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Cheese from Italy, Toscana

Il Fossa del GreppoPecorino di Fossa del Greppo

Sheep milk is warmed to about 35 °C, set with animal or plant rennet, cut to corn size and moulded into cheeses of about 1.2 kg that sour in a warm room and are salted. After at least two months in a cold room, the cheeses go 14 to a cotton sack, tied with string, and lie sealed for at least three months in flask-shaped pits dug in tuff, on cedar boards under straw.

Fully documentedCheese5 monthsTraditional food product (PAT, Regione Toscana)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo batch size is given. The cheeses weigh about 1.2 kg when moulded and go into the pit 14 to a sack.
Sheep milkONAF gives whole, pasteurised milk[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Selected lactic cultures (mesophilic, or mesophilic and thermophilic), optional[pat-sheet]
Rennet, animal or plant[pat-sheet]
Salt, dry or as brine[pat-sheet]
Raw cotton sacks, cedar boards (Cedrus deodara) and straw for the pit[pat-sheet]
Starteroptional selected mesophilic or mesophilic/thermophilic lactic cultures

Total time across the recorded steps: 5 months

Start
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35 °C

What changes: Optional cultures and animal or plant rennet go into the milk at about 35 °C

Step 1 of 8
Add rennet, and cultures if used
Time
20 min
Reported
Temperature
35 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: curd.

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

Sheep milk is warmed to about 35 °C, set with animal or plant rennet, cut to corn size and moulded into cheeses of about 1.2 kg that sour in a warm room and are salted. After at least two months in a cold room, the cheeses go 14 to a cotton sack, tied with string, and lie sealed for at least three months in flask-shaped pits dug in tuff, on cedar boards under straw. Made in 8 steps over 5 months. The longest step, second ripening in the pit, takes at least 3 months (Regione Toscana).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 3 monthsReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Second ripening in the pit
Temperature35 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Add rennet, and cultures if used

What makes this one different

After a normal first ripening it spends at least three months sealed in a tuff pit on cedar boards, the step that gives its fragrance and its deformed shape. Production is tiny and the cheese is considered at risk of disappearing.

Rind
Thin, slightly wrinkled, greasy, grey-brown with mould spots
Size
Irregular cylinder about 15 cm across, 4–9 cm high after the pit; about 1.2 kg
Season
Made from spring to autumn

Related ferments

Safety

ONAF lists the milk as pasteurised. The regional sheet has the milk held in refrigerated tanks and filtered, and the work rooms tiled with smooth, washable walls. In the pit the relative humidity is above 90 % and the temperature is enough to start a second fermentation.

History and sources

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

Farmers of the Greppo hid food in tuff pits to protect it from raiders and found that cheeses stored there gained new aromas. In 2005 only about 100 kg were made.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Toscana, traditional food product sheet 'Il Fossa del Greppo', copy hosted by ONAFgov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Il Fossa del Greppo'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Il Fossa del Greppo' (id 912)web