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Cheese from Italy, Campania

Provola affumicata di bufala

Raw milk of Italian Mediterranean buffalo is set at 35 °C with whey starter and calf rennet, broken to walnut size and left to sour until a sample stretches in boiling water. The curd is stretched in water at 80 °C, shaped by hand into ovals, brined and smoked about 10 minutes over damp burning straw. It matures for 2–3 days to a few weeks.

Fully documentedCheese2 daysPAT (traditional food product, Campania)Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no amounts. A cheese weighs about 0.5 kg.
Raw whole buffalo milk[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Whey starter from the previous make[onaf-sheet]
Liquid calf rennet[onaf-sheet]
Brine[onaf-sheet]
Damp straw, burned for smoke[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starterwhey starter from the previous make

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days

Start
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35 °C

What changes: Whey starter and calf rennet go into the raw buffalo milk at 35 °C

Step 1 of 7
Add starter and rennet
Time
Not documented
Temperature
35 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: curd.

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 milk of Italian Mediterranean buffalo is set at 35 °C with whey starter and calf rennet, broken to walnut size and left to sour until a sample stretches in boiling water. The curd is stretched in water at 80 °C, shaped by hand into ovals, brined and smoked about 10 minutes over damp burning straw. It matures for 2–3 days to a few weeks. Made in 7 steps over 2 days. The longest step, mature briefly, takes at least 2 days (ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori F…).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 2 daysReported[onaf-sheet]Mature briefly
Temperature35 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Add starter and rennet

What makes this one different

It is the buffalo-milk form of Campanian smoked provola. The regional sheet says it is made mainly around Salerno, in the same way as the cow-milk cheese, and ONAF gives a maturing time of 2–3 days to a few weeks, against up to 5 months for the cow-milk cheese.

Rind
A thin, soft, straw-yellow to ochre skin
Size
Irregular round, sometimes pinched where it was tied, about 0.5 kg
Smoke residues
Naturally smoked provola from Calabria carried more benzo[a]pyrene than provola made with smoke flavouring
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is raw and is not heat-treated before setting; the curd is stretched in water at 80 °C. ANSES says Salmonella, enterohaemorrhagic E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes can occur in raw-milk cheeses, and advises pregnant women, people with weak immunity, people over 65 and young children to avoid raw-milk cheese, except cooked pressed cheeses such as Gruyère or Comté. A study of Calabrian provola found more benzo[a]pyrene and benzo[a]anthracene in cheese smoked over a natural fire than in cheese given commercial smoke flavouring.

History and sources

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

ONAF calls provola the earliest documented Campanian stretched cheese and says it was widely shown in Neapolitan nativity scenes of the 1600s, where mozzarella rarely appears. It says smoking was once done only to keep the cheese longer and is now done for flavour.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura, Prodotti tradizionali, 'Provola affumicata' (covers the buffalo version made around Salerno; page last updated 13 March 2015; copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Provola affumicata di bufala', PAT Regione Campaniaweb
  3. [naccari2008] Naccari C., Cristani M., Licata P., Giofrè F., Trombetta D. 2008, Levels of benzo[a]pyrene and benzo[a]anthracene in smoked "Provola" cheese from Calabria (Italy), Food Additives & Contaminants Part B 1:78–84 (abstract)paper
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov