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Cheese from Italy, Lazio

Provola di vacca (semplice e affumicata)

Cow milk, raw with a soured-milk starter or pasteurised with cultures, is set with rennet, broken, cooked to about 46 °C and left to sour for a few hours. The curd is stretched in hot water once it reaches pH 5.1–5.2, shaped by hand into an egg, firmed in cold water and brined. It is sold fresh the next day or ripened up to six months, plain or smoked.

Fully documentedCheese34 h – 6 monthsPAT (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 provola weighs 2–3 kg.
Whole cow milkTwo milkings, filtered through cloth or by centrifuge; raw in the Latina make[arsial-provvac][onaf-provvac]
Soured-milk starter (lattoinnesto)Milk soured in the fridge for 2 days, for raw milk[arsial-provvac][onaf-provvac]
Thermophilic or mesophilic culturesFor pasteurised milk[arsial-provvac][onaf-provvac]
Liquid calf rennet, or kid or lamb rennet pasteThe paste gives a sharper, piquant taste[arsial-provvac]
SaltSaturated brine; in the Latina make, salt is worked into the paste while stretching[arsial-provvac][onaf-provvac]
Straw smoke or liquid smoke, oiloptionalThe cheese may be rubbed with oil and smoked before sale[arsial-provvac][onaf-provvac]
Startersoured milk (lattoinnesto) for raw milk; thermophilic or mesophilic cultures for pasteurised milk

Total time across the recorded steps: 34 h – 6 months

Start
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35–38 °C

What changes: A soured-milk starter or a culture goes into the cow milk

Step 1 of 9
Add starter to the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
35–38 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: inoculated milk.

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

Cow milk, raw with a soured-milk starter or pasteurised with cultures, is set with rennet, broken, cooked to about 46 °C and left to sour for a few hours. The curd is stretched in hot water once it reaches pH 5.1–5.2, shaped by hand into an egg, firmed in cold water and brined. It is sold fresh the next day or ripened up to six months, plain or smoked. Made in 9 steps over 34 h – 6 months. The longest step, ripen in a cool room, takes 24 h – 6 months (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…) and runs at 11–12 °C (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…).

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 6 monthsReported[arsial-provvac]Ripen in a cool room
Temperature11–12 °CReported[arsial-provvac][onaf-provvac]Ripen in a cool room
AciditypH 5.1–5.2Reported[arsial-provvac][onaf-provvac]Stretch in hot water

What makes this one different

It is a firm cow-milk provola made across Lazio with local recipes. The raw-milk make uses a starter of milk soured in the fridge, and kid or lamb rennet paste gives a sharper taste. It is sold from one day old to six months.

Milk
Whole cow milk, raw (Latina) or pasteurised
Ripening
Primo sale after 1–2 days; traditionally over 30 days and up to 6 months
Rind
Smooth, glossy; white (primo sale) to straw-yellow, amber when smoked
Size
2–3 kg; egg-shaped or truncated cone

Related ferments

Variants

  • Primo saleSold fresh after 1–2 days of drying.
  • StagionataRipened over 30 days, up to 6 months.
  • AffumicataSmoked over straw or with liquid smoke.

Safety

Some makes use raw milk (the Latina make); others pasteurise at 65–70 °C, for 15 minutes in the ARSIAL sheet but 15 seconds in the ONAF sheet. The cheese may be sold from the next day. ANSES names Salmonella, enterohaemorrhagic E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes as hazards of raw-milk cheeses, and advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheeses other than pressed cooked ones such as Gruyère. The ARSIAL sheet cools the evening milk to 4 °C and holds the youngest cheese at 4 °C for a day.

History and sources

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

The ARSIAL sheet says southern Italy is undoubtedly where provole began and that their production later spread to most Italian regions. It reports that the Institute of Food Science (ISA) derives the name from pruvatura, a cheese offered for tasting to clergy on procession to the monastery of San Lorenzo in Capua.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [arsial-provvac] ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultural development), Lazio patrimonio agroalimentare, tra biodiversità e tradizione, PAT sheet 'Provola di vacca (semplice e affumicata)', p. 177gov
  2. [onaf-provvac] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Provola di vacca (semplice e affumicata)', PAT Regione Lazio, with zone-by-zone methodsweb
  3. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov