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Cheese from Austria, Lower Austria

Mostviertler Schofkas

A fresh rennet cheese of sheep milk, or sheep and cow milk with at least 51 % sheep milk, made mainly from April to October. The lightly warmed milk gets a souring culture and a few drops of rennet and is poured straight into round cup moulds, where it sets and the whey separates. After a day's rest the rolls are sold floating in their whey.

Fully documentedCheese24 hnone (Austrian register of traditional foods, no. 31; Austrian Food Codex B 32, 'Lab-Frischkäse (z. B. nach Erlauftaler Art oder Mostviertler Schofkas)')Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sources give no doses. Each roll weighs about 100–250 g.
Sheep milk, or a blend with cow milk holding at least 51 % sheep milk, all from the Mostviertel; raw or pasteurised[bmluk-schofkas]
Souring culture (formerly natural souring)[bmluk-schofkas][codex-b32]
Rennet (formerly from the stomachs of milk-fed calves)a few drops[bmluk-schofkas]
Startersouring culture of lactic acid bacteria (formerly natural souring)

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h

Start
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What changes: A souring culture goes into the lightly warmed sheep milk

Step 1 of 4
Warm and sour the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The milk is warmed a little and usually gets a special souring culture to prevent faulty fermentation. The old natural souring depended strongly on the weather.

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

A fresh rennet cheese of sheep milk, or sheep and cow milk with at least 51 % sheep milk, made mainly from April to October. The lightly warmed milk gets a souring culture and a few drops of rennet and is poured straight into round cup moulds, where it sets and the whey separates. After a day's rest the rolls are sold floating in their whey. Made in 4 steps over 24 h. The longest step, shape the rolls and rest, takes 24 h (Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtscha…).

Key numbers
Main step24 hReported[bmluk-schofkas]Shape the rolls and rest

What makes this one different

Set straight in the cup moulds with lactic culture and a few drops of rennet, and sold after one day floating in its own whey; served with chives, pumpkin-seed oil or pear vinegar.

Milk
Pure sheep milk, or a blend with at least 51 % sheep milk
Fat and water
45 % fat in dry matter (reference); at most 75 % water. One farm's raw sheep-milk Schofkas lists 14 % absolute fat (AMA cheese profile).
Size
Rolls of about 100–250 g; the Codex class covers about 100–300 g

Related ferments

Safety

The milk may be raw or pasteurised. Souring by the milk's own bacteria depends strongly on temperature, which made summer batches hard, so a souring culture is now usually added to prevent faulty fermentation. Cheese sold from the farm keeps about one week in its whey; special packs keep longer. One farm's profile recommends serving at 6 °C. When the milk is raw, the US CDC says people at higher risk of Listeria infection, including pregnant women, people 65 or older and people with weak immunity, should avoid the cheese unless it is heated to 165 °F (74 °C) or until steaming hot.

History and sources

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

Sheep cheese appears in medieval Lower Austrian tax rolls. The Ybbs valley narrow-gauge railway was nicknamed the 'Schofkas-Express' because farmers took the cheese on it to market in Waidhofen an der Ybbs.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [bmluk-schofkas] Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtschaft (BMLUK), Traditionelle Lebensmittel in Österreich, register no. 31, 'Mostviertler Schofkas'gov
  2. [codex-b32] Österreichisches Lebensmittelbuch, IV. Auflage, Codexkapitel B 32 'Milch und Milchprodukte' (GZ 2022-0.436.082 of 9.1.2023, amended 30.6.2023), section 3.4.1.2 Lab-Frischkäse (web.archive.org copy of the WKO file)spec
  3. [ama-schrefel] AMA-Marketing (Agrarmarkt Austria), Käse-Taufschein 'Schofkas', Schrefel farm, Göstling an der Ybbs (raw organic sheep milk, 45 % fat in dry matter, 14 % absolute fat, animal rennet, 24 hours, serve at 6 °C)web
  4. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov