Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Italy, Campania

Pecorino di Pietraroja

Raw ewe milk from the evening and morning milkings is set at 35 °C with a home-made rennet, often acquazizza, the liquid from lamb or kid stomachs steeped 40–50 days in salted water. After about 30 minutes the curd is broken, rested under the whey, packed into baskets and rubbed with salt. The wide wheels dry on beech boards and ripen 2–6 months in stone huts, oiled with olive oil.

Fully documentedCheese3.9 months – 8.2 monthsPAT (traditional agri-food product of Campania)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo fixed batch size. For acquazizza the sheet gives 2 kg of salt per 10 litres of water, with 10 litres per stomach. Wheels weigh about 4 kg.
Raw whole ewe milk from the evening and morning milkings[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Home-made rennet from unweaned lamb or kid stomachsAs acquazizza (the steeping liquid), as softened paste from used stomachs, or as the solid contents of unused stomachs[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Medium-grain salt[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Extra-virgin olive oil for the rind[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.9 months – 8.2 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
Close-up: salt moving into a piece35–36 °C

What changes: Whole lamb stomachs steep in salted water in a sealed demijohn for 40–50 days

Step 1 of 7
Make the acquazizza rennet
Time
40–50 days
Reported
Temperature
35–36 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Whole stomachs of unweaned lambs or kids, tied at both ends, steep in the brine. The clear, yellowish liquid becomes the rennet. Output: acquazizza.

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 35 °C with a home-made rennet, often acquazizza, the liquid from lamb or kid stomachs steeped 40–50 days in salted water. After about 30 minutes the curd is broken, rested under the whey, packed into baskets and rubbed with salt. The wide wheels dry on beech boards and ripen 2–6 months in stone huts, oiled with olive oil. Made in 7 steps over 3.9 months – 8.2 months. The longest step, ripen in stone huts (caselle), takes 2–6 months (ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters)) and runs at 8–15 °C (Regione Campania 2015).

Key numbers
Main step2–6 monthsReported[onaf-sheet]Ripen in stone huts (caselle)
Temperature8–15 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen in stone huts (caselle)

What makes this one different

Wider than the other ewe cheeses of neighbouring areas, up to 40 cm across. The maker picks one of three home-made rennets to set how sharp it becomes; acquazizza, steeped in salted water for 40–50 days, gives the mildest cheese.

Rind
Glossy from olive oil, basket-marked, deep straw-yellow to brown
Size
Wide cylinder up to 35–40 cm across and 12–15 cm high
Season
Made all year, mostly January to October

Related ferments

Variants

  • Acquazizza rennetMilder and sweeter, with a white, soft paste
  • Paste rennet from used stomachsStraw-yellow, elastic paste; stronger and sharper when aged
  • Unused stomach contentsMost savoury and sharpest for the same age

Safety

A raw-milk cheese with home-made rennet, ripened 2–6 months in stone huts held at 8–15 °C.

History and sources

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

Local testimony gathered for the regional list confirms the cheese has been made for at least 25 years. Acquazizza is also used for caciocavallo, provolone and scamorza.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura, Prodotti tradizionali page 'Pecorino di Pietraroja' (updated 13 March 2015)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Pecorino di Pietraroja'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Pecorino di Pietraroja' (id 1188)web