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Cheese from Italy, Calabria

Strazzatella silanaA strazzata

Whole cow milk is set with calf rennet, and the curd is broken to walnut size, pressed by hand, sliced and left about 3 days in a wooden tub to sour until it stretches. The sour curd is cut small and kept 24 hours under cold running water, then each piece is worked like a mozzarella, flattened like a pizza and rolled up. It is eaten fresh, often filled.

Fully documentedCheese4 daysTraditional food product (PAT, Calabria)Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedMade entirely by hand in artisan dairies attached to farms; the sheets give no milk volume or doses. A rolled disc weighs about 150 g.
Whole cow milk from mixed-breed cows on extensive pasture[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Liquid calf rennet[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Filling (optional), such as sardella, ham or other local products[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 4 days

Start
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What changes: Whole cow milk is warmed in copper or steel pots

Step 1 of 6
Warm the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The milk goes into copper or steel pots and is brought to setting temperature.

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

Whole cow milk is set with calf rennet, and the curd is broken to walnut size, pressed by hand, sliced and left about 3 days in a wooden tub to sour until it stretches. The sour curd is cut small and kept 24 hours under cold running water, then each piece is worked like a mozzarella, flattened like a pizza and rolled up. It is eaten fresh, often filled. Made in 6 steps over 4 days. The longest step, sour in a wooden tub, takes 3 days (Regione Calabria).

Key numbers
Main step3 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Sour in a wooden tub
Temperature35–38 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Set the curd

What makes this one different

Rolled, flattened acid-curd disc with a sour, slightly pungent taste; most eaten at Christmas. The curd sours for days and is rinsed for a day under running water before it is shaped.

Rind
None; smooth shiny cream-white
Size
~150 g; disc Ø 20 cm, rolled
Season
Made all year, most in demand at Christmas

Related ferments

Safety

The sheet names raw milk, tinned copper pots and wooden tools as the risks of the traditional method, and S. aureus among the raw-milk hazards; it suggests checking the milk, or thermising or pasteurising it, and good hygiene. It gives no pH limits.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus, named by the sheet as a raw-milk risk alongside high bacterial and somatic cell counts.

History and sources

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

The ONAF sheet says documents held at the La Silana dairy in Camigliatello (Spezzano Sila) show the cheese is more than 25 years old. It bases the cheese's traditional status on production in farm dairies that use only the farm's own milk, by family methods.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Calabria, Prodotti agro-alimentari tradizionali, sheet 'Strazzatella silana' (product code 63; scanned, read from the page images; copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Strazzatella silana'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Strazzatella silana' (id 1130)web