Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige, Prov. Bolzano

Schnittkäse Vinschger (Formaggio al taglio Venosta)Vinschger

Local cow milk, skimmed to 3.0–4.0% fat and pasteurised, is set with lactic cultures and rennet at 35–37 °C. The curd is cut, sometimes washed with hot water, optionally semi-cooked at 39–40 °C, moulded without pressing and brined. The wheels ripen 30–100 days while the rind is washed every two days with water, salt and, where used, Brevibacterium linens and yeasts.

Fully documentedCheese30 days – 3.3 monthsTraditional food product (PAT, Autonomous Province of Bolzano, 21st national list, 2021)Family: Washed-rind (smear-ripened) cheese family (Munster and Époisses as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedMade in dairies; the sheets give no amounts or batch size. A whole cheese weighs 8–9 kg.
Local cow milk, skimmed to 3.0–4.0% fat and pasteurised[pat-sheet]
Lactic acid bacteria (starter cultures)[pat-sheet]
Calf rennet, liquid or powder[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt, as brine[pat-sheet]
Brevibacterium linens and yeasts for the rind[pat-sheet]
Polymer coating (optional)[pat-sheet]
Starterlactic starter cultures; Brevibacterium linens and yeasts on the rind

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days – 3.3 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: The skimmed mountain milk is pasteurised

Step 1 of 7
Skim and pasteurise the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Brevibacterium linens
Yeasts

The milk is pasteurised.

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

Local cow milk, skimmed to 3.0–4.0% fat and pasteurised, is set with lactic cultures and rennet at 35–37 °C. The curd is cut, sometimes washed with hot water, optionally semi-cooked at 39–40 °C, moulded without pressing and brined. The wheels ripen 30–100 days while the rind is washed every two days with water, salt and, where used, Brevibacterium linens and yeasts. Made in 7 steps over 30 days – 3.3 months. The longest step, ripen with a washed rind, takes 30 days – 3.3 months (Autonomous Province of Bolzano). Lactic acid bacteria and Brevibacterium linens do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 3.3 monthsReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen with a washed rind
Temperature35–37 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Add cultures and rennet

What makes this one different

The widest of these wheels, about 50 cm across, made from Val Venosta milk collected above 1,000 m. The curd may be washed to lower its lactose, and the rind may be coated after ripening.

Rind
Compact, slightly rough, straw-yellow; not edible
Size
Wheel about 50 cm across and 10 cm high, flat faces, 8–9 kg
Eyes
Round eyes the size of a pea, spread through the paste
Fat
Semi-fat
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is pasteurised and the wheels ripen at least 30 days in cool, humid rooms. The provincial form asks for no hygiene exemption.

History and sources

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

The provincial form ties it to a long run of cheesemaking in South Tyrol, especially in the alpine dairies. It entered the national PAT list in its 21st update, in March 2021.

  1. [pat-sheet] Autonomous Province of Bolzano, product identification form (art. 8 D.lgs. 173/98), 'Schnittkäse Vinschger / Formaggio al taglio Venosta', bilingual German and Italiangov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Schnittkäse Vinschger'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Schnittkäse Vinschger' (id 1296)web