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Cheese from Italy, Piemonte

Tuma di Bossolasco

Raw cow milk mixed with a tenth to a fifth of ewe milk is set with animal rennet, cut to hazelnut-to-corn grains and ladled into small plastic moulds. The cheeses drain about two days at 20 °C while they are dry-salted, are washed in hot water, then ripen 5 to 20 days in cold rooms with daily turning and more washing.

Fully documentedCheese7 days – 22 daysTraditional food product (PAT, Piemonte; D.D. 24 July 2015 n. 460)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets fix no batch size and give no doses; they name no special equipment. A cheese weighs 0.250–0.400 kg.
Raw whole cow milkAt least 80 % of the milk[onaf-sheet]
Raw whole ewe milkThe PAT sheet says at least 10–20 %; the ONAF sheet says up to 20 %[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Rennet, normally animalEnough to set the milk in 35–40 minutes[pat-sheet]
SaltRubbed dry on the surface; sometimes a quick dip in salted water after washing[pat-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 7 days – 22 days

Start
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4 °C

What changes: Raw cow and ewe milk from several milkings is kept cold at 4 °C

Step 1 of 6
Collect and chill the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
4 °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

Raw cow milk mixed with a tenth to a fifth of ewe milk is set with animal rennet, cut to hazelnut-to-corn grains and ladled into small plastic moulds. The cheeses drain about two days at 20 °C while they are dry-salted, are washed in hot water, then ripen 5 to 20 days in cold rooms with daily turning and more washing. Made in 6 steps over 7 days – 22 days. The longest step, ripen in a cold room, takes 5–20 days (ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters)).

Key numbers
Main step5–20 daysReported[onaf-sheet]Ripen in a cold room
Temperature4 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Collect and chill the milk

What makes this one different

A small Langhe tuma of mixed cow and ewe milk whose rind is kept clean by washing, not grown. Some drier cheeses are kept on in glass jars, and very old ones are refermented with raw ewe milk into brus.

Rind
Thin, white when young, straw-yellow after 8–10 days
Size
0.250–0.400 kg; cylinder 10–11 cm across, side 2.5–3.5 cm

Related ferments

Variants

  • In glass jars (albanelle)Drier cheeses kept on in sealed glass jars, which changes their smell, taste and texture.
  • Under olive oilAged cheese kept under olive oil in sealed jars (ONAF).

Safety

Made from raw milk kept at 4 °C until the make and ripened as little as 5 days; the sheets record no specific safety tests. The CDC says raw-milk products can expose people to germs such as Listeria, E. coli and Salmonella, with higher risk for pregnant women, children under 5, adults over 65 and people with weakened immune systems. The sealed-jar and under-oil variants shut out air, and the sheets give no pH, salt or water-activity figure for them. The bacterium behind botulism grows well with little oxygen (FDA), and the CDC lists chopped garlic in oil among its newer sources. Those variants record local practice, not a tested home method.

History and sources

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

The regional sheet cites G. Del Forno (1981) and S. Doglio (1996) as evidence that the method has been consolidated for no less than 25 years.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Piemonte, Schede tecniche prodotti PAT 2015 (BU38S1, 24/09/2015; D.D. 24 luglio 2015 n. 460), Categoria D prodotto n. 48, 'Tuma di Bossolasco'gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Tuma di Bossolasco'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Tuma di Bossolasco' (id 758)web
  4. [cdc-raw-milk] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Raw Milk (food safety page)gov
  5. [cdc-botulism] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Botulism Preventiongov
  6. [fda-bbb] US Food and Drug Administration 2012, Bad Bug Book, 2nd edition, Clostridium botulinumgov