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Cheese from Italy, Lombardia

Stracchino orobico

Raw whole cow milk, warm from milking or warmed to 35 °C, is set with calf rennet for about 30 minutes. The curd is gently broken to hazelnut size at 35 °C, lifted out in linen cloths into square moulds, dry-salted with coarse salt and ripened about 15 days. The paste is uncooked.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedA farm and alpine cheese with no fixed amounts; the sheets give no milk volume or rennet dose. A cheese weighs about 1.5 kg.
Raw whole cow milk, used warm from milking[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Liquid calf rennet[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Coarse salt (rubbed on both faces)[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 15 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
35 °C

What changes: Raw whole cow milk goes into the vat warm from milking

Step 1 of 6
Take the fresh milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
35 °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 whole cow milk, warm from milking or warmed to 35 °C, is set with calf rennet for about 30 minutes. The curd is gently broken to hazelnut size at 35 °C, lifted out in linen cloths into square moulds, dry-salted with coarse salt and ripened about 15 days. The paste is uncooked. Made in 6 steps over 15 days. The longest step, ripen, takes 15 days (Regione Lombardia) and runs at 6–10 °C (ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters)). Cocci, enterococci and heterofermentative flora of the cheese does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step15 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen
Temperature6–10 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Ripen

What makes this one different

Square Bergamo stracchino whose ridges recall the river reeds once used for draining. The curd is not cooked and the cheese is dry-salted, not brined.

Rind
Thin, soft, moist, white to light straw, ridged; may have a very thin white bloom
Size
Square, side 18–20 cm, h 4 cm; 1.5 kg

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw cow milk and ripened for 15 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. This cheese ripens for less than 60 days. 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.

History and sources

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

The ONAF sheet says it began long ago as an alternative to the hard and semi-hard alpine cheeses, was made in late summer and early autumn, and is now made all year. The first written evidence is from the second half of the nineteenth century. The PAT sheet says it is told that 'stracchino' comes from 'stracche', tired cows walking down from the Bergamo valleys to the plain; another account ties it to milk from cows fed on the water-meadow grass of the Lombard plain.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Lombardia, Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, sheet 'Stracchino Orobico' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Stracchino orobico'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Stracchino orobico' (id 1035)web
  4. [fda-rawcheese2016] US Food and Drug Administration 2016, FY 2014–2016 Microbiological Sampling Assignment Summary Report, Raw Milk Cheese Aged 60 Daysgov
  5. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov