Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige, Prov. Bolzano

Innichner Butterkäse (Caciottina Montanara / Formaggio al burro di San Candido)Caciottina Montanara

Hay milk is skimmed to 4.0% fat, pasteurised, soured with lactic cultures and set with calf rennet. The hazelnut-size curd goes into small moulds without pressing, is brined and dried. The little 0.6 kg cheeses ripen 3 weeks at 85–92% humidity.

Fully documentedCheese21 daysTraditional food product (PAT, Autonomous Province of Bolzano; 21st national list, March 2021)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedMade in one cooperative dairy; the sheets give no batch size or doses. Each cheese weighs 0.6 kg.
Hay milk from cows, skimmed to 4.0% fat and pasteurised[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Lactic cultures[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Calf rennet, liquid or powder[onaf-sheet]
Salt (brine)[pat-sheet]
Starterlactic cultures

Total time across the recorded steps: 21 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: The hay milk is skimmed to 4% fat and pasteurised

Step 1 of 6
Skim and pasteurise the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
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

Hay milk is skimmed to 4.0% fat, pasteurised, soured with lactic cultures and set with calf rennet. The hazelnut-size curd goes into small moulds without pressing, is brined and dried. The little 0.6 kg cheeses ripen 3 weeks at 85–92% humidity. Made in 6 steps over 21 days. The longest step, ripen, takes 21 days (Autonomous Province of Bolzano).

Key numbers
Main step21 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen
Temperature35–37 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Add cultures and rennet

What makes this one different

A small soft caciotta of hay milk, ripened only three weeks, with slit-shaped eyes and a cream-and-butter aroma. Its curd is cut larger than the dairy's harder cheeses and is neither cooked nor pressed.

Storage
ONAF says the finished cheese is kept at 1–10 °C
Rind
Edible, thin, without cracks, pale straw
Size
About 11.5 cm across and 8 cm high, 0.6 kg

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is pasteurised before cheesemaking, and the cheese is kept at 1–10 °C.

History and sources

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

The Dobbiaco dairy cooperative was founded in 1883, and cheesemaking has a long tradition in the upper Val Pusteria. The province form says this cheese has been made almost unchanged to this day.

  1. [pat-sheet] Autonomous Province of Bolzano, PAT product form no. 11 'Innichner Butterkäse - Caciottina Montanara' (Art. 8 D.Lgs. 173/98), copy hosted by ONAFgov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Innichner Butterkäse (Caciottina Montanara)'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Innichner Butterkäse' (id 1270)web