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Cheese from Italy, Veneto

Formaggio ZumelleZumelle

Raw whole milk from Bruna and Bruna Alpina cows is soured with a local dairy starter and set with calf rennet at 35 °C in about 40 minutes. The curd is cut to rice-size grains, semi-cooked to about 45 °C, pressed in hoops, brined and ripened about 40 days in cool, humid rooms.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedVillage-dairy make with no fixed amounts; the sheets give no doses. A cheese weighs 3–5 kg.
Raw whole cow milk, Bruna and Bruna Alpina breeds only[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Dairy's own milk starter (lattoinnesto) of local selectionCalled indispensable for the flavour[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Calf rennet[onaf-sheet]
SaltAs brine[onaf-sheet]
Starterdairy lattoinnesto of local selection

Total time across the recorded steps: 40 days

Start
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35 °C

What changes: Raw milk is warmed to 35 °C and the dairy's own milk starter goes in

Step 1 of 7
Warm the milk and add the starter
Time
Not documented
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

the local milk starter begins to sour the milk

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 whole milk from Bruna and Bruna Alpina cows is soured with a local dairy starter and set with calf rennet at 35 °C in about 40 minutes. The curd is cut to rice-size grains, semi-cooked to about 45 °C, pressed in hoops, brined and ripened about 40 days in cool, humid rooms. Made in 7 steps over 40 days. The longest step, ripen, takes 40 days (Regione Veneto).

Key numbers
Main step40 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen
Temperature35 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Warm the milk and add the starter

What makes this one different

A Belluno dairy cheese semi-cooked at about 45 °C. It is made from the milk of Bruna and Bruna Alpina cows only, with a locally selected milk starter that the sheets call indispensable.

Rind
Clean, thin, soft, elastic, straw-yellow
Size
3–5 kg; 20–30 cm across, 8–10 cm high
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk with an acidifying milk starter and ripened about 40 days. The sheets give no microbial tests. The US FDA links raw milk and raw milk products to illness from Listeria, Campylobacter, Salmonella and E. coli. The elderly, people with weak immune systems, children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable.

History and sources

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

Named after the Zumellese hills and the castle of Zumelle near Mel, built about the middle of the 6th century on the Roman Via Claudia Augusta. Small rotating village dairies made it first.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Veneto, Atlante dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali del Veneto, Formaggi, 'Formaggio Zumelle', p. 168 (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Formaggio Zumelle'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Formaggio Zumelle' (id 1091)web
  4. [fda-raw-milk] US Food and Drug Administration, Food safety and raw milkgov