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Cheese from Italy, Calabria

Pecorino del Pollino

Raw ewe milk from the evening and morning milkings is set at 38–39 °C with lamb or kid rennet paste made by the shepherds. After about two hours the curd is cut with a cherry-wood sword into small cubes, packed into rush baskets, stoved or scalded in hot whey and salted. Everything is done by hand, and the cheese ripens 3–5 months or longer.

Fully documentedCheese3 months – 5 monthsPAT (traditional food product, Calabria)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no amounts. A cheese weighs 1–4 kg.
Raw whole ewe milkEvening and morning milk, milked by hand and filtered[onaf-sheet]
Lamb or kid rennet paste made by the shepherdsDiluted in warm water[onaf-sheet]
SaltDry or as brine[onaf-sheet]
Starternone added

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 months – 5 months

Start
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38–39 °C

What changes: Starting material: raw ewe milk, filtered and warmed to 38–39 °C

Step 1 of 7
Filter and warm the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
38–39 °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 from the evening and morning milkings is set at 38–39 °C with lamb or kid rennet paste made by the shepherds. After about two hours the curd is cut with a cherry-wood sword into small cubes, packed into rush baskets, stoved or scalded in hot whey and salted. Everything is done by hand, and the cheese ripens 3–5 months or longer. Made in 7 steps over 3 months – 5 months. The longest step, ripen, takes 3–5 months (Regione Calabria).

Key numbers
Main step3–5 monthsReported[pat-sheet]Ripen
Temperature38–39 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Filter and warm the milk

What makes this one different

All work is by hand, and a cherry-wood sword cuts the long-set curd into small cubes. Fat from the pasture-fed sheep keeps the aged cheese soft.

Rind
Hard, straw-yellow to brown, rush marks, possible mould residues
Size
1.0–4.0 kg; Ø 20 cm, height 10 cm
Season
Made October to July

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk in wooden and rush tools under a hygiene derogation. The regional sheet names total bacterial count, somatic cells and Staphylococcus aureus as the raw-milk risks, and asks that milk outside the legal limits be discarded or heat-treated. 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; its page does not name pecorino.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus, listed by the regional sheet as a raw-milk risk.

History and sources

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

ONAF's sheet says free-ranging sheep have grazed the Pollino for time out of mind. It says books on Calabrian cooking and folk traditions document the cheese for more than 25 years, and it lists as references the INSOR Atlante dei prodotti tipici, i formaggi (Milan, 1990) and a CNR project on southern dairy products (Milan, 1992). The Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies entered it in the list of traditional food products of Calabria.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Calabria, Prodotti agro-alimentari tradizionali, sheet 'Pecorino del Pollino' (product code 59; scanned copy hosted by ONAF, read from page images)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Pecorino del Pollino'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Pecorino del Pollino' (id 1121)web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov