Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige, upper Val di Non

Monteson

Monteson is a semi-hard cow cheese from the upper Val di Non. Skimmed evening milk and whole morning milk are set with kid rennet at 31 °C, cut to maize-grain size and semi-cooked at 42 °C. The cheeses are drained in baskets, brined for 2 days and ripened 30–60 days at about 15 °C.

Fully documentedCheese32 days – 2 monthsPAT (Provincia Autonoma di Trento)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe provincial sheet gives the method but no amounts, and says times, temperatures and doses vary with the milk, the season and the cheesemaker. A cheese weighs 5–7 kg.
Cow milk from Brown Swiss and Friesian cows fed hay or pasture, no silageThe evening milking is skimmed by letting the cream rise and mixed in the vat with the whole morning milking[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Natural starter (optional)May be added while the milk is warmed[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Kid rennet[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt (brine)[pat-sheet]
Starteroptional natural starter

Total time across the recorded steps: 32 days – 2 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Skimmed evening milk and whole morning milk are mixed in the vat

Step 1 of 7
Mix skimmed evening milk with whole morning milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacillus
Pediococcus
Lactococcus
Enterococcus

The evening milk is skimmed by natural creaming; both milkings go into the vat in the morning. Output: part-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

Monteson is a semi-hard cow cheese from the upper Val di Non. Skimmed evening milk and whole morning milk are set with kid rennet at 31 °C, cut to maize-grain size and semi-cooked at 42 °C. The cheeses are drained in baskets, brined for 2 days and ripened 30–60 days at about 15 °C. Made in 7 steps over 32 days – 2 months. The longest step, ripen, takes 30 days – 2 months (Provincia Autonoma di Trento 2013) and runs at 15 °C (Provincia Autonoma di Trento 2013). Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, Lactococcus and Enterococcus, named as the most abundant genera of endogenous milk flora in 2-month-ripened raw-milk cheeses from Trentino malghe does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 2 monthsReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen
Temperature15 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen

What makes this one different

Monteson is set with kid rennet, not calf rennet, and semi-cooked at 42 °C. Its name comes from the long summer haymaking stays in the mountains, when cheese was made on the spot with goat stomachs as rennet.

Rind
Rough, light brown, fairly thin
Size
Ø 23–25 cm, height 10–12 cm, 5–7 kg

Related ferments

Safety

The provincial sheet records no heat treatment of the milk, and the cheese is ripened 30–60 days. Raw-milk cheese can carry Listeria, Salmonella and Shiga-toxin E. coli. ANSES, the French food-safety agency, advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat it, except cooked pressed kinds such as Gruyère; this curd is only semi-cooked. Cutting off the rind does not remove the risk.

Hazards the sources name: Coagulase-positive staphylococci developed in curd, not exceeding 6 log CFU/g in the four Trentino malghe (a related semi-cooked malga cheese) and reaching almost 5 log CFU/g in the two that used no starter, but were not detectable in the 2-month cheeses; Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella were not found there.

History and sources

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

Older people recall that during haymaking families stayed in the mountains for 10–15 days at a time and made cheese on the spot, using goat stomachs as rennet. This stay was called 'monteson'. An old text found in the loft of the old Castelfondo dairy records the custom.

  1. [pat-sheet] Provincia Autonoma di Trento, Trentino Agricoltura, Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, sheet 'Monteson' (last updated 2013-12-28; copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Monteson'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Monteson' (id 782)web
  4. [lucchini2018] Lucchini R, Cardazzo B, Carraro L, et al. 2018, Contribution of natural milk culture to microbiota, safety and hygiene of raw milk cheese produced in alpine malga, Italian Journal of Food Safety 7(1), a study of semi-cooked raw-milk malga cheeses in Trentinopaper
  5. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov