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Cheese from Italy, Sicilia

MaiorchinoMaiurchinu

Whole raw sheep milk, sometimes with some goat milk, is set at 39 °C with lamb or kid rennet paste and its own natural microflora. The rice-size 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 from the third month and is at its best after about 8 months in stone cellars.

Fully documentedCheese8.7 months – 9 monthsTraditional food product (PAT, Sicilia, DM 16 February 2018); Slow Food PresidiumFamily: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedMade from February to June by small producers with no fixed batch size or doses. A wheel weighs 10–12 kg.
Whole raw sheep milk[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Goat milk (optional)Allowed in the Slow Food Presidium[onaf-sheet]
Lamb and/or kid rennet paste, made on the farm[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Coarse sea salt[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Olive oil, rubbed on the rind from the third month[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: 8.7 months – 9 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
39 °C

What changes: Lamb or kid rennet paste sets the raw milk at 39 °C in about an hour

Step 1 of 6
Set with lamb or kid rennet
Time
1 h
Reported
Temperature
39 °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

Whole raw sheep milk, sometimes with some goat milk, is set at 39 °C with lamb or kid rennet paste and its own natural microflora. The rice-size 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 from the third month and is at its best after about 8 months in stone cellars. Made in 6 steps over 8.7 months – 9 months. The longest step, ripen and oil, takes 8 months (Regione Siciliana 2018).

Key numbers
Main step8 monthsReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen and oil
Temperature39 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Set with lamb or kid rennet

What makes this one different

The curd is gathered into one ball and pierced with a thin rod so whey can drain, then dry-salted by hand for up to a month. The wheel is rubbed with olive oil from the third month and ripens in half-buried stone rooms.

Rind
Fairly thin, hard and oily, amber-yellow turning brown
Size
About 35 cm across, 10–12 cm high (PAT 12 cm, ONAF 10 cm), 10–12 kg
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 for months. ANSES, the French food-safety agency, names Listeria, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli among the bacteria found in raw-milk cheeses. It advises pregnant women, people over 65, young children and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheese, except cooked pressed cheeses such as Gruyère or Comté. It does not name Maiorchino.

History and sources

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

Sicilian folk tradition places it around the 1600s, at the Maiorchina festival. Carmelo Campisi described the traditional method in 'Pecore e pecorino della Sicilia' (1933).

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Siciliana, Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali (2018), DM 16 February 2018, sheet 'Maiorchino' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Maiorchino'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Maiorchino' (id 1232)web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov