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Cheese from Italy, Campania

Mozzarella nella mortellamozzarella co' a mortedda

Mozzarella nella mortella is a very fresh stretched-curd cow cheese from the lower Cilento, sold in bunches wrapped in myrtle (mortella). Unlike ordinary mozzarella, the broken curd ripens with almost no whey, so the cheese is compact and dry with a thicker skin. Flat, tongue-shaped pieces are packed between myrtle sprigs and eaten within 5 days.

Fully documentedCheese12 h – 24 hPAT (Regione Campania); Slow Food PresidioFamily: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no amounts. A bunch (mazzo) holds 6–10 pieces of about 150 g each.
Whole cow milkKept at 4 °C so the fat does not separate; pasteurised in most dairies, raw in the Presidio[onaf-sheet][slowfood]
Whey starter from the previous day's make (optional)[onaf-sheet][slowfood]
Calf rennet[onaf-sheet]
Hot water for stretching; brine[onaf-sheet]
Freshly picked myrtle sprigs, tied with broom twigs[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starteroptional acid whey starter from the previous day, added at 20 °C

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 h – 24 h

Start
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37 °C

What changes: Calf rennet sets the milk at about 37 °C, after whey starter if it is used

Step 1 of 6
Add calf rennet, and whey starter if used
Time
Not documented
Temperature
37 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: dense, fairly firm curd.

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

Mozzarella nella mortella is a very fresh stretched-curd cow cheese from the lower Cilento, sold in bunches wrapped in myrtle (mortella). Unlike ordinary mozzarella, the broken curd ripens with almost no whey, so the cheese is compact and dry with a thicker skin. Flat, tongue-shaped pieces are packed between myrtle sprigs and eaten within 5 days. Made in 6 steps over 12 h – 24 h. The longest step, ripen the curd with almost no whey, takes 12–24 h (ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori F…).

Key numbers
Main step12–24 hReported[onaf-sheet][slowfood]Ripen the curd with almost no whey
Temperature37 °CReported[onaf-sheet][slowfood]Add calf rennet, and whey starter if used

What makes this one different

The curd ripens almost without whey, so the cheese is firmer and drier than mozzarella; the ONAF sheet calls it in practice a very fresh caciocavallo. It is wrapped in myrtle, once to protect it on the way from the pastures to the villages.

Rind
None; a thin white skin marked by the myrtle leaves
Size
About 15 cm long, about 150 g or less
Season
May–June and September–December (ONAF); all year (Slow Food)

Related ferments

Safety

Most dairies pasteurise the milk; the Presidio cheese is made from raw milk, which ONAF says is kept at 4 °C so the fat does not separate. The cheese is eaten fresh, within 5 days of making, and removed from the myrtle before eating. 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

The cheese was made near the pastures and wrapped in myrtle, an evergreen shrub common in the Cilento, to protect it on the way to the villages where it was sold. ONAF records it as made for at least 25 years in the area.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura, Prodotti tradizionali, 'Mozzarella nella mortella' (page updated 13 March 2015; copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Mozzarella nella mortella'web
  3. [slowfood] Fondazione Slow Food, Presidio 'Mozzarella nella mortella'web
  4. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov