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Cheese from Italy, Campania

Pecorino del Monte Marzano

Raw ewe milk, sometimes with goat milk, is warmed over a wood fire in a copper caccavo to about 37–38 °C and set with kid and lamb rennet in about 30 minutes. The rice-size curd is pressed into wicker baskets, which are dipped for 4–5 minutes in boiling scotta left from ricotta making to form an even rind. The cheese is dry-salted and ripened from 2 months to about a year.

Fully documentedCheese2.1 months – 12 monthsPAT (traditional food product, Campania)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceRennet is dosed at 30 g per 100 litres of milk; the sheets give no other amounts. A cheese weighs 0.75–1.5 kg.
Raw whole ewe milk, sometimes mixed with goat milkFrom animals fed almost only on natural pasture[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Kid and/or lamb rennet paste30 g per 100 L of milkDiluted in warm water and filtered before use[onaf-sheet][pat-sheet]
Sea saltRubbed on dry[onaf-sheet]
Olive oil and vinegarTo treat the rind during ripening[onaf-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.1 months – 12 months

Start
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37–38 °C

What changes: Starting material: raw ewe milk, warmed over a wood fire to about 38 °C

Step 1 of 7
Warm the milk over a wood fire
Time
Not documented
Temperature
37–38 °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

Raw ewe milk, sometimes with goat milk, is warmed over a wood fire in a copper caccavo to about 37–38 °C and set with kid and lamb rennet in about 30 minutes. The rice-size curd is pressed into wicker baskets, which are dipped for 4–5 minutes in boiling scotta left from ricotta making to form an even rind. The cheese is dry-salted and ripened from 2 months to about a year. Made in 7 steps over 2.1 months – 12 months. The longest step, ripen and treat with oil and vinegar, takes 2–12 months (ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori F…) and runs at 8–10 °C (ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori F…).

Key numbers
Main step2–12 monthsReported[onaf-sheet]Ripen and treat with oil and vinegar
Temperature8–10 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Ripen and treat with oil and vinegar

What makes this one different

The milk is heated over a wood fire in a copper caccavo, and the basketed cheese is scalded in hot whey from ricotta making to shrink the paste and form an even rind.

Rind
Treated with oil and vinegar, fairly thick, wrinkled with basket marks, golden to brown
Size
0.750–1.500 kg
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk. In a challenge study, E. coli O157 added to raw ewe milk was still detectable in pecorino after 90 days, so clean milk matters and ripening alone did not remove it. 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 cheeses such as gruyère or comté. ONAF classes this one as an uncooked paste. It adds that raw-milk cheese well cooked, as in an oven dish, 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 Campania page (updated 13 March 2015) says that for centuries the shepherds of Monte Marzano have filtered the milk and heated it over a wood fire in a copper caccavo, and that the method has passed from father to son. ONAF adds that the cheese is known to have been made the same way for at least 25 years, from local testimony gathered for the traditional-product listing, and that it is on the Campania list of traditional agri-food products.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura, Prodotti tradizionali, 'Pecorino del Monte Marzano' (web page, updated 13 March 2015; copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Pecorino del Monte Marzano'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