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Cheese from Italy, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Carnia

Formaggio salato (Formadi salât)Formadi salât

A Carnian cow cheese that ripens in brine. Raw milk is set with rennet, the curd is cooked to no more than 43 °C and shaped in hoops without pressing. The wheels then sit for 60 to 120 days in a 'salina', an old brine of water, salt, cream and milk kept in larch tubs and topped up every month, which makes them markedly salty.

Fully documentedCheese2 months – 3.9 monthsTraditional food product (PAT, Friuli Venezia Giulia)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe ERSA sheet sets limits but no amounts; the share of water, salt, cream and milk in the brine mother varies with when it was first made. Wheels weigh 5.5–6.5 kg.
Whole raw cow milk from at most two milkings in 24 hoursKept at no less than 4 °C on the farm, without preservatives[salato-ersa][salato-onaf]
Milk starter (lattoinnesto) of suitable microbes (optional)[salato-ersa]
Rennet[salato-ersa]
Brine 'salina' grown from a 'madre' of water, salt, surface cream and milk[salato-ersa][cibario]
StarterA milk starter of suitable microbial selection may be added; the ERSA sheet allows it but does not require it

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 months – 3.9 months

Start
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What changes: Rennet goes into the warmed raw milk and sets it

Step 1 of 5
Warm the milk and set with rennet
Time
10–45 min
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The milk is warmed in the kettle until it reaches the right acidity; it is worked within 24 hours of reaching the dairy.

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

A Carnian cow cheese that ripens in brine. Raw milk is set with rennet, the curd is cooked to no more than 43 °C and shaped in hoops without pressing. The wheels then sit for 60 to 120 days in a 'salina', an old brine of water, salt, cream and milk kept in larch tubs and topped up every month, which makes them markedly salty. Made in 5 steps over 2 months – 3.9 months. The longest step, ripen in the salina, takes 2–3.9 months (ERSA Agenzia regionale per lo sviluppo rurale…) and runs at up to 14 °C (ERSA Agenzia regionale per lo sviluppo rurale…).

Key numbers
Main step2–3.9 monthsReported[salato-ersa]Ripen in the salina
Temperatureup to 14 °CReported[salato-ersa]Ripen in the salina
AciditypH 5.1–5.2Reported[salato-ersa]Ripen in the salina

What makes this one different

It ripens for months submerged in a living brine of salt, cream and milk kept in larch tubs and topped up monthly, rather than on shelves. It is not pressed.

Size
Cylinders 35–50 cm across with an 8–12 cm heel, weighing 5.5–6.5 kg
Brine time
60–120 days in the salina from the day of cheesemaking

Related ferments

Safety

Made from raw milk and kept in brine for 60–120 days. The ERSA sheet requires the milk to be worked within 24 hours of reaching the dairy and the brine rooms to stay at 14 °C or below for the first 40 days. ANSES names Listeria, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli as the main raw-milk cheese hazards. It advises pregnant women, people over 65, people with weak immunity and young children not to eat raw-milk cheeses, except cooked pressed ones such as Comté.

History and sources

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

Salted cheeses come from both sides of the ridges between the Tagliamento valley and the upper Arzino valley. The ERSA sheet cites a dairy at Enemonzo that still keeps a family brine that stands for the hundreds of salinas in Carnia in the late 1800s. The sheet adds that, for a mountain people, a cheese that kept for a long time was a matter of survival, and that Venetian merchants had admired the product for centuries.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [salato-ersa] ERSA Agenzia regionale per lo sviluppo rurale (Friuli Venezia Giulia), Prodotti tradizionali, 'Formaggio salato' (sheet printed 19/8/2017)gov
  2. [cibario] ERSA, Il Cibario del Friuli Venezia Giulia, Atlante dei prodotti della tradizione, edition 2017, chapter Formaggi e latticinigov
  3. [salato-onaf] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Formaggio salato'web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov