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Cheese from Italy, Calabria

Rasco

Rasco is a small, fresh, raw-milk cow cheese from Calabria, made entirely by hand from the milk of Podolica cattle. The milk is set with kid rennet paste at 36–38 °C, broken very coarsely with a fig-wood stick, packed into rush baskets, scalded in hot whey and dry-salted twice. It is eaten fresh, or smoked for about 20 days.

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceRennet about 30 g per quintal (100 kg) of milk, as the regional sheet gives it; no other amounts. A cheese weighs about 0.5–0.75 kg.
Raw whole milk of Podolica cowsCows fed on pasture[calabria-pat][onaf-sheet]
Kid rennet pasteAbout 30 g per 100 kg of milkONAF gives 30 g per hectolitre[calabria-pat][onaf-sheet]
Fine saltRubbed on twice[calabria-pat][onaf-sheet]
No starterThe milk's own flora is used[onaf-sheet][calabria-lr5]
Starternone; native milk flora

Total time across the recorded steps: 20 days

Start
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36–38 °C

What changes: Kid rennet paste goes into the warmed milk at 36–38 °C

Step 1 of 6
Filter and warm the milk, add kid rennet
Time
Not documented
Temperature
36–38 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: rennet 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

Rasco is a small, fresh, raw-milk cow cheese from Calabria, made entirely by hand from the milk of Podolica cattle. The milk is set with kid rennet paste at 36–38 °C, broken very coarsely with a fig-wood stick, packed into rush baskets, scalded in hot whey and dry-salted twice. It is eaten fresh, or smoked for about 20 days. Made in 6 steps over 20 days. The longest step, eat fresh or smoke, takes 20 days (ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori F…).

Key numbers
Main step20 daysReported[onaf-sheet]Eat fresh or smoke
Temperature36–38 °CReported[calabria-pat][onaf-sheet][calabria-lr5]Filter and warm the milk, add kid rennet

What makes this one different

The name is said to come from "scraping the cauldron" (rascare la caldaia). Rasco was made from the curd scraped from the cauldron after most of the curd had gone into pasta filata cheeses. The curd is never stretched; it is broken coarsely, packed into baskets and scalded in hot whey.

Rind
None or thin; white, brown if smoked; basket marks
Size
0.50–0.75 kg; Ø 8–12 cm
Season
March to September in the 2005 regional sheet; November to July in the ONAF sheet

Related ferments

Variants

  • AffumicatoSmoked about 20 days; brown, firmer rind.

Safety

The regional derogation text names raw milk, wooden tools and rush baskets as hygiene risks and asks for milk checks and good hygiene practice. This is a raw-milk cheese eaten fresh, with no starter. 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.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus, named by the regional derogation text as a risk of raw milk.

History and sources

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

In the large herds of Podolica cows (vaccarizzi), rasco was a prized cheese given as a gift at Christmas. The herd owners, noble landowners in Calabria, ordered a set quantity from their foremen (caporali). The regional sheet cites Calabrian folk-tradition texts as evidence that it is over 25 years old. Regional law no. 5 of 23 February 2004 lists rasco among the historic Calabrian milk products and notes it as a vanished product remembered in written history, once one of the region's leading cheeses. ONAF says the cheese has now disappeared, but the 2005 regional sheet describes it as still made.

  1. [calabria-pat] Regione Calabria, Prodotti agro-alimentari tradizionali, scheda Rasco (fax to MiPAF dated 13 January 2005; scanned image, read visually)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet Rasco, with the Regione Calabria derogation notesweb
  3. [calabria-lr5] Regione Calabria, Legge regionale 23 febbraio 2004 n. 5, Norme per l'individuazione dei prodotti a base di latte e/o tradizionalmente fabbricati, Allegato XXIX «Rasco», Bollettino Ufficiale della Regione Calabria n. 3 (supplemento straordinario n. 6, 26 February 2004), via FAOLEXspec
  4. [onaf] ONAF, scheda formaggio 'Rasco' (id 1128)web
  5. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov