunity and young children to avoid raw-milk cheeses.

History and sources

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

The regional sheet says it is scarce because cow and goat herders still do not get along well, and few take both animals to the pastures. It says cheese was first made at the pasture itself, and that pasture makers once prepared rennet at home from the dried, ground stomach of a calf or kid, or used the flower Gallium verum as a plant rennet. Lombardy listed it among its traditional food products in the 7th revision, by ministerial decree of 19 June 2007.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [lom-misto] Regione Lombardia, prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, sheet 'Formaggio d'Alpe Misto' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-misto] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Formaggio d'Alpe misto' (PAT Lombardia)web
  3. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov