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Cheese from Italy, Piemonte

Toma d'alpeggio

Raw cow milk from one or two milkings, whole or with the evening milk skimmed, is set with animal rennet at about 35–38 °C in about 60 minutes and cut to maize-size grains. Makers then mould the curd in different ways, often press it, and dry-salt it 12 hours per face. It ripens from 20 days to more than two months, often in natural alpine cellars.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedAn alpine-pasture cheese with no fixed amounts; the sheets give no milk volume or rennet dose. A cheese weighs 4.0–10.0 kg.
Raw cow milk from one or two milkings, whole or with the evening milk skimmed by letting the cream rise[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Animal rennet (calf rennet, per ONAF)[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Coarse salt, or brine[pat-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 21 days

Start
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What changes: Raw cow milk from the alpine pasture goes into the copper cauldron

Step 1 of 6
Take the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Raw milk from one or two milkings; the evening milk may be skimmed the next morning after the cream rises (the skimmed-milk type).

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 cow milk from one or two milkings, whole or with the evening milk skimmed, is set with animal rennet at about 35–38 °C in about 60 minutes and cut to maize-size grains. Makers then mould the curd in different ways, often press it, and dry-salt it 12 hours per face. It ripens from 20 days to more than two months, often in natural alpine cellars. Made in 6 steps over 21 days. The longest step, ripen, takes at least 20 days (Regione Piemonte 2015). Obligately heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria, found at higher levels than in Asiago PDO in a related alpine-pasture cheese, Toma Piemontese PDO made at the Alpe Valcavera does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 20 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen
Temperature35–38 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Set the curd

What makes this one different

Toma of the mountain areas of the province of Turin, made on alpine pastures; forming method and ripening vary widely between makers.

Rind
Smooth, greyish-straw or light ochre
Size
4.0–10.0 kg; cylinder ø 20–35 cm, side 7–18 cm

Related ferments

Variants

  • a latte scremato: partly skimmed milkThe evening milk is skimmed the next morning after the cream rises.

Safety

Made from raw milk and ripened from 20 days. The sheet says alpine milk production must be watched closely for the animals' health, the milking and the storage of the milk before cheesemaking, and that it finds no other risks beyond normal cheesemaking. The US FDA says ageing raw-milk cheese for 60 days may not eliminate or adequately reduce E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella, and Listeria may grow in some cheeses during ageing [fda-rawcheese2016]. ANSES advises pregnant women, people with weak immunity, people over 65 and young children to avoid raw-milk cheese, except cooked pressed cheeses such as Gruyère or Comté [anses2022]. In a study of six batches from two producers of a related raw-milk Piedmont cheese, Toma tipo Piemonte, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella met EU criteria, but coagulase-positive staphylococci rose above 5 log CFU/g in the curd and the 7-day cheese of one producer and stayed near that level at 30 days; no staphylococcal enterotoxin was detected in the samples tested [astegiano2014].

Hazards the sources name: Coagulase-positive staphylococci, higher in the Toma Piemontese PDO from clover-pasture milk (Silvetti); above 5 log CFU/g in the curd and 7-day cheese of one Toma tipo Piemonte producer, with no staphylococcal enterotoxin found (Astegiano); E. coli and Enterobacteriaceae, peaking at 7 days of ripening in the related Toma tipo Piemonte (means of 3.4 and 5.3 log CFU/g at one producer, 4.6 and 6.2 at the other) and falling by the end of 60–90 days of ripening.

History and sources

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

The sheet cites Pantaleone da Confienza's Summa lacticinorum (Turin, 1477), which mentions cheeses of the Locana, Ceresole, Lanzo and Susa valleys and Mont Cenis. ONAF adds that many other historical records show the cheese, from tolls to the food purchase lists of noble families and the economic statistics of past centuries.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Piemonte, D.D. 24 July 2015 n. 460, Schede tecniche prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali (BU 38S1, 24/09/2015), category D product 31 "Toma d'alpeggio" (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet "Toma d'alpeggio"web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page "Toma d'alpeggio" (id 474)web
  4. [silvetti2009] Silvetti T, Vanoni L, Brasca M, Lodi R (2009) Valutazione del profilo microbico dei formaggi Asiago DOP e Toma Piemontese in relazione alla formazione vegetazionale del pascolo (abstract, CNR IRIS record)paper
  5. [astegiano2014] Astegiano S, Bellio A, Adriano D, Bianchi DM, Gallina S, Gorlier A, Gramaglia M, Lombardi G, Macori G, Zuccon F, Decastelli L (2014) Evaluation of Hygiene and Safety Criteria in the Production of a Traditional Piedmont Cheese. Italian Journal of Food Safety 3(3):1705paper
  6. [fda-rawcheese2016] US Food and Drug Administration 2016, FY 2014–2016 Microbiological Sampling Assignment Summary Report, Raw Milk Cheese Aged 60 Daysgov
  7. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov