Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Italy, Sicilia

Maiorchino di Novara di SiciliaMaiurcheu

Whole raw sheep and goat milk, at least 35% goat, is set at 39 °C in a tinned copper pot with lamb or kid rennet paste. The curd is cooked to about 60 °C, gathered by hand into one ball, pierced with a rod to drain and pressed in wooden hoops. It is dry-salted for 20–30 days, oiled, and ripens from one month to two years, ideally about 8 months.

Fully documentedCheese50 days – 2.1 yearsTraditional food product (PAT, Sicilia, DM 16 February 2018)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedMade on farms from February to June with no fixed batch size or doses. A wheel weighs 10–12 kg.
Whole raw sheep milk[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Whole raw goat milkAt least 35% of the milk[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Natural rennet (ONAF says lamb and/or kid paste)[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt (ONAF says coarse sea salt)[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Olive oil for the rind[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
StarterNo starter is added; the curd forms thanks to the natural microflora of the milk.

Total time across the recorded steps: 50 days – 2.1 years

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Raw sheep milk and at least 35% goat milk are filtered into a copper pot

Step 1 of 7
Mix the milks
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The raw milk of one warm milking is filtered into a tinned copper pot (codara) over a hearth.

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

Whole raw sheep and goat milk, at least 35% goat, is set at 39 °C in a tinned copper pot with lamb or kid rennet paste. The curd is cooked to about 60 °C, gathered by hand into one ball, pierced with a rod to drain and pressed in wooden hoops. It is dry-salted for 20–30 days, oiled, and ripens from one month to two years, ideally about 8 months. Made in 7 steps over 50 days – 2.1 years. The longest step, ripen and oil, takes 30 days – 2 years (ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters)).

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 2 yearsReported[onaf-sheet]Ripen and oil
Temperature39 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Set with lamb or kid rennet

What makes this one different

The Novara version of Maiorchino must hold at least 35% goat milk. Like Maiorchino, its curd is gathered into one ball and pierced with a rod to drain, then salted by hand for weeks and oiled.

Rind
Fairly thin, hard, oily, amber-yellow turning brown
Size
About 35 cm across and 10 cm high, 10–12 kg (ONAF)
Season
Made from February to June

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk; the curd is cooked to about 60 °C and the cheese ripens at least a month. ANSES advises pregnant women, people over 65, young children and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheese, except cooked pressed cheeses.

History and sources

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

The cheese is linked to the Maiorchina, a game from about the 1600s still played at carnival in Novara di Sicilia. Teams roll an aged wheel of about 10 kg, steered with a cord, more than two kilometres through the old town, and the team with the fewest throws wins.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Siciliana, Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali (2018), DM 16 February 2018, sheet 'Maiorchino di Novara di Sicilia, Maiurcheu' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Maiorchino di Novara di Sicilia'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Maiorchino di Novara di Sicilia' (id 1251)web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov