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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Italy, Molise

Mozzarella di vacca (Molise)Mozzarella di vacca

Cow milk from local, mostly grazing herds is warmed in a tinned copper kettle with whey and calf rennet, and the curd is cut, broken finer and left to ripen under hot whey for a few hours. It is then sliced, stretched in water at about 90 °C, shaped and brined for 12–20 hours. Made in 8 steps over 21 days. The longest step, hang in pairs to dry, takes 20 days (Agenzia Regionale per lo Sviluppo Agricolo). Lactic acid bacteria of the whey starter, which sour the curd and favour a useful lactic flora 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 step20 daysSet[molise-mozz]Hang in pairs to dry
Temperature32–36 °CSet[molise-mozz]Add whey and rennet

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe regional atlas describes the method with no batch size. Cheeses weigh 0.2–0.5 kg.
Cow milk · From local breeds, mostly on pasture; thermised in very hot periods[molise-mozz][onaf-mozz]
Whey · Added with the rennet; more is added when the milk has been thermised, to restore the native flora[molise-mozz]
Calf rennet[molise-mozz][onaf-mozz]
Salt · As brine[molise-mozz]
Starter: whey starter (siero-innesto) plus calf rennet

Total time across the recorded steps: 21 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Starting material: milk from local cows, mostly on pasture

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
Lactococcus lactis
S. thermophilus
Enterococcus faecium

Milk of local breeds, mostly kept on pasture and fed forage with some farm feed. It is used raw, from herds officially free of brucellosis and tuberculosis, and thermised in very hot weather. 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

Molise's own cow mozzarella is soured under hot whey at 45–50 °C and brined for half a day or more, far longer than a fresh fior di latte. The regional atlas also has the cheeses hung in pairs to dry, closer to a young scamorza than to a cheese kept in water.

Milk
Whole cow milk of local breeds, raw or thermised
Salting
Brine for 12–20 hours
Size
0.2–0.5 kg; ovoid, also cherries, bocconcini, knots and plaits
Rind
None; smooth, glossy, porcelain-white skin

Related ferments

Safety

Raw milk comes from herds officially free of brucellosis and tuberculosis and is thermised in hot weather. Stretching in water at about 90 °C brings the centre of the paste to about 64–65 °C, which cuts down contaminating bacteria. ANSES still 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.

History and sources

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

The regional atlas cites INSOR's atlas of typical Italian cheeses (p. 433). It is made almost all year; cheese from spring, when the cows graze mountain meadows, is most prized.

  1. [molise-mozz] Agenzia Regionale per lo Sviluppo Agricolo, Rurale e della Pesca (Molise), L'atlante dei prodotti tradizionali del Molise, Mozzarella di vacca (ONAF copy)gov
  2. [onaf-mozz] ONAF, scheda formaggio Mozzarella di vacca (PAT Molise)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