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Cheese from Italy, Lombardia

Stracchino della Valsassinastrachin quàder

Stracchino della Valsassina is a square, soft, raw-milk cow cheese made from milk still warm from milking. The curd is set with calf rennet, cut to hazelnut size, drained in cloths in square moulds and dry-salted over several weeks. As it ripens for 30–60 days at 6–10 °C, the paste under the rind turns almost liquid while the centre stays chalky.

Fully documentedCheese32 days – 2.1 monthsTraditional food product (PAT, Lombardia)Family: Washed-rind (smear-ripened) cheese family (Munster and Époisses as templates)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceRennet dose per 50 litres of milk, as one ONAF technical sheet gives it; a cauldron holds at most 100–150 kg of milk. A cheese weighs 1.3–1.5 kg.
Raw whole cow milk, just milkedWorked warm, with no heating; at most 100–150 kg per copper cauldron[lombardia-pat][onaf-sheet]
Liquid calf rennet (strength 1:10,000)20–40 ml per 50 L of milk[onaf-sheet]
SaltDry salt, then rubs with salt water[lombardia-pat][onaf-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 32 days – 2.1 months

Start
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32–34 °C

What changes: Calf rennet goes into milk still warm from the cow, at 32–34 °C

Step 1 of 5
Set the warm milk with rennet
Time
15–40 min
Reported
Temperature
32–34 °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

Stracchino della Valsassina is a square, soft, raw-milk cow cheese made from milk still warm from milking. The curd is set with calf rennet, cut to hazelnut size, drained in cloths in square moulds and dry-salted over several weeks. As it ripens for 30–60 days at 6–10 °C, the paste under the rind turns almost liquid while the centre stays chalky. Made in 5 steps over 32 days – 2.1 months. The longest step, rub with salt water and ripen, takes 30 days – 2 months (ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori F…) and runs at 6–10 °C (ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori F…). Native lactic flora of the raw milk, whose lipolysis drives the ripening aroma does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 2 monthsReported[onaf-sheet]Rub with salt water and ripen
Temperature6–10 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Rub with salt water and ripen

What makes this one different

It is the old "square stracchino of Milan". The milk is never heated; it is set while still warm from milking, and the rind is rubbed with salt water as it ripens.

Rind
Thin, moist, ridged, pale straw turning reddish; grey moulds possible
Size
Square, side 20 cm, height 4 cm; 1.3–1.5 kg

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk; the rind is rubbed with salt water to keep moulds down. 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 Lombardy sheet says production in Valsassina seems to have begun around the 10th–11th century, when the cheese was known simply as stracchino, or the square stracchino of Milan.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov
  2. [lombardia-pat] Regione Lombardia, prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, scheda Stracchino della Valsassinagov
  3. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet Stracchino della Valsassina (older version, file 12215)web
  4. [onaf] ONAF, scheda formaggio 'Stracchino della Valsassina' (id 1033)web