Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Italy, Friuli Venezia Giulia

CuincirCuncir

Fresh cow-whey ricotta from the summer alpine dairies is kneaded with salt, pepper and a little caraway, then left in wooden tubs in cool rooms. Over 45–60 days it sours slowly until, the ERSA sheet says, it is acid enough to keep, giving a white, pungent spread eaten from autumn to spring.

Fully documentedCheese45 days – 2 monthsTraditional food product (PAT, Friuli Venezia Giulia)Family: Whey cheese (heat-precipitated whey protein) family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no amounts; the spices are added to flavour the ricotta lightly. It takes the shape of its container.
Fresh cow-whey ricotta, preferably from a malga[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Pepper[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Caraway seeds or flowering tops (kümmel, Carum carvi; locally called wild fennel)[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 45 days – 2 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Fresh cow-whey ricotta from the summer dairy is the starting material

Step 1 of 4
Take fresh whey ricotta
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Ricotta made from the whey of the summer alpine cheesemaking, July to September.

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

Fresh cow-whey ricotta from the summer alpine dairies is kneaded with salt, pepper and a little caraway, then left in wooden tubs in cool rooms. Over 45–60 days it sours slowly until, the ERSA sheet says, it is acid enough to keep, giving a white, pungent spread eaten from autumn to spring. Made in 4 steps over 45 days – 2 months. The longest step, sour slowly in tubs, takes 45 days – 2 months (ERSA 2018).

Key numbers
Main step45 days – 2 monthsReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Sour slowly in tubs

What makes this one different

Unlike fresh ricotta it is salted, spiced and left to sour for about two months, and the sheets say it then keeps for most of a year.

Rind
None; takes the shape of its container
Season
Made July to September, eaten autumn to spring

Related ferments

Safety

The ERSA sheet says the souring is taken to the point where the cream is microbially stable; it is then kept in a cold room. The sheet gives no pH or test result, so that is its claim, not a measured result.

History and sources

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

A recipe book compiled in the early 1800s by Gemma di Caporiacco Nais already describes it (ERSA sheet).

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [pat-sheet] ERSA, Agenzia regionale per lo sviluppo rurale del Friuli Venezia Giulia, prodotti tradizionali, 'Cuincir' (web page printed 6 February 2018; copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Cuincir'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Cuincir' (id 397)web