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Cheese from Italy, Sardegna

Provoletta di latte vaccino sardoPeretta

Sardinian cow milk is pasteurised at 72 °C for 20 seconds and set with a starter and liquid calf rennet. The curd sours about 2.5 hours until it can be stretched, then is stretched by machine in water at 75 °C and closed by hand into pears. They are brined in saturated brine, hung on steel trolleys and ripened 7 days at 4 °C, then 48 hours at 16 °C.

Fully documentedCheese9.1 daysPAT (traditional food product, Sardegna)Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedMade in a dairy with steel vats and a stretching machine; the sheets give no doses. A cheese weighs 400 g, 1 kg or 2 kg.
Whole cow milk from Sardinian farms, pasteurised[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starter culture[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Liquid calf rennet[onaf-sheet]
Saturated brine[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starteradded starter culture

Total time across the recorded steps: 9.1 days

Start
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72 °C

What changes: The cow milk is heated to 72 °C for 20 seconds

Step 1 of 8
Pasteurise the milk
Time
0.4 min
Reported
Temperature
72 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
S. thermophilus
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

Sardinian cow milk is pasteurised at 72 °C for 20 seconds and set with a starter and liquid calf rennet. The curd sours about 2.5 hours until it can be stretched, then is stretched by machine in water at 75 °C and closed by hand into pears. They are brined in saturated brine, hung on steel trolleys and ripened 7 days at 4 °C, then 48 hours at 16 °C. Made in 8 steps over 9.1 days. The longest step, ripen cold, takes 7 days (Laore Sardegna (regional agricultural develop…) and runs at 4 °C (Laore Sardegna (regional agricultural develop…). Streptococcus thermophilus, the starter of Scamorza, a related stretched-curd cow cheese made with a starter in a lab study does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step7 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen cold
Temperature4 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen cold

What makes this one different

An industrial Sardinian stretched cheese made from pasteurised cow milk with a starter, ripened only about 9 days in two climate rooms, a week cold and wet, then two days warm and dry.

Rind
Clean, thin, smooth, pale straw
Size
Pear with a small head, 400 g, 1 kg or 2 kg
Season
Made from autumn to early summer, following the cows' lactation

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is pasteurised at 72 °C for 20 seconds and worked in a closed, over-pressured room designed against cross-contamination. The sheet records an HACCP plan with chemical and microbial checks on the finished cheese.

History and sources

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

The ONAF sheet says the cheese has been made in Sardinia since at least 1965, deduced from the balance sheet of one producing firm.

  1. [pat-sheet] Laore Sardegna (regional agricultural development agency), Prodotto tradizionale della Sardegna, sheet 'Provoletta di latte vaccino sardo' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Provoletta di latte vaccino sardo', PAT Regione Sardegnaweb
  3. [onaf] ONAF, scheda formaggio 'Provoletta di latte vaccino sardo' (id 375)web
  4. [guidone2015] Guidone A., Braghieri A., Cioffi S., Claps S., Genovese F., Morone G., Napolitano F., Parente E. 2015, Effect of adjuncts on microbiological and chemical properties of Scamorza cheese, Journal of Dairy Science 98, 1467-1478 (abstract; a lab-made scamorza with a Streptococcus thermophilus starter, not this cheese)paper