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Cheese from Italy, Toscana

Pecorino del Casentino

Ewe milk, raw or pasteurised with added cultures, is set with lamb rennet in 20–25 minutes. The curd is lightly pressed into baskets, kept warm at 40–45 °C while it drains and is turned, then drains a day more and is salted. The same make gives a fresh cheese eaten at 30–45 days and an aged one ripened about 120 days.

Fully documentedCheese21 daysPAT (traditional food product, Toscana)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no amounts. The fresh cheese weighs about 1 kg and the aged about 2.5 kg.
Whole ewe milk from one milkingRaw or pasteurised; filtered[onaf-sheet][pat-sheet]
Lactic culturesonly with pasteurised milk[onaf-sheet]
Lamb rennet[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Coarse salt or brine[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starterlactic cultures are added when the milk is pasteurised

Total time across the recorded steps: 21 days

Start
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37 °C

What changes: Lamb rennet goes into ewe milk at 37 °C and it sets in 20–25 minutes

Step 1 of 6
Set with lamb rennet
Time
20–25 min
Reported
Temperature
37 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: 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

Ewe milk, raw or pasteurised with added cultures, is set with lamb rennet in 20–25 minutes. The curd is lightly pressed into baskets, kept warm at 40–45 °C while it drains and is turned, then drains a day more and is salted. The same make gives a fresh cheese eaten at 30–45 days and an aged one ripened about 120 days. Made in 6 steps over 21 days. The longest step, ripen, takes at least 20 days (Regione Toscana / ARSIA).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 20 daysReported[pat-sheet]Ripen
Temperature37 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Set with lamb rennet

What makes this one different

One make gives two cheeses, a fresh one of about 1 kg and an aged one of about 2.5 kg. Lamb rennet and warm stoving at 40–45 °C are used.

Rind
Orange-peel texture; white to pale straw (fresh), golden to light brown (aged)
Size
About 1 kg (fresh), about 2.5 kg (aged)
Season
Made February to October; May cheese is most prized

Related ferments

Variants

  • FrescoAt least 20 days, usually eaten at 30–45 days; about 1 kg.
  • StagionatoAbout 120 days; about 2.5 kg.

Safety

The milk may be raw or pasteurised; cultures are added only to pasteurised milk. 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 regional sheet says production is at family level across the 13 communes of the Casentino, except for one cooperative dairy at Talla. ONAF says the raw-milk method has a centuries-old tradition (tradizione secolare), is used in small craft production and is only rarely used in large commercial production.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Toscana / ARSIA, Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, sheet 'Pecorino del Casentino' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Pecorino del Casentino'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