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Cheese from Italy, Piemonte

SolaSora

Raw sheep or goat milk, kept at 4 °C, is set with animal rennet at 35–37 °C in about 30–40 minutes, and the curd is cut to rice or maize-grain size without cooking. It is gathered in a linen or cotton cloth into a flat, square-cornered slab, pressed under a board and stone, kneaded and pressed again, then salted dry a day on each face. It ripens on wooden boards at 8–12 °C for at least 30 days.

Fully documentedCheese33 daysPAT (traditional agri-food product, Piemonte; D.D. 460/2015, product D 28)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe regional sheet gives the method, not a batch size or doses. A cheese weighs 1.0–3.0 kg. An older ONAF text republished in 2011 gives 2–4 kg, 30–36 °C at setting and one to two months of ripening.
Whole sheep or goat milk, raw (one or two milkings) or pasteurised; sometimes mixed with or replaced by cow milk[pat-sheet]
Animal rennet, or lamb or kid rennet paste[pat-sheet]
Medium-grain salt, rubbed on dry[pat-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 33 days

Start
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4 °C

What changes: Starting material: raw sheep or goat milk kept at 4 °C

Step 1 of 6
Keep the milk cold
Time
Not documented
Temperature
4 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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 sheep or goat milk, kept at 4 °C, is set with animal rennet at 35–37 °C in about 30–40 minutes, and the curd is cut to rice or maize-grain size without cooking. It is gathered in a linen or cotton cloth into a flat, square-cornered slab, pressed under a board and stone, kneaded and pressed again, then salted dry a day on each face. It ripens on wooden boards at 8–12 °C for at least 30 days. Made in 6 steps over 33 days. The longest step, ripen, takes at least 30 days (Regione Piemonte 2015) and runs at 8–12 °C (Regione Piemonte 2015).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 30 daysReported[pat-sheet]Ripen
Temperature8–12 °CReported[pat-sheet]Ripen

What makes this one different

Close kin to the Nostrale d'Alpe of Cuneo, but formed in a cloth instead of a rigid mould, pressed twice with a kneading between, which gives the flat shoe-sole shape.

Size
Rough rectangular slab, long side 15.0–25.0 cm, 3.0–4.0 cm high, 1.0–3.0 kg
Rind
Straw yellow at medium age, firm and beige when older

Related ferments

Safety

The regional sheet's 2004 survey of 3 lots found no Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes or staphylococcal enterotoxins; E. coli was high (10^6 cfu/g) in one sample. Good hygiene practice is the control it names. It may be made from raw milk, and the sheet sets a minimum ripening of 30 days. The US FDA says ageing raw-milk cheese for 60 days may not remove E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella, and Listeria may grow in some cheeses while they age. The CDC says people at higher risk, including pregnant women, people 65 or older and people with weak immunity, should avoid raw-milk cheese unless it is heated to 165 °F (74 °C) or until steaming hot.

Hazards the sources name: Escherichia coli (10^6 cfu/g in one of 3 sampled lots); Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes and staphylococcal enterotoxins not found.

History and sources

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

The cheese comes from the alpine pastures of the Monregalese area between the Tanaro and Vermenagna valleys, centred on Ormea and Valcasotto, where herders kept a few sheep and goats with their cows and shaped the cheese by hand with few tools. Production was small and sold directly. The methods passed by word of mouth, and ONAF notes that no written historical descriptions have been found. A 2011 ONAF text names the historian Tullio Pagliana's study of shepherd life in the Alta Val Tanaro for the alpine origin. Piemonte's 2015 sheet lists four books as proof that the method has been stable for over 25 years, namely Giovanni Del Forno (1981), the INSOR atlas of typical cheeses (1991) and two works by Sandro Doglio (1995, 1996). It sits in the region's 2015 list of traditional products (D.D. 460 of 24 July 2015).

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Piemonte, D.D. 24 July 2015 n. 460 (BU38S1, 24 September 2015), Schede tecniche prodotti PAT, category D product 28 'Sola (Sora, Soera)' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), cheese page 'Sola' (id 470)web
  3. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Sola' (sections Presentazione, Storia, Descrizione)web
  4. [onaf-2011] ONAF, 'Sora', description of the cheese republished on Langhe.net, Tasty reads, 27 December 2011web
  5. [fda-rawcheese2016] US Food and Drug Administration 2016, FY 2014–2016 Microbiological Sampling Assignment Summary Report, Raw Milk Cheese Aged 60 Daysgov
  6. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov