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Cheese from Italy, Lazio

Provolone vaccino (Lazio)

Cow milk, raw with a soured-milk starter or pasteurised with cultures, is set with rennet, cooked and left to sour under the whey for 3–5 hours. At pH 5.1–5.2 the curd is stretched, shaped by hand into a pear, firmed in cold water and brined for a day and a half per kilo. Tied with string, it ripens from one or two months to a year.

Fully documentedCheese32 days – 12 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 provolone weighs about 3 kg or more.
Whole cow milkTwo milkings, filtered through cloth or by centrifuge; raw in the Latina make[arsial-provolone][onaf-provolone]
Soured-milk starter (lattoinnesto)Milk soured in the fridge for about 2 days, added at 38 °C[arsial-provolone][onaf-provolone]
Thermophilic or mesophilic culturesFor pasteurised milk, added at 40–42 °C[arsial-provolone][onaf-provolone]
Lamb rennet paste, or liquid calf rennet[arsial-provolone][onaf-provolone]
SaltBrine at 20 °Bé, or saturated brine[arsial-provolone][onaf-provolone]
StringFor tying the cheese[arsial-provolone]
Startersoured milk (lattoinnesto) or thermophilic or mesophilic cultures

Total time across the recorded steps: 32 days – 12 months

Start
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38–42 °C

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

Step 1 of 8
Add starter to the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
38–42 °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, cooked and left to sour under the whey for 3–5 hours. At pH 5.1–5.2 the curd is stretched, shaped by hand into a pear, firmed in cold water and brined for a day and a half per kilo. Tied with string, it ripens from one or two months to a year. Made in 8 steps over 32 days – 12 months. The longest step, ripen, takes 30 days – 12 months (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…) and runs at 4–12 °C (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…).

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 12 monthsReported[arsial-provolone][onaf-provolone]Ripen
Temperature4–12 °CReported[arsial-provolone][onaf-provolone]Ripen
AciditypH 5.1–5.2Reported[arsial-provolone][onaf-provolone]Sour under the whey

What makes this one different

A provolone of southern origin made across Lazio, in some makes with raw milk and a starter of milk soured in the fridge (latto-innesto). It ripens from 30 days up to a year.

Milk
Whole cow milk, raw (Latina) or pasteurised at 70–72 °C (Amatrice)
Ripening
30–60 days to 1 year; the ARSIAL description gives 60 days to 1 year
Rind
Hard, smooth, straw-yellow, deepening with age, with brownish mould spots
Size
About 3 kg or more; pear, ball, cylinder or egg, tied with string

Related ferments

Variants

  • Latina makeRaw milk, soured-milk starter, liquid rennet, cooked to 55–65 °C, aged 60–365 days at 4 °C.
  • Amatrice makePasteurised milk, cultures, lamb rennet paste, cooked to 45 °C, aged 30–60 days at 12 °C.

Safety

The milk is raw in some makes, such as the Latina make, and pasteurised in others, and ripening can be as short as 30–60 days. ANSES 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, because of Listeria, Salmonella and Shiga-toxin E. coli.

History and sources

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

The ONAF sheet says provolone almost certainly comes from southern Italy and spread to other regions, Lazio among them.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [arsial-provolone] ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultural development), Lazio patrimonio agroalimentare, tra biodiversità e tradizione, PAT sheet 'Provolone vaccino', p. 178gov
  2. [onaf-provolone] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Provolone vaccino', 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