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Cheese from Italy, Piemonte

Tomino di San Giacomo di Boves

Whole raw cow milk, worked straight after milking and in spring and summer mixed with some goat or sheep milk, is set with liquid calf rennet at about 35 °C for about 90 minutes. The curd is cut once to hazelnut size, moulded, drained briefly, salted and moved somewhere cool to stop it souring. It is ready the next day and kept at 4 °C.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedMade from whatever milk the family had left over; the sheets give no doses. A cheese weighs about 100 g.
Whole raw cow milk, straight after milking[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Goat or sheep milk (spring and summer, varying share)[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Liquid calf rennet[pat-sheet]
Salt[pat-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 1.5 h

Start
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35 °C

What changes: Liquid calf rennet sets the fresh milk at about 35 °C over about 90 minutes

Step 1 of 4
Set the warm milk with rennet
Time
1.5 h
Reported
Temperature
35 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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 raw cow milk, worked straight after milking and in spring and summer mixed with some goat or sheep milk, is set with liquid calf rennet at about 35 °C for about 90 minutes. The curd is cut once to hazelnut size, moulded, drained briefly, salted and moved somewhere cool to stop it souring. It is ready the next day and kept at 4 °C. Made in 4 steps over 1.5 h. The longest step, set the warm milk with rennet, takes 1.5 h (Regione Piemonte 2015) and runs at 35 °C (Regione Piemonte 2015).

Key numbers
Main step1.5 hReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Set the warm milk with rennet
Temperature35 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Set the warm milk with rennet

What makes this one different

A very small farmhouse tomino from leftover raw milk, set slowly at milking temperature and moved to a cool place after salting to stop the souring.

Rind
None; white surface
Size
Cylinder about 7 cm across, side 2–3 cm, about 100 g
Season
Made all year; with goat or sheep milk in spring and summer

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk and eaten fresh; it is chilled after salting and kept at 4 °C. 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.

Hazards the sources name: Coagulase-positive staphylococci, E. coli and Enterobacteriaceae were high early in the making of a related Piedmont cow's milk cheese made from raw milk, Toma tipo Piemonte (Turin province; six batches from two producers), and fell over its 60–90 days of ripening, which this tomino does not get; staphylococci passed 5 log CFU/g in some cheeses, and no staphylococcal enterotoxin was found in the samples tested. Not measured in this tomino.

History and sources

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

ONAF says families once turned the little milk they had left into this small cheese, eaten with bread.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  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 42 'Tomino di S. Giacomo di Boves' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Tomino di San Giacomo di Boves'web
  3. [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
  4. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov