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Cheese from Italy, Lombardia

Matusc

Raw cow milk is skimmed by letting the cream rise for butter, then set with liquid calf rennet at 30–34 °C for 30 minutes. The curd is semi-cooked at 38–40 °C, pressed at least 12 hours and dry-salted by hand. The small wheels ripen from 30 days up to a year.

Fully documentedCheese33 days – 12 monthsTraditional food product (PAT, Lombardia); Slow Food Ark of TasteFamily: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedA home or farm cheese with no fixed batch size or doses. Each wheel weighs 1–2 kg; ONAF notes that a wheel of about 2.5 kg once also gave about half a kilo of butter.
Raw cow milk, skimmed by letting the cream riseMilk of several milkings may rest up to 48 hours before skimming[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Raw milk of the last milking, added unskimmed in the vat[onaf-sheet]
Liquid calf rennet (ONAF also lists powder)In the past made by mixing the fire-dried pellette of milk-fed calves with salt and vinegar[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt, rubbed on dry[onaf-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 33 days – 12 months

Start
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What changes: Cream rises on milk cooled in running water and is skimmed off for butter

Step 1 of 7
Skim the milk by creaming
Time
up to 2 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The risen cream is taken off for butter; the raw milk of the last milking goes straight into the vat with the skimmed milk.

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 cow milk is skimmed by letting the cream rise for butter, then set with liquid calf rennet at 30–34 °C for 30 minutes. The curd is semi-cooked at 38–40 °C, pressed at least 12 hours and dry-salted by hand. The small wheels ripen from 30 days up to a year. Made in 7 steps over 33 days – 12 months. The longest step, ripen in the cellar, takes 30 days – 12 months (Regione Lombardia).

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 12 monthsReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen in the cellar
Temperature30–34 °CReported[pat-sheet]Set with calf rennet

What makes this one different

A household cheese of the mid-mountain hamlets, made in the weeks before and after the alpine season from small amounts of milk, hard-skimmed for butter. In the speech of Albaredo, 'formaggio' is a cheese a professional cheesemaker makes for sale, while matusc is the lean cheese made at home for the family.

Rind
Thin, smooth, straw-yellow turning brown with age
Size
About 20 cm across, 1–2 kg; the regional sheet gives 3 cm high, ONAF 7–10 cm
Composition
Fat 30% of dry matter; moisture 40% at 60 days (ONAF)
Season
Spring and autumn (ONAF March–June and September–December), when the herds are not on the alpine pastures

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk and ripened at least 30 days. 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

ONAF calls the name Celtic and links it to German 'Matte', a cloth like the one used to lift the curd. Milk was kept in a 'budülera', a stone hut with running water under copper basins, until there was enough to make cheese. Around 1900 butter sold for about 30% more than good Bitto, so the cream went to butter and the lean cheese stayed at home.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Lombardia, traditional product sheet 'Matusc' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Matusc'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Matusc' (id 1020)web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov