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Fermented milk from Italy, Lombardia

Furmagg de ségiaFurmagg de la ségia

Furmagg de ségia is a re-fermented cheese pack from the Varese valleys. Discs of raw-milk goat or mixed cheeses are stacked in a staved wooden tub, the ségia, with ground pepper, moistened with whey, milk or cream, weighted with stones and left in a cool cellar for at least 40 days. It turns sharp and piquant, either spreadable or hard.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo fixed amounts; each family filled its own ségia to the rim.
Small raw-milk goat cheeses (formaggelle), or mixed cow and goat cheesesCut into horizontal discs; soft pieces fill the gaps[pat-sheet]
Ground black pepperDusted on the layers[pat-sheet]
SaltAlternated with the cheese layers[pat-sheet]
Whey, milk or creamTo moisten the pack; in Curiglia water and whey were used[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 40 days – 4 months

Start
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What changes: Small goat cheeses are cut into flat discs

Step 1 of 5
Cut the cheeses into discs
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: discs of goat or mixed cheese.

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

Furmagg de ségia is a re-fermented cheese pack from the Varese valleys. Discs of raw-milk goat or mixed cheeses are stacked in a staved wooden tub, the ségia, with ground pepper, moistened with whey, milk or cream, weighted with stones and left in a cool cellar for at least 40 days. It turns sharp and piquant, either spreadable or hard. Made in 5 steps over 40 days – 4 months. The longest step, ripen in a cool cellar, takes 40 days – 4 months (Regione Lombardia) and runs at 10–14 °C (Regione Lombardia).

Key numbers
Main step40 days – 4 monthsReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen in a cool cellar
Temperature10–14 °CReported[pat-sheet]Ripen in a cool cellar
AciditypH 5.2Reported[pat-sheet]Ripen in a cool cellar

What makes this one different

Furmagg de ségia is not made from milk but from finished cheeses, re-fermented under weight with pepper. It was a way to keep cheeses that were too hard, too runny or too small through the winter.

Rind
None
Size
Variable; spreadable mass or roughly cylindrical block cut in slices

Related ferments

Variants

  • Spalmabile (spreadable)About 40 days of ripening; greyish-white to ivory cream.
  • Duro (hard)Up to 4 months; ochre block, sometimes partly blued, grated or sliced.

Safety

The pack ripens at 10–14 °C in a cool cellar. Historically it was made in autumn, when the cold kept the re-fermentation from running too fast. Excess liquid is drained off through the holes in the tub during ripening, and the finished product has a pH of 5.2. The PAT sheet describes it as made from raw-milk goat cheeses, possibly mixed with others, and lists no heat treatment. 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

Made by almost every family in Val Veddasca at the end of the pasture season in September and October, as a way to keep small or defective cheeses through the winter; the ségia was a ritual that marked the end of the grazing season. Veronelli's 1968 guide named the ségia of Arcumeggia, which still holds a yearly Sagra del Bicc on the first Sunday of September. Production never stopped altogether but shrank to home use, and some of the last makers turned to industrial cheeses. The Varese provincial administration surveyed local goat-milk traditions in 2008, and some farms with goats in Val Veddasca have since revived it (Corti).

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Lombardia, scheda prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale "Furmag de Segia" (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF, technical sheet "Furmagg de ségia (Furmagg de la ségia)"web
  3. [corti-relazione] Corti M., Il Furmag' de (la) ségia, relazione storica (historical report on the product), ruralpini.itpaper
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov