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Cheese from Italy, Lombardia

Rosa camuna

Cow milk chilled to 4 °C is skimmed, brought back to a set fat level with cream, pasteurised, soured with lactic cultures and set with calf rennet. The curd is broken to corn-kernel size, semi-cooked and put into four-petal moulds, then brined. It ripens 30–45 days on metal racks.

Fully documentedCheese30 days – 46 daysPAT (traditional agri-food product, Lombardia)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedMade in one dairy; the sheets give no doses or batch size. Each cheese weighs 1.5–2.0 kg.
Part-skimmed cow milkFully skimmed by centrifuge, then given back enough cream for the fat level wanted[lombardia-pat][onaf-sheet]
Lactic cultures[lombardia-pat][onaf-sheet]
Calf rennet (liquid)[lombardia-pat][onaf-sheet]
Salt, as brine[lombardia-pat][onaf-sheet]
Starterselected lactic ferments and white moulds

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days – 46 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
4 °C

What changes: The chilled cow milk is skimmed, given back some cream and pasteurised

Step 1 of 7
Chill, skim and pasteurise
Time
Not documented
Temperature
4 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Geotrichum candidum
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 chilled to 4 °C is skimmed, brought back to a set fat level with cream, pasteurised, soured with lactic cultures and set with calf rennet. The curd is broken to corn-kernel size, semi-cooked and put into four-petal moulds, then brined. It ripens 30–45 days on metal racks. Made in 7 steps over 30 days – 46 days. The longest step, ripen on metal racks, takes 30–45 days (Regione Lombardia). Selected lactic ferments and white moulds added to the milk does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30–45 daysReported[lombardia-pat][onaf-sheet][camonica2014]Ripen on metal racks
Temperature4 °CReported[lombardia-pat][onaf-sheet]Chill, skim and pasteurise

What makes this one different

Its four-petal mould copies the Camunian rose from the valley's rock carvings, now the symbol of Lombardy and the mark of the one dairy that makes it.

Rind
Thin, straw-coloured, with light white mould; not edible
Size
Four-petal rose that fits an 18 × 18 cm square, 4–6 cm high
Weight
1.5–2.0 kg (ONAF)
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is pasteurised, and the cheese ripens in rooms with controlled temperature and humidity.

History and sources

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

The rose shape is taken from the rock carvings left by the Camuni, the ancient people of the valley. A 2014 Comunità Montana book calls it a cheese of recent creation, made only in one large cooperative dairy of the valley.

  1. [lombardia-pat] Regione Lombardia, Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, page 'Rosa Camuna' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Rosa camuna'web
  3. [camonica2014] Martini G. 2014, I formaggi nella cultura casearia di Valle Camonica, in Sapori di Valle Camonica, 2nd edition, Comunità Montana di Valle Camonica, Breno, pp. 44–46book