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Cheese from Italy, Umbria

Pecorino stagionato in fossa/grotta (Umbria)Cacio in fossa

Pasteurised ewe milk is set at 38 °C with a starter and lamb or kid rennet flavoured with thyme, dandelion, mint and hyssop. The dry-salted cheeses are rubbed with herb oil and ripen 3–4 months at 10–12 °C, then go into sealed pits for 100 days or caves for 45–60 days. In the pit they lose shape, rind and weight and turn very soft.

Fully documentedCheese4.9 months – 7.7 monthsPAT (traditional food product, Umbria)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no amounts. A cheese weighs 1–3 kg before the pit and loses weight inside it.
Whole ewe milk, pasteurised[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Thermophilic lactic starter[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Lamb or kid rennet flavoured with thyme, dandelion, mint and hyssop[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt[pat-sheet]
Olive oil infused with the same herbs[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Cloth bags, straw and walnut leavesUsed to pack the pit[onaf-sheet]
Starterthermophilic lactic starter

Total time across the recorded steps: 4.9 months – 7.7 months

Start
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70 °C

What changes: The ewe milk is heated to 70 °C

Step 1 of 7
Pasteurise the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
70 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
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

Pasteurised ewe milk is set at 38 °C with a starter and lamb or kid rennet flavoured with thyme, dandelion, mint and hyssop. The dry-salted cheeses are rubbed with herb oil and ripen 3–4 months at 10–12 °C, then go into sealed pits for 100 days or caves for 45–60 days. In the pit they lose shape, rind and weight and turn very soft. Made in 7 steps over 4.9 months – 7.7 months. The longest step, oil and ripen cold, takes 3–4 months (Regione dell'Umbria) and runs at 10–12 °C (Regione dell'Umbria). Thermophilic lactic acid bacteria does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3–4 monthsReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Oil and ripen cold
Temperature10–12 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Oil and ripen cold

What makes this one different

It starts like Umbria's barrel pecorino, with herb rennet and herb oil, but finishes for 100 days in a sealed pit, or 45–60 days in a cave, where the cheeses deform under their own weight.

Rind
Almost gone after the pit; a greasy, damp white-amber skin
Size
Irregular and squashed, 1–3 kg
Season
Made February to April; put in the pits in August
Total ageing
4–6 months in all (ONAF)

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is pasteurised at 70 °C and a starter is used. The pit is cleaned by burning straw before the cheeses go in, and ONAF advises keeping the cheese in the fridge wrapped in a linen cloth.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes. In the related Formaggio di Fossa di Sogliano (Emilia-Romagna and Marche), its surrogate L. innocua fell significantly during pit ripening in a challenge test.

History and sources

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

On Monte Cucco there were 2,000 sheep under rules that banned grazing from October to 30 April, so flocks wintered in the Orvieto area and the Maremma. Before refrigerators the pit kept insects off the cheese and hid it from raiders.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione dell'Umbria, Giunta Regionale, Scheda identificativa dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali dell'Umbria, 'Pecorino stagionato in fossa/grotta' (in the Umbria pecorino sheets file hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Pecorino stagionato in botte, o in fossa/grotta', PAT Umbriaweb
  3. [giacometti2020] Giacometti F. et al. 2020, Behavior of Listeria innocua during the manufacturing and pit-ripening of Formaggio di Fossa di Sogliano PDO cheese, Italian Journal of Food Safety 9(2):8552 (related product)paper
  4. [biagiotti2018] Biagiotti C., Ciani M., Canonico L., Comitini F. 2018, Occurrence and involvement of yeast biota in ripening of Italian Fossa cheese, European Food Research and Technology 244:1921-1931 (abstract; a related Fossa cheese)paper