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Cheese from Italy, Lombardia

Frumagit di Curiglia

Raw goat milk, warm from milking or brought to 30–35 °C, is set with liquid rennet in 30–60 minutes, broken to walnut or hazelnut size and drained in small oval moulds. The tiny cheeses of about 80 g are eaten unsalted after a day or two, or dry-salted, kept warm for a week and ripened 1–3 weeks in a natural cellar, where a white bloom or red-orange smear grows.

Fully documentedCheese15 days – 30 daysTraditional food product (PAT, Regione Lombardia)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedSmall farm makes; the sheets give no batch size or doses. Each cheese weighs about 80 g.
Raw whole goat milkFrom Camosciata delle Alpi, Nera di Verzasca and local cross goats on extensive pasture[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Liquid calf rennet, or home-made kid rennetHome-made from dried kid stomachs extracted in salted water or whey[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Native or selected starter culturesoptional[onaf-sheet]
SaltoptionalOnly for cheeses that will be ripened[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starteroptional native or selected cultures

Total time across the recorded steps: 15 days – 30 days

Start
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30–35 °C

What changes: Liquid rennet goes into goat milk at 30–35 °C, which sets in 30–60 minutes

Step 1 of 6
Add rennet to warm goat milk
Time
30 min – 1 h
Reported
Temperature
30–35 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

ONAF gives 30–34 °C and 0.5–2 hours.

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 goat milk, warm from milking or brought to 30–35 °C, is set with liquid rennet in 30–60 minutes, broken to walnut or hazelnut size and drained in small oval moulds. The tiny cheeses of about 80 g are eaten unsalted after a day or two, or dry-salted, kept warm for a week and ripened 1–3 weeks in a natural cellar, where a white bloom or red-orange smear grows. Made in 6 steps over 15 days – 30 days. The longest step, ripen in a natural cellar, takes 7–21 days (Regione Lombardia).

Key numbers
Main step7–21 daysReported[pat-sheet]Ripen in a natural cellar
Temperature30–35 °CReported[pat-sheet]Add rennet to warm goat milk
AciditypH 5.6–6.3Reported[pat-sheet]Ripen in a natural cellar

What makes this one different

A very small goat cheese of the Veddasca valleys, once shaped by pushing the curd through an oval perforated tube and cutting it with a knife. It is eaten unsalted within two days, or salted, kept warm a week and cellar-ripened into a bloomy or smeared cheese.

Rind
None when fresh; a very thin skin with white bloom or red-orange smear when ripened
Size
Oval, about 8 × 6 cm, side 2.5–3 cm, about 80 g
Composition
Moisture 50%, fat on dry matter 51%, protein 21%
Season
Made from February to October according to ONAF's text (its table says all year), from goats on semi-wild pasture

Related ferments

Variants

  • FreschissimoEaten after 1–2 days, often unsalted, with no rind.
  • FrescoSalted, stoved a week and ripened 1–3 weeks; white bloom or red-orange smear.

Safety

Made from raw goat milk and eaten young, so clean milk and cold storage at 4 °C for fresh cheeses matter. The ONAF sheet says raw-milk frumagit is considered riskier than the acid-set goat cheese, because it lacks that cheese's strong acidification. It credits one maker's clean record to healthy udders and scrupulous cleaning of tools and rooms, a producer's account and not a test of the cheese. WHO says most brucellosis cases come from unpasteurised milk or cheese from infected goats or sheep. 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 ONAF sheet says goat keeping stayed common among local families even when an attempt was made, at the start of the nineteenth century, to ban goats to restore the pastures. The milk went into soups and into homemade frumagit, which later became a source of income when women carried it to Luino to sell at the market, packed in leaves in a back basket. The sheet adds that a food community, Comunità del cibo di Curiglia-Monteviasco, formed around it with local farmers and Slow Food Varese. Lombardy listed it as a traditional product from the 7th revision, by ministerial decree of 19 June 2007.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Lombardia, Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, scheda 'Frumagit di Curiglia' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Frumagit di Curiglia'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Frumagit di Curiglia' (id 1005)web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov
  5. [who-brucellosis] World Health Organization, Brucellosis fact sheetgov