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Cheese from Italy, Lombardy

Taleggio PDOTaleggio

Taleggio is a soft, square cow-milk cheese with a thin pinkish rind. Whole raw or pasteurised milk is set with calf rennet and a yoghurt-type starter, the curd sours for 8–16 hours in a warm room, and the salted squares ripen at least 35 days in the cold while the rind is wiped with salt water. The rind flora ripens the cheese from the outside in.

Fully documentedCheese36 daysPDO (EU, 1996; specification amended 2022)Family: Washed-rind (smear-ripened) cheese family (Munster and Époisses as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification fixes limits, not a recipe. Each finished square weighs 1.5–2.5 kg, with faces 18–20 cm across and sides 4–7 cm high.
Whole cow milk, raw or pasteurisedAt least 50 % of the cows' feed dry matter comes from the production area[tal-spec2022]
Starter of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilusA natural starter made in the dairy, or selected cultures[tal-spec2022]
Liquid calf or young-bovine rennetNo rennet from genetically modified microbes[tal-spec2022]
SaltDry salt or brine, and salt water for washing the rind; no other rind treatment[tal-spec2022]
StarterLactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus with Streptococcus thermophilus, natural or selected; the rind flora comes from the dairy and the ripening rooms

Total time across the recorded steps: 36 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: whole cow milk, raw or pasteurised

Step 1 of 8
Collect whole milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
L. delbrueckii
S. thermophilus
Geotrichum
Yeasts
Moulds

The milk may be raw or pasteurised. Cows may eat silage.

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

Taleggio is a soft, square cow-milk cheese with a thin pinkish rind. Whole raw or pasteurised milk is set with calf rennet and a yoghurt-type starter, the curd sours for 8–16 hours in a warm room, and the salted squares ripen at least 35 days in the cold while the rind is wiped with salt water. The rind flora ripens the cheese from the outside in. Made in 8 steps over 36 days. The longest step, ripen from the rind inward, takes at least 35 days (Ministero delle politiche agricole alimentari…). Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus and Geotrichum and yeasts, which form the felt on the young rind do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 35 daysSet[tal-spec2022]Ripen from the rind inward
Temperature32–35 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Add starter and rennet

What makes this one different

Taleggio is a square, soft washed-rind cheese set with a yoghurt-type thermophilic starter and soured for hours in a warm room before salting. It ripens in the cold for only about five weeks, and the specification bans any rind treatment other than salt water.

Milk
Whole cow milk, raw or pasteurised
Ripening
At least 35 days at 1–6 °C
Rind
Thin, soft, naturally pinkish; treated only with salt water
Size
Square, 18–20 cm a side, 4–7 cm high, 1.5–2.5 kg
Composition
Fat in dry matter at least 48 %; dry matter at least 46 %; water at most 54 %

Related ferments

Variants

  • Raw-milk TaleggioMade from unpasteurised whole milk; the specification allows both.

Safety

Tirloni and colleagues call Listeria monocytogenes a food safety challenge for cheese plants and cite EU data from 2018 that found it in 0.8 % of soft and semi-soft cheese samples from raw or mild heat-treated milk and 0.3 % from pasteurised milk. In their study of four Taleggio plants, Listeria species were most common in ripening areas and were not found in any of 59 ingredient and product samples, 22 of them finished Taleggio. L. monocytogenes itself was on two food-contact surfaces used for blue cheese in one plant, and the authors cite an earlier study that found it in 80 % of 52 swabs from a Taleggio plant; they call contamination of the edible rind a concern and stress strict hygiene. Bacillus cereus found in one plant's curd, 2 of 2 samples, was absent from 4 samples of finished cheese, though the isolates were potentially virulent. The milk may be raw. CDC advises people who are pregnant, newborns, people aged 65 or older and people with weakened immune systems to avoid any cheese made from raw milk unless it is heated until steaming hot.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes, on two food-contact surfaces used for blue cheese in one of four plants studied; Listeria spp. (mostly L. innocua) in all four plants, most often in ripening areas, and in none of 59 ingredient and product samples; Bacillus cereus, found on plant surfaces and in curd but not in 4 samples of finished cheese.

History and sources

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

The specification says the name refers to an area of Lombardy between the Valsassina and Val Taleggio, with the village of that name. It says the herders (bergamini) who moved their animals from the mountains to the plain in winter spread the cheese through the production area. A tasting-guild sheet dates the origin to the 10th–11th century and says the cheese was first known as stracchino and only later sold under the name Taleggio alone, which a 1918 dictionary records. It was registered as a PDO in 1996.

  1. [tal-spec2022] Ministero delle politiche agricole alimentari e forestali, Provvedimento 8 luglio 2022, Modifica del disciplinare di produzione della denominazione «Taleggio», Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana, Serie generale n. 169, 21.7.2022, pp. 21–23 (text as amended by Reg. (EU) 2022/955)spec
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), scheda Taleggio DOPweb
  3. [feligini2012] Feligini M. et al. 2012, Identification of microbiota present on the surface of Taleggio cheese using PCR-DGGE and RAPD-PCR, Journal of Food Science 77:M609–M615 (abstract)paper
  4. [tirloni2020] Tirloni E. et al. 2020, Occurrence of Listeria spp. and Listeria monocytogenes isolated from PDO Taleggio production plants, Foods 9:1636paper
  5. [tirloni2020b] Tirloni E. et al. 2020, Identification and pathogenic potential of Bacillus cereus strains isolated from a dairy processing plant producing PDO Taleggio cheese, Microorganisms 8:949 (abstract)paper
  6. [cdc-listeria] CDC, Preventing Listeria Infection (general safety text only)gov