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Cheese from Italy, Puglia

Pallone di GravinaPalloun

Raw whole cow milk from semi-wild Murgia herds is set with rennet at 36–37 °C, and the curd is left on wooden tables for up to a day to sour. The soured curd is stretched by hand in water at 85–90 °C, closed into a ball with no head, brined and ripened for months, where possible hung in tuff cellars.

Fully documentedCheese4.1 days – 5.1 daysPAT (traditional food product, Puglia); Slow Food PresidioFamily: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

Pallone di Gravina, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Antucco~enwiki at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no batch amounts. A cheese weighs 1–10 kg; few of the largest sizes are made each year.
Raw whole cow milkFrom cows kept semi-wild on Murgia pastures[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Natural whey starter from earlier makes[onaf-sheet]
RennetLiquid calf or kid rennet (Slow Food); the ONAF sheet lists liquid bovine, kid or lamb rennet[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet][slowfood]
SaltAs saturated brine[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starternatural whey starter (siero-innesto) from earlier makes

Total time across the recorded steps: 4.1 days – 5.1 days

Start
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36–37 °C

What changes: Whey starter goes into raw cow milk as it warms to 36–37 °C

Step 1 of 9
Warm the milk with whey starter
Time
Not documented
Temperature
36–37 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: warm raw 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 whole cow milk from semi-wild Murgia herds is set with rennet at 36–37 °C, and the curd is left on wooden tables for up to a day to sour. The soured curd is stretched by hand in water at 85–90 °C, closed into a ball with no head, brined and ripened for months, where possible hung in tuff cellars. Made in 9 steps over 4.1 days – 5.1 days. The longest step, dry, takes 3–4 days (Regione Puglia).

Key numbers
Main step3–4 daysReported[pat-sheet]Dry
Temperature36–37 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Warm the milk with whey starter

What makes this one different

It is a raw-milk pasta filata shaped as a ball, essentially a caciocavallo without the small head. The curd sours for up to a day before stretching, and the cheese is hung for months, where possible in tuff cellars.

Rind
Thin to medium, smooth, straw to amber; brownish mould spots may stay after washing
Size
1.0–10.0 kg; sphere Ø 18–30 cm
Composition
Fat 45 % of dry matter; water 30–40 %
Season
Made all year (ONAF); the Slow Food page gives January to March

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk. The curd is stretched in water at 85–90 °C. The regional sheet requests no hygiene derogation. 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, which this stretched cheese is not.

History and sources

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

The regional sheet cites an 1859 agricultural encyclopedia by Achille Bruni of the Royal University of Naples. ONAF says that book describes the cheese as a caciocavallo without a head. A producers' consortium in Gravina wrote rules for the historic method, approved by its board on 28 November 2009.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Puglia, Scheda identificativa per l'Elenco dei Prodotti Tradizionali, 'Pallone di Gravina' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Pallone di Gravina', rev. 19 April 2024web
  3. [slowfood] Fondazione Slow Food, Presidio page 'Pallone di Gravina'web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov