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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Italy, Lazio

Fiordilatte dell'Agro Pontino

Whole cow milk from the Pontine plain is warmed with whey kept from the day before, set with calf rennet and cut, then left under its whey for 3–5 hours while lactic bacteria sour the curd. When a sample stretches, the curd is worked in hot water at about 80 °C, pinched off by hand into small round cheeses with a little head and cooled in cold water. Made in 8 steps over 3.3 h – 5.3 h. The longest step, ripen the curd under the whey, takes 3–5 h (ARSIAL (Regione Lazio)). Salt is up to 3 % (ARSIAL (Regione Lazio)). Lactic acid bacteria of the natural whey starter carried over from the previous make and In a cow-milk natural whey starter from a southern Italian farm (made for caciocavallo, not this cheese) - Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, Streptococcus thermophilus, Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus helveticus and L. delbrueckii do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3–5 hSet[arsial-fdl]Ripen the curd under the whey
Temperature33–38 °CSet[arsial-fdl]Warm, add whey starter and rennet
Saltup to 3 %Set[arsial-fdl]Stretch in hot water

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe regional sheet fixes the method, not a batch size. Each cheese weighs 150–350 g.
Whole cow milk · One or two consecutive milkings from cows raised in the Agro Pontino; protein above 3 %, fat above 3.6 %[arsial-fdl]
Natural whey starter · Whey kept from the previous make, or starter cultures produced locally[arsial-fdl]
Liquid calf rennet[arsial-fdl][onaf-fdl]
Salt or brine · Added to the stretching water, at no more than 3 %[arsial-fdl]
Hot water · For stretching, at about 80 °C[arsial-fdl]
Starter: natural whey starter (backslopped from the previous make) or local cultures, plus calf rennet

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.3 h – 5.3 h

Start
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What changes: Starting material: whole milk from cows of the Pontine plain

Step 1 of 8
Collect the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Milk from one milking or two consecutive milkings, from cows raised in the Agro Pontino. ONAF's sheet says it may be used raw or pasteurised. Output: whole cow 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

It is the cow-milk counterpart of buffalo mozzarella, made around Latina with whey kept from the day before. Its own marks are the little pinched head that gives the "fiaschetta" shape and the long 3–5 hours the cut curd sours under its whey before stretching.

Milk
Whole cow milk from the Agro Pontino, protein above 3 % and fat above 3.6 %
Ripening
None; eaten very fresh
Size
150–350 g; round with a small head ("fiaschetta")
Rind
None; a thin, smooth, glossy pearl-white skin

Related ferments

Safety

Fresh pasta filata eaten within days and kept cold at about 4 °C. Stretching in water at 70–90 °C heats the curd, but when the milk is raw ANSES advises pregnant women, people over 65, people with weak immunity and young children to avoid raw-milk cheeses.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, the main hazards ANSES names for raw-milk cheeses (raw milk is one of the two options here).

History and sources

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

The regional sheet traces cheese stretched in hot water back to Columella. Around the 1950s "fiordilatte" came into use for the cow-milk cheese to set it apart from buffalo mozzarella; the word first appears in the Latina chamber of commerce price lists in April 1955, replacing "mozzarella". It was added to Lazio's list of traditional food products (PAT) in 2019.

  1. [arsial-fdl] ARSIAL (Regione Lazio), Lazio patrimonio agroalimentare - tra biodiversità e tradizione, Formaggi, Fiordilatte dell'Agro Pontino, p. 164gov
  2. [onaf-fdl] ONAF, Fiordilatte dell'Agro Pontino, technical sheet (PAT Regione Lazio 2019)web
  3. [marasco2022] Marasco R. et al. 2022, Isolation and identification of lactic acid bacteria from natural whey cultures of buffalo and cow milk, Foods 11(2):233 (abstract)paper
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov