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Cheese from Italy, Lombardia

TombeaFormaggio di Magasa

Raw cow milk, the evening milking skimmed by letting the cream rise and mixed with the whole morning milk, is set with liquid calf rennet at about 30 °C. The curd is broken to rice-grain size, pressed in hoops under wooden weights and dry-salted by hand for several days. The wheels ripen at least 90 days, and up to 36 months, with the rind rubbed every day with linseed oil.

Fully documentedCheese3 months – 3 yearsTraditional food product (PAT, Lombardia); collective trademark of the Comune di Magasa since 2010Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedMade in summer huts on the pasture; the sheets give no doses. A wheel weighs 8–12 kg in the ONAF sheet and 7–12 kg in Slow Food's account. Slow Food also describes the curd cooked at 40–45 °C for about 30 minutes after cutting, and rennet added at 32–35 °C; the ONAF sheet lists no cooking and gives the setting temperature as 30 °C, so those two numbers are left out of the steps.
Raw cow milk from Bruna alpina and Pezzata Rossa cows on the summer pasturesEvening milk skimmed by natural creaming and mixed with whole morning milk, to 2–3% fat[onaf-sheet][pat-sheet]
Liquid calf rennet[onaf-sheet]
Natural starter (allowed)[onaf-sheet]
Coarse salt, crushed by hand with empty bottles[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Linseed oil, rubbed on the rind[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starternatural starters are allowed

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 months – 3 years

Start
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What changes: Cream rises from the evening milk and is skimmed off before the morning milk goes in

Step 1 of 6
Skim the evening milk by creaming
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The milk is used raw.

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, the evening milking skimmed by letting the cream rise and mixed with the whole morning milk, is set with liquid calf rennet at about 30 °C. The curd is broken to rice-grain size, pressed in hoops under wooden weights and dry-salted by hand for several days. The wheels ripen at least 90 days, and up to 36 months, with the rind rubbed every day with linseed oil. Made in 6 steps over 3 months – 3 years. The longest step, ripen with daily linseed oil, takes 3 months – 3 years (Product text 'Tombea').

Key numbers
Main step3 months – 3 yearsReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen with daily linseed oil
Temperature22 °C → 30 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Add rennet and warm to setting temperature

What makes this one different

A rare summer-pasture cheese rubbed daily with linseed oil. With age its eyes vanish into a granular paste locals call 'el gra de ris' (rice grain).

Rind
Oiled, smooth; straw at 90 days, dark reddish-brown past 12 months
Size
Cylinder 35–40 cm across and 10–12 cm high, 8–12 kg
Composition
Fat at least 27% of dry matter (semi-fat), moisture under 45%
Season
Made May–September on the summer pastures

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk and ripened at least 90 days. The CDC says pregnant women, newborns, people 65 or older and people with weak immunity should avoid any cheese made with raw milk 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 the cheese has been made for many generations and spread through the work of the Coop. Nigritella Orione Onlus in the 1970s and 1980s. It won first prize among historic cheeses at a dairy contest in 2001 and was presented as a Slow Food presidium at the Salone del Gusto in Turin in 2002. In 2010 the Comune di Magasa registered a collective trademark; wheels that pass the checks are fire-branded after 120 days. Slow Food says Austrian administrators first backed rotational dairies in the valley and that emigration after World War II cut the number of producers sharply. The municipality's history page says the summer huts of Casina, Corva, Bait and the best known, Tombea, give good cheese and butter, sold mostly on the spot or at the cheese festival on the second Sunday of September.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Product text 'Tombea', filed by ONAF as the Regione Lombardia text for this PAT product (an untitled PDF; the file itself carries no agency header, and ONAF's technical sheet lists the product as a PAT of Regione Lombardia)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Tombea'web
  3. [magasa] Comune di Magasa, 'Cenni storici' (history page of the municipality)gov
  4. [slowfood] Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, Presidium 'Tombea'web
  5. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov