Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Italy, Lazio

Burrata di bufala

Burrata di bufala is a raw buffalo-milk pasta filata pouch filled with cow cream and shreds of stretched curd. The milk is soured with the previous day's whey, set with calf rennet at 36–37 °C, and the curd ripens for a few hours before it is stretched in boiling water. The sealed pouch is firmed under cold water, brined 12 hours and eaten at once. Made in 7 steps over 37 h. The longest step, keep cold briefly, takes 24 h (ARSIAL) and runs at 6–8 °C (ARSIAL). Lactic bacteria of the natural whey starter, which sour the curd before stretching does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 hSet[arsial][onaf-sheet]Keep cold briefly
Temperature6–8 °CSet[arsial][onaf-sheet]Keep cold briefly
Fully documentedCheese37 hTraditional food product (PAT, Lazio), with access to hygiene derogationsFamily: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese familyMore stretched-curd cheesesMore from Italy

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sources give times and temperatures but no amounts. Each burrata weighs about 400 g.
Raw whole buffalo milk · Evening milking (chilled) and morning milking, filtered through a cloth[arsial][onaf-sheet]
Whey starter (siero-innesto) · Whey from the previous day's cheesemaking, soured for 24 hours[arsial][onaf-sheet]
Liquid calf rennet[arsial][onaf-sheet]
Cow cream · For the filling, with shreds of buffalo pasta filata[arsial][onaf-sheet]
Salt · Brine[arsial]
Starter: natural whey starter (previous day's whey, soured 24 h)

Total time across the recorded steps: 37 h

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
36–37 °Cshapes, not to countLactic acid bacteria

What changes: The previous day's soured whey and calf rennet go into raw buffalo milk at 36–37 °C

Step 1 of 7
Add whey starter and rennet to raw milk
Time
45 min
Set
Temperature
36–37 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: rennet curd.

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

What makes this one different

Unlike Apulian burrata it is made from raw buffalo milk, while the filling uses cow cream. The idea, the sources say, was to use up the small scraps left from buffalo mozzarella.

Rind
None; glossy porcelain-white skin
Size
About 400 g; sack shape
Fat
60–70 % fat in dry matter

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk; the sources rely on curd acidity and stretching to about 64–65 °C in the core to cut contaminating microbes. Keep at 6–8 °C and eat within 24 hours.

History and sources

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

An old product of buffalo farming in the marshy Tyrrhenian plains of Lazio, born of the farm habit of wasting nothing. Only a few dairies still make it.

  1. [arsial] ARSIAL, Lazio patrimonio agroalimentare, tra biodiversità e tradizione, Formaggi, Burrata di bufala, p. 148gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet Burrata di bufalaweb
  3. [pat-lazio] Regione Lazio, Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, Allegato I, Regione Lazio (2025), no. 79, marked for hygiene derogationgov
  4. [onaf] ONAF, scheda formaggio 'Burrata di bufala' (id 814)web