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Cheese from Italy, Lombardia

Nissoformaggio che salta

Nisso is a creamy, long-kept cheese from the Oltrepò Pavese, born as a way to save wheels that cheese flies had reached. Pasteurised cow, sheep or mixed milk is set with calf rennet at 37 °C, brined, and the wheels are kept 12–24 months in wide-mouthed jars (amole) with their rind oiled. Larvae of the cheese fly Piophila casei turn the paste into a strong, slightly piquant cream.

Fully documentedCheese12 months – 2 yearsPAT (Regione Lombardia)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe regional sheet gives the method but no amounts. The cheese takes the shape of its jar.
Whole cow milk, often mixed with sheep milk, from two milkings, pasteurised[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Calf rennet, liquid or powder[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt (brine)[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Oil, for rubbing the rind[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 months – 2 years

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: The milk of two milkings is pasteurised

Step 1 of 6
Pasteurise the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Nisso is a creamy, long-kept cheese from the Oltrepò Pavese, born as a way to save wheels that cheese flies had reached. Pasteurised cow, sheep or mixed milk is set with calf rennet at 37 °C, brined, and the wheels are kept 12–24 months in wide-mouthed jars (amole) with their rind oiled. Larvae of the cheese fly Piophila casei turn the paste into a strong, slightly piquant cream. Made in 6 steps over 12 months – 2 years. The longest step, ripen in jars with oiled rind, takes 12 months – 2 years (Regione Lombardia). Larvae of the cheese fly Piophila casei (an insect, not a microbe), whose enzymes turn the paste into a cream does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step12 months – 2 yearsReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen in jars with oiled rind
Temperature37 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Set with calf rennet

What makes this one different

Nisso is a peasant way of saving wheels reached by cheese flies. Instead of being thrown away, they are kept 12–24 months in jars and the larvae digest the paste into a cream; locals call it the 'cheese that jumps' or 'that burns'.

Rind
Thin, kept soft by oiling
Size
Varies with the jar
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is pasteurised. According to ONAF, wheels that still hold live fly larvae cannot be sold under European hygiene rules; the cheese is sold once the larvae have finished their life cycle and only the effect of their enzymes remains in the paste. Do not eat a wheel with live larvae. A case report describes myiasis, an infestation by fly larvae, with marked symptoms in a patient who swallowed larvae of this fly (Nocera and Crotti 2009). This page records a farm practice and is not a method to try at home.

Hazards the sources name: Live larvae of the cheese fly Piophila casei, an insect, not a microbe; a case report describes myiasis in a patient who swallowed them.

History and sources

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

A practice of farm families who wasted no food. In some seasons ripening wheels were reached by the cheese fly, which laid eggs in them; rather than discard them, families kept them in jars until the larvae had turned the paste to cream.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Lombardia, traditional agri-food product (PAT) sheet 'Nisso' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Nisso'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Nisso' (id 1022)web
  4. [nocera2009] Nocera E., Crotti D. 2009, Accidental miasis caused by Piophila casei, a case report, Microbiologia Medica 24(1), doi:10.4081/mm.2009.2554 (abstract)paper