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Cheese from Italy, Lazio

Provola di bufala (semplice e affumicata)

Raw buffalo milk gets a whey starter from the day before and is set with calf rennet at 36–37 °C. The curd sours on a bench until it will stretch, is stretched with water at 93–95 °C and shaped into a pear or oval, then firmed in cold water and brined. It ripens for at most a week, plain or smoked over straw.

Fully documentedCheese7.5 daysPAT (traditional food product, Lazio)Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give temperatures and times but no amounts. A cheese weighs 1–4 kg.
Raw whole buffalo milkTwo milkings; only the evening milk is chilled; filtered through cloth[arsial-provbuf][onaf-provbuf]
Whey starter (siero-innesto)Whey kept from the previous make, added at 15–17 °C[arsial-provbuf][onaf-provbuf]
Liquid calf rennet[arsial-provbuf][onaf-provbuf]
Hot waterAt 93–95 °C, for stretching[arsial-provbuf]
SaltBrine diluted 1:24[arsial-provbuf][onaf-provbuf]
Straw for smokingoptional[arsial-provbuf][onaf-provbuf]
Starterwhey starter (siero-innesto) from the previous day's make

Total time across the recorded steps: 7.5 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countS. thermophilusL. delbrueckiiLactobacillus helveticus15–17 °C

What changes: Whey kept from yesterday's make goes into raw buffalo milk

Step 1 of 8
Add the whey starter
Time
Not documented
Temperature
15–17 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
S. thermophilus
L. delbrueckii
Lactobacillus helveticus

Output: inoculated milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

the whey starter from the previous make is the culture added to the milk

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 buffalo milk gets a whey starter from the day before and is set with calf rennet at 36–37 °C. The curd sours on a bench until it will stretch, is stretched with water at 93–95 °C and shaped into a pear or oval, then firmed in cold water and brined. It ripens for at most a week, plain or smoked over straw. Made in 8 steps over 7.5 days. The longest step, smoke over straw, or keep cold, takes up to 7 days (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…) and runs at 6–8 °C (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…). Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii and Lactobacillus helveticus, measured through the make of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, which uses the same kind of whey starter does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepup to 7 daysReported[arsial-provbuf][onaf-provbuf]Smoke over straw, or keep cold
Temperature6–8 °CReported[arsial-provbuf][onaf-provbuf]Smoke over straw, or keep cold

What makes this one different

It is made like buffalo mozzarella, with a whey starter and hot-water stretching, but shaped into a larger, firmer pear or oval of 1–4 kg and optionally smoked over straw.

Milk
Raw whole buffalo milk
Ripening
At most one week
Rind
Thin, smooth skin; white to pale yellow, hazelnut-brown if smoked
Size
1–4 kg; pear-shaped or oval

Related ferments

Variants

  • SempliceNot smoked.
  • AffumicataSmoked over straw.

Safety

The milk is raw and the cheese is tender to semi-hard, ripened for at most a week. The UK NHS says that in pregnancy foods made from unpasteurised milk must be thoroughly cooked, because unpasteurised dairy foods may contain Listeria.

History and sources

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

Buffalo have long been kept in southern Lazio, and the cheese follows the provola of southern Italy, especially Caserta. The ARSIAL sheet says the Institute of Food Sciences (ISA) derives the name from pruvatura, the cheese once offered for tasting to clergy on procession to the monastery of San Lorenzo in Capua.

  1. [arsial-provbuf] ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultural development), Lazio patrimonio agroalimentare, tra biodiversità e tradizione, PAT sheet 'Provola di bufala (semplice e affumicata)', p. 176gov
  2. [onaf-provbuf] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Provola di bufala (semplice e affumicata)', PAT Regione Lazioweb
  3. [levante2023] Levante A., Bertani G., Marrella M., Mucchetti G., Bernini V., Lazzi C., Neviani E. 2023, The microbiota of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana PDO cheese, a study across the manufacturing process, Frontiers in Microbiology 14:1196879paper
  4. [nhs-preg] NHS (UK), Foods to avoid in pregnancy (cheese section)gov