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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Switzerland, Ticino and Italian-speaking Graubünden

Formaggella ticineseformaggella

Formaggella is a small round cheese of Ticino made from goat, cow or mixed milk, soft to semi-hard and full-fat, half-fat or lean. Thermised milk is cultured, set with rennet, cut to hazelnut size, rewarmed to 38 °C and ladled into perforated baskets. After a few hours in brine it ripens at least three weeks in a cellar and forms a thin grey rind. Made in 8 steps over 21 days. The longest step, ripen in the cellar, takes at least 21 days (Kulinarisches Erbe der Schweiz / Patrimoine c…) and runs at 12–14 °C (Kulinarisches Erbe der Schweiz / Patrimoine c…). Thermophilic direct starter cultures does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 21 daysReported[patrimoine-ch]Ripen in the cellar
Temperature12–14 °CReported[patrimoine-ch]Ripen in the cellar

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedFarm cheese with no fixed batch size. Each cheese weighs 400 g–2 kg; a small producer made about 30–40 kg a week in 2007.
Goat, cow or mixed milk · Full-fat cheese from goat milk only; half-fat adds skimmed cow milk; thermised at 65 °C[patrimoine-ch]
Thermophilic direct starter cultures[patrimoine-ch]
Moulds (optional) · Make the rind whiter[patrimoine-ch]
Rennet · Diluted in lukewarm water[patrimoine-ch]
Salt · Brine or dry salt[patrimoine-ch]
Starter: thermophilic direct starter cultures, with optional moulds

Total time across the recorded steps: 21 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: goat, cow or mixed milk from the mid-altitude pastures

Step 1 of 8
Take goat or cow milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Made traditionally while the herds are on the intermediate pastures, below the summer alps.

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

Formaggella is the small cheese of Ticino's intermediate pastures and plains, not of the high summer alps. It is ladled into perforated baskets and ripened only a few weeks, unlike the large alpine cheeses of the same valleys. Its name is a diminutive of formaggio.

Rind
Soft, thin, grey
Size
400 g–2 kg; 10–20 cm diameter, 3–5 cm high

Related ferments

Variants

  • Full-fat (goat milk)Made from goat milk only
  • Half-fat or leanSkimmed cow milk added

Safety

The milk is thermised at 65 °C, not pasteurised. No safety study of this cheese was found.

History and sources

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

The inventory dates formaggella to the use of the alpine pastures from around 1200. A 1913 book on goats describes full-fat and half-fat cheeses of 550 g to 2 kg, salted after two days and ripened one to two months, up to five. Until the mid-20th century it was eaten almost only at home; thermising became common in the 1990s.

  1. [patrimoine-ch] Kulinarisches Erbe der Schweiz / Patrimoine culinaire suisse, national inventory entry 'Formaggella', no. 45 (Ticino and Italian-speaking Graubünden)archive
  2. [rsi2024] Rennis P. 2024, Dal Büsciòn al Piora, i formaggi ticinesi da scoprire, RSI (Swiss Italian public broadcaster), 3 May 2024web