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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Italy, Calabria

Caprino nicastrese

Raw milk of the native Nicastrese goat is set with kid paste rennet made by the shepherds, with no starter added. The curd is broken to rice-grain size, pressed by hand into rush baskets and salted once with dry salt. Most cheeses are eaten after about 20–30 days; a few are kept six months or more for grating. Made in 6 steps over 20 days. The longest step, dry, then ripen on shelves, takes at least 20 days (ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters)). Salt is 2.1–2.3 % (Di Trana A 2022). Lactococcus lactis and Lactobacillus plantarum, L. casei and L. brevis do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 20 daysReported[onaf-sheet][ditrana2022]Dry, then ripen on shelves
Temperature27–34 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Set with kid paste rennet
Salt2.1–2.3 %Measured[ditrana2022]Dry, then ripen on shelves
Fully documentedCheese20 daysTraditional food product (PAT, Calabria; listed 2024 per ONAF)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)More hard sheep and goat cheesesMore from Italy

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo source gives a batch size. Studied cheeses weighed 0.8–1.3 kg, 11–13 cm across and 5–6 cm high.
Raw whole goat milk · Nicastrese breed, grazed on Mediterranean scrub; evening and morning milk mixed[ditrana2022][onaf-sheet]
Kid paste rennet · Made by the shepherds and diluted in warm water[ditrana2022][onaf-sheet]
Fine salt · Rubbed on dry, once[ditrana2022][onaf-sheet]
Starter: none; no starter culture is added

Total time across the recorded steps: 20 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: raw milk from Nicastrese goats, two milkings mixed

Step 1 of 6
Collect the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus lactis
Lactobacillus plantarum
L. casei
L. brevis

The evening milk is kept at room temperature, or overnight in buckets hung outside the fold (ONAF). Output: raw goat milk from the evening and morning milkings.

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 raw-milk goat cheese tied to one native breed, the Nicastrese. No starter is added, the curd is not cooked and it is salted only once.

Rind
Marked by the rush baskets; white to grey-white when young, straw to brownish-yellow and thicker when aged (ONAF)
Size
Cylinder 11–13 cm across and 5–6 cm high, 0.8–1.3 kg (one study)
Season
January (after the kids are sold) to the end of June, when the goats dry off (ONAF)

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk with no starter. In one study of 60-day-old cheeses, E. coli and Listeria were not found in any sample.

History and sources

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

Nicastro, now part of Lamezia Terme, was a Byzantine town at the foot of Monte Reventino. Local accounts show the cheese has been made there for at least 25 years. Two studies (2018 and 2021) described its microbes and its seasonal changes.

  1. [ditrana2022] Di Trana A., Di Rosa A.R., Addis M. et al. 2022, The quality of five natural, historical Italian cheeses produced in different months, Animals 12(2), 199paper
  2. [pino2018] Pino A., Liotta L., Randazzo C.L. et al. 2018, Polyphasic approach to study physico-chemical, microbiological and sensorial characteristics of artisanal Nicastrese goat's cheese, Food Microbiology 70, pp. 143–154 (abstract)paper
  3. [pino2021] Pino A., Liotta L., Caggia C. et al. 2021, Effect of seasonality on physico-chemical and microbiological properties of nicastrese milk and artisanal cheese, FEMS Microbiology Letters 368, fnab055 (abstract)paper
  4. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Caprino Nicastrese'; ONAF notes it had no regional documentation and that part of the sheet follows a similar local cheeseweb