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Cheese from Italy, Piemonte

Tomino del Bot

Whole cow milk, now usually pasteurised and soured with mesophilic cultures, is set with calf rennet at 30–35 °C over one to two hours and cut to hazelnut size. The curd drains in small moulds for about 18 hours at 20 °C and is salted dry or in brine. It ripens at least 3–4 days in a cold room; kept longer, it grows a light white Geotrichum candidum rind.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no doses; the rennet is dosed by setting time. A cheese weighs 300–400 g.
Whole cow milk, pasteurisedFormerly raw, often mixed whole and part-skimmed by natural creaming[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Mesophilic lactic starter cultures[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Calf rennetEnough for the milk to set in 1–2 hours[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Geotrichum candidum spores (optional)[onaf-sheet]
Salt, dry or as brine[pat-sheet]
Startermesophilic lactic cultures today; formerly the natural souring of milk left to cream

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.8 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countGeotrichum candidum

What changes: Lactic cultures go into the warm milk and start to sour it

Step 1 of 5
Sour the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Geotrichum candidum

The milk is worked once it has begun to sour. This once happened while the evening milk stood to cream; today mesophilic cultures do it. Geotrichum candidum spores may be added to the vat.

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, now usually pasteurised and soured with mesophilic cultures, is set with calf rennet at 30–35 °C over one to two hours and cut to hazelnut size. The curd drains in small moulds for about 18 hours at 20 °C and is salted dry or in brine. It ripens at least 3–4 days in a cold room; kept longer, it grows a light white Geotrichum candidum rind. Made in 5 steps over 3.8 days. The longest step, ripen in a cold room, takes at least 3 days (Regione Piemonte 2015). Geotrichum candidum, which forms a light white rind on longer-ripened cheeses does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 3 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen in a cold room
Temperature30–35 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Set with calf rennet

What makes this one different

"Bot" means "of former times" in Piedmontese: the regional sheet describes a cheese made the same way as in the past. The milk is worked once it has begun to sour, as it did when it stood to cream, and the curd sets slowly over one to two hours.

Rind
None when fresh; later thin, slightly wrinkled, with a light white Geotrichum bloom
Size
Cylinder about 10 cm across, side 3–5 cm, 300–400 g
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is now mostly pasteurised, and the cheese ripens in cold rooms.

History and sources

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

The ONAF sheet says the cheese has origins centuries old, shown by municipal documents on the trade in market products and the duties once paid on them, and that in the Cuneo valleys the methods and history are often passed on by word of mouth.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Piemonte, D.D. 24 July 2015 n. 460, technical sheets of traditional food products (BU 38 S1, 24 September 2015), product D 38 'Tomino del Bot' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Tomino del Bot'web
  3. [biolcati2021] Biolcati F, Ferrocino I, Bottero MT, Dalmasso A (2021) The Bacterial and Fungal Microbiota of "Robiola di Roccaverano" Protected Designation of Origin Raw Milk Cheese. Frontiers in Microbiology 12:776862paper