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Cheese from Italy, Toscana

Pecorino a latte crudo della montagna pistoiesePecorino di Pistoia

Filtered raw ewe milk is warmed to 35–38 °C in a tinned-copper kettle and set with a spoonful of lamb rennet or wild-thistle coagulant. The curd is broken with a chiova, stoved warm in moulds, dry-salted and ripened on wooden boards. The milk never goes above 40 °C.

Fully documentedCheese2 monthsPAT (traditional food product, Toscana); Slow Food PresidioFamily: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe only amount given is a spoonful of liquid rennet per kettle. A cheese weighs 0.8–2.2 kg; about 30 quintals are made a year.
Raw whole ewe milkFiltered; often from the native Massese breed[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Liquid rennet from lamb stomachs, or a coagulant from wild thistle flowersone spoonfulONAF also lists calf rennet[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
SaltDry salt[onaf-sheet][pat-sheet]
StarterONAF says only liquid rennet and salt are added to the milk, which keeps its own bacterial flora

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 months

Start
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35–38 °C

What changes: Starting material: raw ewe milk, filtered and warmed to 35–38 °C

Step 1 of 6
Filter and warm the raw milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
35–38 °C
Reported
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

Filtered raw ewe milk is warmed to 35–38 °C in a tinned-copper kettle and set with a spoonful of lamb rennet or wild-thistle coagulant. The curd is broken with a chiova, stoved warm in moulds, dry-salted and ripened on wooden boards. The milk never goes above 40 °C. Made in 6 steps over 2 months. The longest step, ripen on wooden boards, takes at least 2 months (Regione Toscana / ARSIA).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 2 monthsReported[pat-sheet]Ripen on wooden boards
Temperature35–38 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Filter and warm the raw milk

What makes this one different

The milk is never heated above 40 °C, and only rennet and salt are added, so the milk keeps its own bacterial flora. Wild-thistle coagulant is an option, and it is sold at three ages.

Rind
Soft to hard, smooth, straw to grey-brown
Size
0.8–2.2 kg (the regional sheet gives 0.8–1.5 kg); Ø 18–20 cm, side 6–15 cm
Season
Made February to October

Related ferments

Variants

  • FrescoRipened 7–20 days; thin, soft pale rind.
  • AbbucciatoRipened 35–60 days.
  • Da asserboRipened 3–12 months; harder, can be grated.

Safety

Made from raw milk. ONAF notes the milk is tested for a low bacterial count. In a challenge study, E. coli O157 added to raw ewe milk was still detectable in pecorino after 90 days. ANSES, the French food safety agency, says Listeria and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli in raw-milk cheeses can kill. It advises pregnant women, people with weak immunity, people over 65 and young children to avoid raw-milk cheeses, except cooked pressed kinds such as Gruyère or Comté, which this cheese is not. It adds that raw-milk cheese that is well cooked, as in an oven recipe, no longer poses a risk.

Hazards the sources name: Escherichia coli O157, added to raw ewe milk in a challenge study of Italian pecorino made by several methods, not this cheese; still countable at 60 days and detectable after 90 days of ripening.

History and sources

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

The Regione Toscana sheet lists promotion events in 2001 - a meeting on raw-milk pecorino at the Palazzo Pretorio in Pistoia on 7-8 April, organised by the CNA, and the second review of Pistoia pastoral products on 28-29 April. It records a Slow Food (Arcigola) Presidio grouping 20 producers, out of 40 in the province, and an output of about 30 quintals a year from farms of the Pistoia Apennines. ONAF adds that the make is the one used a hundred years ago, with natural rennet and fresh raw milk.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Toscana / ARSIA, Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, sheet 'Pecorino a latte crudo della Montagna Pistoiese' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Pecorino a latte crudo della Montagna Pistoiese'web
  3. [centorotola2021] Centorotola G., Sperandii A.F., Tucci P. et al. 2021, Survival rate of Escherichia coli O157 in artificially contaminated raw and thermized ewe milk in different Pecorino cheese production processes, International Journal of Food Microbiology 347:109175, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2021.109175 (abstract)paper
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov