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Cheese from Italy, Campania

Caciottina canestrata di Sorrento

Raw whole cow milk from a single milking is set with liquid calf rennet at 36–37 °C. The curd is broken to corn or rice size, packed by hand into small rush baskets and drained until the next day, then dried, wrapped in parchment and sold at once or after a few days. Each cheese weighs only 20–50 g.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo doses in the sheets; each cheese weighs 20–50 g.
Raw whole local cow milk from one milking[onaf-sheet]
Liquid calf rennet[onaf-sheet][pat-sheet]
Start
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36–37 °C

What changes: Liquid calf rennet goes into raw cow milk warmed to 36–37 °C

Step 1 of 4
Filter and warm the milk, then add rennet
Time
Not documented
Temperature
36–37 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Raw whole cow milk from a single milking is set with liquid calf rennet at 36–37 °C. The curd is broken to corn or rice size, packed by hand into small rush baskets and drained until the next day, then dried, wrapped in parchment and sold at once or after a few days. Each cheese weighs only 20–50 g.

Key numbers
Temperature36–37 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Filter and warm the milk, then add rennet

What makes this one different

One of the smallest Italian rennet cheeses, single-portion and basket-moulded, sold almost at once wrapped in parchment rather than ripened.

Rind
Thin, white to pale straw, basket-marked
Size
20–50 g; cylinder with flat faces and a convex side
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw whole cow milk and sold fresh or after a few days in cool, dry rooms or conditioned cells, so it is a very young raw-milk cheese. The sheets give no pH, salt or other safety figures. An official-sampling review of the Sorrento Peninsula's cheeses found E. coli in 3 of 4 samples of caciotta canestrata and traced it to the wicker baskets, which were replaced with plastic. The CDC names Listeria and other germs as general risks of cheese made from raw milk.

Hazards the sources name: E. coli in 3 of 4 official samples of caciotta canestrata from the Sorrento Peninsula; the source of contamination was traced to the wicker baskets, since replaced with plastic; Enterococci, some isolates carrying virulence genes, in raw-milk Caciotta, Caciocavallo and Scamorza from two Italian dairies made with natural cultures (related cheeses, not this cheese).

History and sources

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

Named for the small wicker or rush baskets (canestri) it is moulded in; made by the same method for at least 25 years, as PAT listing requires.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Process times
The sources we found give no figure for how long any of its steps take.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Campania, Prodotti tradizionali, 'Caciottina canestrata di Sorrento' (regional page, last updated 13 March 2015; copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Caciottina canestrata di Sorrento'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, scheda formaggio 'Caciottina canestrata di Sorrento' (id 1152)web
  4. [cdc-raw-milk] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Raw Milk (food safety page)gov
  5. [cdc-listeria] CDC, Preventing Listeria Infection (web page, accessed 2026-10)gov
  6. [degregorio2026] De Gregorio G, Cacace F, Mollica D, Castellano FS, Sola L, Toscano RE, Di Loria G, Ceruso M. 2026, Traditional dairy products of the Sorrento Peninsula (poster PO14, abstract), Italian Journal of Food Safety 15(s1)paper
  7. [delmatto2021] Del Matto I, Rossi F, Iannitto G, Petrone D, Mastrodomenico MT, Alessiani A, Sacchini L, Amadoro C, Tucci P, Marino L. 2021, Variability of the microbiota in traditional Caciocavallo, Scamorza and Caciotta cheeses manufactured with raw milk and natural cultures, International Journal of Dairy Technology, pp. 564-574 (abstract; related Italian raw-milk cheeses, not this cheese)paper