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Fermentation Atlas

Pressed uncooked cheeses

Lightly scalded, pressed curds with natural or washed rinds: tommes and monastery cheeses.

331 entries listed here, page 5 of 5.

Compare them

CheeseRegionMilkRipeningRind
Queso de VidiagoSpain, AsturiasThin, soft, yellow
Queso de VillalónSpain, Castile and LeónNone; soft, compact paste
Queso herreñoSpain, Canary IslandsShows burnished lines from the smoking grill
Queso palmizuliaVenezuela, Zulia
Räucherkäse (Formaggio affumicato)Italy, Trentino-Alto Adigeat least 7 daysEdible, thin, soft and elastic, light brown and smoked
Robiola ticinese (formaggino)Switzerland, Ticino8–12 h
Sextner Almkäse (Formaggio di montagna di Sesto)Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige, province of BolzanoWhole cow milk, pasteurised, from mountain farms above 1,300 m around SextenAbout 3 months; can go on to 7–8 monthsWrinkled, fairly hard, grey-brown, with traces of the mould scraped off each day
Stracchino di capraItaly, LazioNone, or thin, sometimes bloomy, porcelain-white
Tilsiter (Swiss)Eastern and central Switzerland
Toblacher Stangenkäse (Formaggio originale di Dobbiaco)Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige, province of Bolzano42 days – 5 monthsThin, rough, fairly soft, straw-ochre, with traces of greenish mould
Trappe ÉchourgnacFrance, Dordogne14–28 days

Bold names have a full page with the animated steps. Blank cells: no sourced value yet.

Short entries

What the sources record about each of these so far.

Queso de VidiagoSpain, Asturias

A soft rectangular cow milk cheese made by one family dairy (Collera) in Vidiago, Llanes. Rennet sets the warmed, stirred milk; the curd is cut small, drained in rectangular moulds that are moved to help the whey run off, and salted.

Rind
Thin, soft, yellow
Size
About 1 kg; rectangular
  1. Prepare the milk
  2. Set the curd
  3. Cut and drain the curd
  4. Mould and salt
Queso de VillalónSpain, Castile and León

Also called queso de Villalón, Villalón cheese, queso fresco de Villalón.

A very fresh sheep-milk cheese from Villalón de Campos, sometimes mixed with cow milk or made from cow milk alone. The milk is renneted as soon as the ewes are milked, and the soft, rindless cylinders are sold the same day and keep no more than two days. Cheeses left unsold were traditionally ripened into Pata de mulo, a name also used for Villalón cheese itself.

Rind
None; soft, compact paste
Shape
Cylinder
Keeping
Sold the day it is made; keeps at most two days
  1. Rennet the milk straight after milking
  2. Drain and mould
  3. Sell the same day
Queso herreñoSpain, Canary Islands

A cheese of El Hierro made mainly from raw goat milk with some cow and sheep milk. The rennet curd is pressed lightly and dry-salted on the surface, aired in humid air, then smoked over prickly-pear pads, fig wood and dry rockrose. It is eaten fresh, filling the quesadilla herreña, or matured.

Rind
Shows burnished lines from the smoking grill
  1. Prepare the milk
  2. Set the curd
  3. Mould and salt
  4. Ripen

Safety: Made from raw milk and eaten fresh or matured. The CDC says people at higher risk, including pregnant women, people 65 or older and people with weak immunity, should avoid raw-milk cheese unless it is heated to 165 °F (74 °C) or until steaming hot.

Queso palmizuliaVenezuela, Zulia

Also called Queso palmita (parent type).

A fresh white cow-milk cheese from Zulia, in the palmita style, known for its gas holes ("ojos"). Sources describe the holes as made by bacteria fermenting in the young cheese, and a lab study made palmita-type cheese with lactic bacteria and the gas-forming yeast Kluyveromyces lactis. Wikipedia calls palmizulia a softer type of palmita; no primary source describes it.

Eyes
Holes made by fermenting bacteria are the defining trait of palmita-type cheese (Castro et al. 2012)
Eyes in a palmita-type trial
Cheeses showed gas fermentation 24 hours after making, with eyes 0.5–1 cm high and 1–3 cm long (Vargas et al. 2000). These are palmita-type values, not palmizulia.
Composition (palmita)
Mean of 80 palmita samples from Maracaibo shops; moisture on fat-free basis 62.62%, salt 2.24%, pH 5.76 (Castro et al. 2012, abstract). These are palmita values, not palmizulia.
  1. Prepare the milk
  2. Set and mould the curd
  3. Let the eyes form

Safety: Castro et al. found yeast, mould and total coliform counts in retail palmita above the limits for white cheese.

Räucherkäse (Formaggio affumicato)Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige

Also called Räucherkäse, Formaggio affumicato.

A young, soft South Tyrolean cheese of pasteurised cow milk, soured with lactic cultures and set with calf rennet at 35 °C. The hazelnut-size curd is lightly semi-cooked under hot water, kept warm in its hoops, brined and ripened at least 7 days at 10–12 °C. It is then cold-smoked for several days over conifer sawdust, so smoke and sour milk lead its aroma.

Rind
Edible, thin, soft and elastic, light brown and smoked
Size
Cylinder 11.5 cm across and 8 cm high, 0.6–2.0 kg (ONAF); one producer's 2 kg wheel is 18.5 cm across
Composition (one producer)
50 % fat in dry matter; per 100 g, 30 g fat, 27 g protein, 1.2 g salt
  1. Pasteurise and add cultures
  2. Set with calf rennet35 °C
  3. Cut to hazelnut size
  4. Semi-cook under hot water
  5. Mould, keep warm and brine
  6. Ripenat least 7 days · 10–12 °C
  7. Cold-smoke
  8. Keep cold1–10 °C
Robiola ticinese (formaggino)Switzerland, Ticino

Also called formagitt, robbiole, robiöla.

Goat, cow or mixed milk, often thermised at 65 °C, is cooled, left 10–20 minutes with yogurt or lactic cultures and set with rennet in 45–60 minutes. The curd is cut to walnut–hazelnut size, drained in perforated baskets, rested warm for 8–12 hours and salted, giving small round cheeses of 70–100 g that are eaten fresh within a week or matured in a cellar.

Size
70–100 g; about 6–7 cm diameter, 3–4 cm high
  1. Thermise the milk15 min · 65 °C
  2. Cool and add yogurt or cultures10–20 min · 35–40 °C
  3. Set with rennet45 min – 1 h
  4. Cut the curd
  5. Drain in baskets, rest warm and salt8–12 h
  6. Eat fresh or mature in a cellar10–13 °C

Safety: The inventory says the milk is not acidified, which makes the cheese a good ground for harmful bacteria that can cause food poisoning. The milk is therefore usually thermised, though Swiss rules do not require it, and care over hygiene is needed. Fresh cheeses keep a few days to a week at 4 °C.

Sextner Almkäse (Formaggio di montagna di Sesto)Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige, province of Bolzano

Also called Sextner Almkäse, Formaggio di malga di Sesto.

Pasteurised whole cow milk from Sexten mountain farms is soured with lactic cultures, set with calf rennet at 32 °C and broken to corn or pea size. The curd is semi-cooked at 38–40 °C, pressed in hoops for 5 hours and brined for 2 days. The wheels ripen about 3 months at 8–10 °C, turned, scraped and brushed every day to clear the fine mould that grows on the rind.

Milk
Whole cow milk, pasteurised, from mountain farms above 1,300 m around Sexten
Ripening
About 3 months; can go on to 7–8 months
Rind
Wrinkled, fairly hard, grey-brown, with traces of the mould scraped off each day
Size
About 7 kg; ø 35–40 cm, side 8–10 cm
Composition
50 % fat in dry matter
  1. Add cultures and rennet32 °C
  2. Break the curd
  3. Semi-cook and settle38–40 °C
  4. Press in hoops5 h
  5. Brine2 days
  6. Ripen, scraping the rind daily3–8 months · 8–10 °C

Safety: The milk is pasteurised and the wheels ripen for about three months.

Stracchino di capraItaly, Lazio

Whole goat milk, raw or pasteurised when its bacterial count is high, is inoculated with lactic cultures and set with liquid calf rennet. The curd is broken once into coarse pieces, moulded in wooden baskets or square plastic hoops, kept in a warm room, and dry-salted. It is eaten just after salting or after a short time on boards.

Size
Square tile or small cylinder by area, 250 g to 2 kg
Rind
None, or thin, sometimes bloomy, porcelain-white
Season
March to September or October
  1. Filter and inoculate the milk
  2. Set with rennet
  3. Break the curd once
  4. Mould and keep warm
  5. Dry-salt
  6. Eat fresh or ripen briefly

Safety: The sheet allows raw or pasteurised goat milk, and says milk with a high bacterial load may be pasteurised. The cheese is fresh and is eaten right after salting or after a short ripening on boards. The CDC says people at higher risk, including pregnant women, people 65 or older and people with weak immunity, should avoid raw-milk cheese unless it is heated to 165 °F (74 °C) or until steaming hot. They should also avoid unheated queso fresco-type cheeses and similar fresh, soft cheeses, even when made with pasteurised milk. It does not name this cheese, and it lists cream cheese and mozzarella made with pasteurised milk among safer choices.

Tilsiter (Swiss)Eastern and central Switzerland

A Swiss semi-hard smear cheese sold under three coloured labels that mark the milk and age. Green Past-Tilsiter is made from pasteurised milk with microbial rennet and ripens 28 days; red surchoix uses raw milk, partly thermised, with animal rennet and ripens at least four months; yellow Rahm-Tilsiter is made from pasteurised milk with added cream. The steps shown are the family's, since no Swiss source gives the make.

Green label (Past-Tilsiter)
Pasteurised milk, microbial rennet, full fat (at least 45 % fat), ripened 28 days (2023 factsheet); mild and slightly acidic
Red label (surchoix)
Raw milk partly thermised, animal rennet, full fat, stored and tended at least 4 months; rich and spicy
Yellow label (Rahm-Tilsiter)
Pasteurised milk with cream, microbial or animal rennet, ripened 1–2 months; mild and creamy

Made like Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette).

Safety: The red label is made from raw milk that is only partly thermised, and it ripens at least four months. The US FDA says ageing raw-milk cheese for 60 days may not eliminate or adequately reduce E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella, and Listeria may grow in some cheeses during ageing [fda-rawcheese2016]. ANSES advises pregnant women, people with weak immunity, people over 65 and young children to avoid raw-milk cheese, except cooked pressed cheeses such as Gruyère or Comté [anses2022].

Toblacher Stangenkäse (Formaggio originale di Dobbiaco)Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige, province of Bolzano

Also called Toblacher Stangenkäse, Formaggio originale di Dobbiaco, Stanga di Dobbiaco.

Toblacher Stangenkäse is a semi-hard cow cheese shaped as a long square bar. Pasteurised whole milk is set with lactic cultures and calf rennet at 35–36 °C, cut to hazelnut size and semi-cooked at 39–40 °C. The bars are moulded without pressing, brined 48 hours and ripened about 6 weeks.

Rind
Thin, rough, fairly soft, straw-ochre, with traces of greenish mould
Size
Square bar 10 × 10 × 30 cm, about 5 kg
Fat
45 % fat in dry matter
  1. Add cultures to the pasteurised milk
  2. Set with calf rennet20 min · 35–36 °C
  3. Cut the curd
  4. Semi-cook the curd20 min · 39–40 °C
  5. Mould the bars without pressing
  6. Brine the bars2 days · 19 % salt
  7. Ripen42 days – 5 months · 12–13 °C

Safety: The milk is pasteurised before cheesemaking and the bars are brined for 48 hours.

Trappe ÉchourgnacFrance, Dordogne

Also called Trappe d'Échourgnac.

Trappe Échourgnac is a pressed, uncooked cow-milk cheese bought in young from a dairy in Brittany and ripened at a Trappist abbey in the Dordogne. The plain cheese has an orange rind. Since 1999 the abbey has also ripened a version with walnut wine (Pudlowski). No specification or study was found, so the numbers come from an encyclopaedia and a press article.

Fat
50 % fat (Wikipedia)
Size
Plain cheese 19 cm across, 5 cm thick, 1.8 kg
  1. Make the young cheese at the dairy
  2. Salt2 % salt
  3. Ripen at the abbey14–28 days

Numbers come from cited sources and carry a label that says how each is known. How this atlas is made