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Cheese from Italy, Campania

Caciocavallo del Formicoso

Whole cow milk, mainly from Pezzata Rossa cattle, is warmed to 37–38 °C and set with calf rennet in a wooden vat. The hazelnut-size curd is cooked twice with whey heated to 90 °C, soured about 3 hours with sour whey from the day before, then stretched in boiling water into 2.5 kg globe-shaped forms with a small head. They are brined 24 hours, tied in pairs and hung to ripen.

Fully documentedCheese28 hPAT (Regione Campania)Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedFarm dairy process; the sheet gives temperatures and times but no doses. Each form is standardised at 2.5 kg.
Whole cow milk from small and medium local farms, mainly Pezzata Rossa (Simmental) cattle[asl-sheet][onaf]
Calf rennet, paste or liquid[asl-sheet]
A small amount of sour whey from the previous day's make[asl-sheet]
Salt (brine)[asl-sheet]
RaffiaTies the forms in pairs for hanging[asl-sheet][onaf]
Startersour whey from the previous day's make

Total time across the recorded steps: 28 h

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactococcus lactisS. thermophilusEnterococcus faeciumStreptococcus37–38 °C

What changes: Calf rennet goes into the warm milk in a wooden vat

Step 1 of 8
Warm the milk and set with calf rennet
Time
30 min
Reported
Temperature
37–38 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus lactis
S. thermophilus
Enterococcus faecium
Streptococcus
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 cow milk, mainly from Pezzata Rossa cattle, is warmed to 37–38 °C and set with calf rennet in a wooden vat. The hazelnut-size curd is cooked twice with whey heated to 90 °C, soured about 3 hours with sour whey from the day before, then stretched in boiling water into 2.5 kg globe-shaped forms with a small head. They are brined 24 hours, tied in pairs and hung to ripen. Made in 8 steps over 28 h. The longest step, firm and brine, takes 24 h (ASL Avellino). In a related product, the natural whey starter of cow's milk used for caciocavallo in two Campania dairies (a 2022 study; this cheese's own starter was not tested), culture found Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, Streptococcus thermophilus and Enterococcus faecium, and sequencing found mostly Streptococcus (read as S. salivarius) with some Lactococcus lactis does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 hReported[asl-sheet]Firm and brine
Temperature37–38 °CReported[asl-sheet]Warm the milk and set with calf rennet

What makes this one different

A plateau caciocavallo whose curd is cooked twice with whey heated to 90 °C and soured with the previous day's whey before stretching. Older accounts tie it to spring making with Podolica and Marchigiana cattle.

Rind
Clean, straw-yellow, darkening to leather colour and thickening with age
Size
Globe with a small head tied with raffia, standardised at 2.5 kg

Related ferments

Safety

The curd is cooked with whey at 90 °C and stretched in boiling water, then brined 24 hours.

History and sources

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

The cheese was once made only in spring and summer, with Podolica or Marchigiana cattle or their crosses that also worked the fields. Copper boilers over wood fires were used in rooms kept for this work only at that time of year.

  1. [asl-sheet] ASL Avellino, C.Ri.P.A.T. (Centro di Riferimento Produzioni Agroalimentari Tradizionali), sheet 'Caciocavallo del Formicoso', copy hosted by ONAFgov
  2. [onaf] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), cheese page 'Caciocavallo del Formicoso' (id 1309)web
  3. [foods2022-nws] Marasco R., Gazzillo M., Campolattano N., Sacco M., Muscariello L. (2022), Isolation and Identification of Lactic Acid Bacteria from Natural Whey Cultures of Buffalo and Cow Milk, Foods 11(2):233 (natural whey starters from two artisanal dairies in Campania)paper