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Cheese from Italy, Piemonte

Toumin dal Mel

Whole raw cow milk, fresh from milking or from the milk cooler, is set with calf rennet at 32–37 °C in 30–60 minutes and cut to hazelnut size. The curd drains 2–8 hours in small perforated moulds and is lightly salted in the curd, on the faces or in brine for 15–30 minutes. It ripens 4 to 30 days at 12 °C or more and 85–95% humidity on cloths changed daily, under a thin white mould.

Fully documentedCheese4.1 days – 30 daysTraditional food product (PAT, Piemonte)Family: Bloomy-rind soft cheese family (Camembert de Normandie as template)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no doses; the salt is kept low so the cheese tastes of fresh milk. A cheese weighs 150–250 g.
Whole raw cow milk, fresh or from the farm milk cooler[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Calf rennetEnough to set the milk in 30–60 minutes[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt, a small amountIn the curd, on the faces, or as brine[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
StarterThe PAT sheet says some productions are made without added starter, as tradition provides. The Slow Food presidium aims to keep the recipe made from raw milk without added selected starters.

Total time across the recorded steps: 4.1 days – 30 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countMoulds32–37 °C

What changes: Calf rennet sets the raw milk at 32–37 °C in 30–60 minutes

Step 1 of 5
Set with calf rennet
Time
30 min – 1 h
Reported
Temperature
32–37 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
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, fresh from milking or from the milk cooler, is set with calf rennet at 32–37 °C in 30–60 minutes and cut to hazelnut size. The curd drains 2–8 hours in small perforated moulds and is lightly salted in the curd, on the faces or in brine for 15–30 minutes. It ripens 4 to 30 days at 12 °C or more and 85–95% humidity on cloths changed daily, under a thin white mould. Made in 5 steps over 4.1 days – 30 days. The longest step, ripen under white mould, takes 4–30 days (Regione Piemonte 2015) and runs at at least 12 °C (Regione Piemonte 2015). White moulds that form a thin layer on the rind does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4–30 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen under white mould
Temperatureat least 12 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen under white mould

What makes this one different

A thin, tapered bloomy-rind disc ripened at 12 °C or more and 85–95 % humidity on cloths changed daily; at 7–10 days the sheets describe butter and mushroom notes from the mould rind, and the protein breakdown reaches outward under the rind in older cheeses. Some makers use no starter, as the tradition has it.

Rind
Thin, edible, porcelain-white with a fine white mould
Size
Tapered disc 8–12 cm across, side 1–2 cm, 150–250 g
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk and ripened at least 4 days. The PAT sheet notes that some makers use no starter, which with raw milk leaves room for coagulase-positive staphylococci, so it asks for careful milk quality, working temperatures and hygiene. No pH figures are given. 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; the PAT sheet says raw milk made without starter leaves them room to grow. In a 2004 regional study of 3 lots none carried Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes or staphylococcal enterotoxins, but one lot had a high E. coli count and another a high staphylococcal count.

History and sources

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

Slow Food's presidium page gives the cheese a precise birth year, 1895, when two enterprising women of the highest hamlet of Frassino stopped making butter, which was hard to sell and keep, and began making whole-milk tome of a smaller size. It says the method was handed from mother to daughter for over a century and that the cheese was the valley's main income for at least 100 years. The PAT sheet says the cheese arose in the mid to late 1800s in the hills of the middle Varaita valley, between the hamlets of Frassino and Melle. Local research names four inhabitants of the Vitoun hamlet of Frassino as its founders, looking for an alternative to butter, then the main dairy product and already made in surplus. The accounts differ. Production spread to nearby villages and the cheese was sold at the busy market of Melle, which gave it its name. After the Second World War that market lost importance and direct sales gave way to deliveries to shops and delicatessens of the Cuneo and Saluzzo areas. A fair, the Sagra del Toumin dal Mel, has been held at Melle every August since 1974.

  1. [slowfood] Fondazione Slow Food, Presìdi Slow Food, 'Toumin dal Mel' (Italian page)web
  2. [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 47 'Toumin dal Mel' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  3. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Toumin dal Mel'web
  4. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov