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Cheese from Italy, Umbria

Pecorino di Norcia del pastoreCacio

Raw ewe milk is heated over a wood fire to about 37–40 °C and set with lamb rennet the shepherd makes himself, dried by the hearth so it carries a light smoke. The curd is broken to wheat-grain size, shaped by hand in wooden hoops, sometimes dipped in hot whey and pressed again, and salted dry. It ripens from 60 days to a year on wooden boards in cool rooms or cellars.

Fully documentedCheese2 months – 12 monthsPAT (traditional agri-food product of Umbria)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo fixed amounts are recorded. Wheels weigh about 3 kg, less as they age.
Raw whole ewe milk, filtered[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Natural lamb rennet from the farm's own lambs, made by each shepherd and dried near the hearth[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt, rubbed on dry[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starternone added

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 months – 12 months

Start
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37–40 °C

What changes: Filtered raw ewe milk is warmed to 37–40 °C in a copper cauldron over a wood fire

Step 1 of 7
Warm the milk over a wood fire
Time
Not documented
Temperature
37–40 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: warm raw ewe 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 ewe milk is heated over a wood fire to about 37–40 °C and set with lamb rennet the shepherd makes himself, dried by the hearth so it carries a light smoke. The curd is broken to wheat-grain size, shaped by hand in wooden hoops, sometimes dipped in hot whey and pressed again, and salted dry. It ripens from 60 days to a year on wooden boards in cool rooms or cellars. Made in 7 steps over 2 months – 12 months. The longest step, ripen in cellars, takes 2–12 months (Regione dell'Umbria) and runs at 6 °C (ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters)).

Key numbers
Main step2–12 monthsReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen in cellars
Temperature6 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Ripen in cellars

What makes this one different

The traditional raw-milk Norcia pecorino. Each shepherd makes his own lamb rennet and dries it by the hearth, so the cheese carries a light smoke; the milk is heated only on a wood fire.

Rind
Yellow, darkening with age
Size
Cylinder 15–24 cm across and 8–14 cm high
Season
ONAF gives January to August in its description and February to November in its table

Related ferments

Variants

  • FrescoAbout 60 days; table cheese
  • Da grattugia8–12 months; grating cheese

Safety

A raw-milk cheese with home-made rennet; it ripens at least 60 days. In a challenge study, E. coli O157 added to raw ewe milk was still detectable in pecorino after 90 days of ripening, so 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; its page does not name pecorino. It adds that raw-milk cheese well cooked, as in an oven dish, no longer poses a risk.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes. In a related Umbrian raw-milk ewe cheese, Pecorino Umbro (made with an added starter and milk heated to 55–58 °C, unlike this cheese), L. monocytogenes inoculated at about 10^2 CFU/mL fell below the quantification limit after 30 days of ripening but could still be detected during storage; Escherichia coli O157 in raw ewe milk; in a challenge study of pecorino made by other recipes it was still detectable after 90 days of ripening.

History and sources

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

A label from 1950 is cited as proof of the tradition. On Saint Anthony's day, 17 January, shepherds gave every family quagliatella, a creamy soured milk set with rennet, and pressed crosses of twigs into the moulds.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione dell'Umbria, Scheda identificativa dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali dell'Umbria, 'Pecorino di Norcia del pastore' (in a combined file of Umbrian pecorino sheets)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Pecorino di Norcia - Pecorino di Norcia del pastore'web
  3. [ortenzi2015] Ortenzi R., Branciari R., Primavilla S., Ranucci D., Valiani A. 2015, Behaviour of Listeria monocytogenes in artisanal raw milk Pecorino Umbro cheese, a microbiological challenge test, Italian Journal of Food Safety 4(3):5370paper
  4. [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
  5. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov