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Cheese from Italy, Molise

Scamorza molisana

Raw cow milk with a natural whey starter is set with calf or kid rennet at 32–36 °C, cut to maize-size grains and partly cooked with whey heated to 65 °C. The curd ripens under whey until it stretches, then is stretched in near-boiling water and shaped by hand into a pear with a head and 'ears'. It is brined about 20 minutes and eaten fresh or after wilting 2–3 days.

Fully documentedCheese2.2 days – 3.4 daysTraditional food product (PAT, Molise)Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe sheets give the starter dose per quintal (100 kg) of milk and no batch size. A cheese weighs about 200 g.
Raw whole cow milk from local herds[ersa-sheet]
Natural whey starter (siero-innesto)2–4 g per quintal of milk[onaf-sheet]
Calf or kid rennet paste (ONAF gives liquid calf rennet)[ersa-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt, as brine[ersa-sheet]
Starternatural whey starter (siero-innesto), 2–4 g per quintal of milk

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.2 days – 3.4 days

Start
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32–36 °C

What changes: Whey starter and rennet go into the warm milk and it sets

Step 1 of 7
Warm the milk, add starter and rennet
Time
20 min
Reported
Temperature
32–36 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: 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

Raw cow milk with a natural whey starter is set with calf or kid rennet at 32–36 °C, cut to maize-size grains and partly cooked with whey heated to 65 °C. The curd ripens under whey until it stretches, then is stretched in near-boiling water and shaped by hand into a pear with a head and 'ears'. It is brined about 20 minutes and eaten fresh or after wilting 2–3 days. Made in 7 steps over 2.2 days – 3.4 days. The longest step, dry and wilt, takes 2–3 days (ARSARP Molise (Agenzia regionale per lo svilu…).

Key numbers
Main step2–3 daysReported[ersa-sheet][onaf-sheet]Dry and wilt
Temperature32–36 °CReported[ersa-sheet]Warm the milk, add starter and rennet

What makes this one different

Made from the same curd as caciocavallo but stretched in hotter water and eaten within days, not aged. The head carries 'ears', and the smoked type is rounder and hung from its base.

Rind
Thin smooth skin, white to straw; brown if smoked
Size
About 200 g; pear 8–15 cm across (the regional sheet gives 0.150–2.00 kg)
Season
Made all year; spring cheese from young pasture is prized

Related ferments

Variants

  • AffumicataRounder with no neck, tied at the base and hung in the smokehouse; brown skin
  • Other shapesPlaits, rings and bocconcini, by locality

Safety

The curd is partly cooked in whey at 65 °C and stretched in water at about 90 °C, which takes the paste core to about 64–65 °C. The regional atlas says this further reduces contaminating microbes; it does not say it removes them. Raw milk comes from herds free of brucellosis and tuberculosis, and in hot weather the milk is heat-treated and more whey starter is used. 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 or Comté, 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 the origin rests on hypotheses more than firm sources. One account is that a curd for Provolone or Caciocavallo turned sour and was stretched in hotter water than usual, and scamorza was born. ONAF adds that in the production areas scamorza was made in summer, when a fresh cheese was preferred, while cheeses needing longer ageing were made mostly in the colder months.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov
  2. [ersa-sheet] ARSARP Molise (Agenzia regionale per lo sviluppo agricolo, rurale e della pesca), L'atlante dei prodotti tradizionali del Molise, sheet 'Scamorza molisana'gov
  3. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Scamorza molisana'web
  4. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Scamorza molisana' (id 411)web