Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Italy, Veneto

Formaggio malga bellunese

Raw summer milk from cows on the alpine pastures is part-skimmed by letting the cream rise for butter, then set with calf rennet at 32–35 °C for about 30 minutes. The curd is cut in two stages, semi-cooked at 41–47 °C, pressed 24 hours and brined or dry-salted. It ripens at 10–13 °C in high humidity, from about a month to several months.

Fully documentedCheese33 days – 38 daysTraditional food product (PAT, Veneto); Slow Food PresidiumFamily: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedMade in summer mountain huts with no fixed batch size or doses. A wheel weighs 2–7 kg, most often about 3.5 kg.
Raw cow milk from the summer pastures, part-skimmed by letting the cream riseCreamed in tinned copper basins set in running mountain water[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Calf rennet, powder or liquid[onaf-sheet]
Salt, as 15% brine or rubbed on dry[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Startermilk or whey starters (lattoinnesto, sieroinnesto); ONAF says their use is being lost to selected cultures

Total time across the recorded steps: 33 days – 38 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Cream rises on milk cooled in running mountain water and is taken for butter

Step 1 of 7
Skim the milk by creaming
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The milk stands in tinned copper basins inside tanks of running mountain water; the risen cream is taken for butter.

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 summer milk from cows on the alpine pastures is part-skimmed by letting the cream rise for butter, then set with calf rennet at 32–35 °C for about 30 minutes. The curd is cut in two stages, semi-cooked at 41–47 °C, pressed 24 hours and brined or dry-salted. It ripens at 10–13 °C in high humidity, from about a month to several months. Made in 7 steps over 33 days – 38 days. The longest step, ripen, takes 30–35 days (Regione Veneto) and runs at 10–13 °C (Regione Veneto). Salt is 15 % (ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters)).

Key numbers
Main step30–35 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen
Temperature10–13 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen
Salt15 %Reported[onaf-sheet]Salt

What makes this one different

A summer pasture cheese from part-skimmed milk, with the cream going to butter. ONAF cites a survey finding that only about one malga in six still makes it the traditional way.

Rind
Thin, cloth-marked, straw-yellow to darker with characteristic moulds
Size
25–40 cm across, 5–10 cm high, 2–7 kg
Season
Summer only (ONAF June–September), on the alpine pastures

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk; the curd is semi-cooked at 41–47 °C and ripened at least a month. ANSES names Salmonella, enterohaemorrhagic E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes 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; do not assume a semi-cooked cheese like this one qualifies.

History and sources

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

The Veneto atlas dates dairy organisation in Belluno to the early 1400s and the first cooperative dairies to the late 1800s. ONAF counts 173 malghe in the province, 47 of them still making cheese.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Veneto, Atlante dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali del Veneto, Formaggi, 'Formaggio malga bellunese', p. 154 (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Formaggio malga bellunese'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Formaggio malga bellunese' (id 1051)web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov