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Cheese from Italy, Calabria

Pecorino primo sale

Raw sheep milk with up to 20% goat milk is set with kid rennet paste at 36–38 °C in 40–50 minutes. The curd is broken to rice-size grains, cooked at 42–44 °C for 5–6 minutes, pressed by hand into rush baskets and drained for at least three days. It is dry-salted and only matured about 15 days in a cool room, so it is a young cheese.

Fully documentedCheese18 daysPAT (traditional food product, Calabria; product code F-13)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no batch size; the only proportion is goat milk up to 20% of the milk. A cheese weighs 1–1.5 kg.
Raw whole sheep milk[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Raw goat milk, up to 20%[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Kid rennet paste[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt[pat-sheet]
Starternone; the raw milk's own bacteria

Total time across the recorded steps: 18 days

Start
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What changes: Raw sheep and goat milk is strained into the cauldron

Step 1 of 7
Filter the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Milk from the two daily hand milkings is used straight away; in winter the evening milk may be added to the morning milk. It is strained through a fine sieve into the cauldron.

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 sheep milk with up to 20% goat milk is set with kid rennet paste at 36–38 °C in 40–50 minutes. The curd is broken to rice-size grains, cooked at 42–44 °C for 5–6 minutes, pressed by hand into rush baskets and drained for at least three days. It is dry-salted and only matured about 15 days in a cool room, so it is a young cheese. Made in 7 steps over 18 days. The longest step, mature, takes 15 days (Regione Calabria 2005).

Key numbers
Main step15 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Mature
Temperature36–38 °CReported[pat-sheet]Set with kid rennet

What makes this one different

It is a fresh semi-cooked pecorino with some goat milk, matured only 15 days. It is made by hand in dairies beside the fold, from October to July, and is matured but not aged.

Rind
Thin, soft, greasy and yellowish-white, with rush-basket marks
Size
Round, 20–25 cm across, 4–8 cm high, 1–1.5 kg
Season
Made from October to July

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is raw and no starter is used. The regional sheet names Staphylococcus aureus, bacterial load and somatic cells as raw-milk risks and asks for milk checks against D.P.R. 54/97 (or heat-treated milk), good hygiene and a visual check of the cheese. ANSES, the French food safety agency, says Listeria and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli in raw-milk cheeses can kill, and advises pregnant women, people with weak immunity, people over 65 and young children to avoid raw-milk cheeses other than pressed cooked ones such as Gruyère or Comté. Its page does not say whether a young semi-cooked cheese like this one counts. It says cheese cooked well, as in an oven recipe, no longer poses a risk.

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

History and sources

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

The regional sheet cites a 1759 document that asks for sound, whole cheeses of 5.5 pounds, made from tender-broken curd with rennet and the usual heating. Records of Calabrian pecorino go back to the 1500s.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Calabria, Prodotti agro-alimentari tradizionali, product sheet F-13 'Pecorino primo sale' (scanned fax of 14 January 2005; copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Pecorino primo sale', PAT Regione Calabriaweb
  3. [onaf] ONAF, scheda formaggio 'Pecorino primo sale' (id 1127)web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov