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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Italy, Lazio

Caciotta dei Monti della Laga

Ewe milk with up to 30 % goat milk is briefly pasteurised at 74 °C, rested, and set with lamb paste rennet at 38 °C. The curd is broken to rice-grain size, cooked at 40–42 °C, pressed by hand into moulds and dry-salted for 48 hours. The cheeses dry 10–20 days on wooden boards and ripen another 30 days. Made in 8 steps over 42 days – 52 days. The longest step, ripen at room temperature, takes 30 days (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…). Lactic bacteria of the milk and dairy does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 daysSet[arsial-laga]Ripen at room temperature
Temperature74 °CSet[arsial-laga]Filter and pasteurise the milk

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe sheet gives temperatures and times but no batch size. A cheese weighs 0.5–2.0 kg on the ONAF sheet.
Ewe milk[arsial-laga]
Up to 30 %Goat milk[arsial-laga]
Lamb paste rennet[arsial-laga]
Salt · Rubbed on dry[arsial-laga]
Starternone named

Total time across the recorded steps: 42 days – 52 days

Start
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74 °C

What changes: Ewe milk with some goat milk is filtered and heated to 74 °C for a few seconds

Step 1 of 8
Filter and pasteurise the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
74 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Filtered through cloth first. Output: ewe and goat milk.

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

A mountain caciotta of mixed ewe and goat milk, cooked at 40–42 °C and dried for weeks on boards before a month of ripening. ARSIAL notes its likeness to Abruzzo and Puglia cheeses, a trace of the old transhumance routes.

Rind
Thin, fairly soft, white or straw-yellow (ONAF)
Milk
Ewe milk with up to 30 % goat milk
Size
0.5–2.0 kg; cylinder with an 8 cm side (ONAF)

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is pasteurised at 74 °C before renneting, and the cheese ripens about 40–50 days in all. The Lazio list marks it as allowed to use derogations from the standard hygiene rules for its traditional methods.

History and sources

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

The cheese is old and tied to the high central Apennines, which transhumance linked to distant regions. Traces survive in old people's accounts and in town archives.

  1. [arsial-laga] ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultural development), Lazio patrimonio agroalimentare, tra biodiversità e tradizione, PAT sheet 'Caciotta dei Monti della Laga', p. 154gov
  2. [pat-lazio] Regione Lazio and ARSIAL, PAT Lazio 2026, Lazio section of the national list of traditional agri-food products (law 238/2016, art. 12), no. 92 'Caciotta dei Monti della Laga*' (* = hygiene derogation)gov
  3. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Caciotta dei Monti della Laga'web