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Cheese from Italy, Lazio

Formaggio di capra

Raw or pasteurised milk of local Bianca and Grigia Ciociara goats is set with kid rennet paste, in most villages at 30–38 °C, and cut to hazelnut or rice-grain curd. Some makers heat the curd and keep the forms warm for a few hours; the cheese is then dry-salted or brined, dried on cane racks and sold from 20 days to 6 months old. Each village has its own times and temperatures.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe regional sheet records each village's practice and gives no doses. A cheese weighs 0.2–1.5 kg.
Whole goat milk from local Bianca dei Monti Ausoni e Aurunci and Grigia Ciociara goats, raw or pasteurisedSmall amounts of sheep or cow milk may be added in some seasons[lazio-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Kid rennet paste, or liquid rennet[lazio-sheet][onaf]
Thermophilic starter (some makers only)[lazio-sheet]
Salt[lazio-sheet]
Chilli in the paste, or a rind sauce of oil, vinegar, oregano, chilli and rosemary (flavoured types)[lazio-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starternone at Monte S. Biagio, Itri, Campodimele, Castel S. Pietro Romano and Picinisco; thermophilic cultures at Cassino, Carpineto Romano and Latina

Total time across the recorded steps: 26 days – 6.8 months

Start
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68–72 °C

What changes: Goat milk is filtered through cloth and, in some dairies, briefly pasteurised

Step 1 of 8
Collect, filter and treat the milk
Time
0.2–0.5 min
Reported
Temperature
68–72 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Two to four milkings chilled to 4 °C, or milk worked at each milking; filtered through cloth or a sieve.

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 or pasteurised milk of local Bianca and Grigia Ciociara goats is set with kid rennet paste, in most villages at 30–38 °C, and cut to hazelnut or rice-grain curd. Some makers heat the curd and keep the forms warm for a few hours; the cheese is then dry-salted or brined, dried on cane racks and sold from 20 days to 6 months old. Each village has its own times and temperatures. Made in 8 steps over 26 days – 6.8 months. The longest step, ripen, takes 20 days – 6 months (Regione Lazio) and runs at 8–12 °C (Regione Lazio).

Key numbers
Main step20 days – 6 monthsReported[lazio-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen
Temperature8–12 °CReported[lazio-sheet]Ripen

What makes this one different

Less one recipe than a family of village methods for local goat milk, recorded side by side in the regional sheet. Times and temperatures change from village to village, and the cheese is made in the warmer months in the same area as Marzolina.

Rind
Smooth to rough with basket marks; ivory to light straw
Size
Cylinder 0.2–1.5 kg
Season
Made March to June and September to December

Related ferments

Variants

  • Fresh: soft, raw or semi-cooked curd
  • Aged: semi-hard to hard, semi-cooked
  • Flavoured: chilli in the paste, or a rind sauce of oil, vinegar, oregano, chilli and rosemary
  • Cotto (Monte San Biagio and Itri)Curd heated to 34–35 °C and dried 4–5 days at room temperature

Safety

Milk is used raw in several villages and pasteurised at 68–72 °C for 15–30 seconds in others. Milkings kept for later work are chilled to 4 °C. For the raw-milk cheeses, ANSES advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheeses other than cooked pressed ones such as Gruyère or Comté, because of Listeria, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli.

History and sources

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

The ONAF technical sheet calls it a very old type of cheese that goes back to the 3rd millennium BC, and rests this on local oral tradition, traces in municipal archives and its long presence in local restaurants and pork butchers' shops; it cites no document for the date. It names the traditions still kept, the local Bianca dei Monti Ausoni e Aurunci goat (protected by regional law 15/2000) and Grigia Ciociara goat, copper vats, wooden boards, cane drying racks and clay or glass jars. Mixed goat-sheep and goat-cow cheeses use the same method, adding other milk to make up the goat milk at the end of lactation.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [lazio-sheet] Regione Lazio, PAT 'Scheda analitica del prodotto' for Formaggio di capra (village-by-village process table), copy hosted by ONAFgov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Formaggio di capra'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Formaggio di capra' (id 836)web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov