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Cheese from Italy, Sicilia

Formaggio di Santo Stefano di QuisquinaFurmaggiu ri Santu Stèfanu di Quisquina

Raw sheep milk, sometimes with a little cow milk, is set in a wooden tub with lamb rennet paste and broken to rice-grain size. The curd is pressed into rush baskets and scalded in hot whey for 3–5 hours, then dry-salted for about 10 days. It ripens about 6 months on wooden boards; the regional sheet says the method largely follows Pecorino Siciliano PDO.

Fully documentedCheese6.3 monthsTraditional food product (PAT, Regione Siciliana)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedFarm-made in a wooden tub; the sheets give no batch size or doses. A cheese weighs about 2 kg.
Raw whole sheep milk, sometimes with a small, variable share of cow milk[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Lamb rennet paste[onaf-sheet]
SaltRubbed dry over the whole cheese[onaf-sheet]
Starternone; the milk's natural microflora

Total time across the recorded steps: 6.3 months

Start
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32–35 °C

What changes: Lamb rennet paste goes into the warm sheep milk in a wooden tub

Step 1 of 6
Warm the milk and set it with lamb rennet
Time
30–40 min
Reported
Temperature
32–35 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Raw sheep milk, sometimes with a little cow milk, is set in a wooden tub with lamb rennet paste and broken to rice-grain size. The curd is pressed into rush baskets and scalded in hot whey for 3–5 hours, then dry-salted for about 10 days. It ripens about 6 months on wooden boards; the regional sheet says the method largely follows Pecorino Siciliano PDO. Made in 6 steps over 6.3 months. The longest step, ripen on wooden boards, takes at least 6 months (ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori F…) and runs at 12–18 °C (ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori F…).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 6 monthsReported[onaf-sheet]Ripen on wooden boards
Temperature12–18 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Ripen on wooden boards

What makes this one different

A local pecorino of the Monti Sicani made much like Pecorino Siciliano PDO, sometimes with a little cow milk, and ripened about 6 months; the regional sheet notes local practices kept from the area's history.

Rind
Hard, deep straw yellow, marked by the rush basket, sometimes oiled
Size
Cylinder with one slightly concave face, about 2 kg
Season
Made from October to June
Scald in Pecorino Siciliano PDO, for comparison
The 2020 amendment of the Pecorino Siciliano PDO specification, which this method largely follows, gives 3–4 hours under scotta in wooden tubs; the ONAF sheet for this cheese gives 3–5 hours.

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk. The cheese sits for 3–5 hours in whey that starts at about 85 °C and cools slowly, is dry salted for about 10 days and ripens about 6 months, but the sources do not test how far these steps lower the risk. The ONAF sheet classes the curd as uncooked. 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 not to eat raw-milk cheeses, except cooked pressed ones such as Comté.

History and sources

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

The regional sheet says the method has been practised in the same way under traditional rules for not less than 25 years, and points to the town's ethno-anthropological pastoral museum, created in the early 1980s, which keeps the old tools, and to local books.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Siciliana, Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali (2018, DM 16 February 2018), sheet 'Formaggio di Santo Stefano di Quisquina' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Formaggio di Santo Stefano di Quisquina'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Formaggio di Santo Stefano di Quisquina' (id 1231)web
  4. [ps-oj-2020] European Commission 2020, Publication of an application for approval of a non-minor amendment, Pecorino Siciliano (PDO-IT-0019-AM01; approved in September 2020 by Regulation (EU) 2020/1338), Official Journal of the EU C 170/27, 18 May 2020 (Italian text, copy hosted by ONAF)spec
  5. [ps-reg-2020] European Commission 2020, Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1338 of 21 September 2020 approving a non-minor amendment to the specification of 'Pecorino Siciliano' (PDO), OJ L 313/3; Article 1 approves the amendment published in OJ C 170/27 (Italian text, copy hosted by ONAF)spec
  6. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov