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Cheese from Italy, Lazio

Mugnaia di bufala

Raw buffalo milk is warmed to 38 °C with a farm whey starter and set with liquid bovine rennet in 20–25 minutes. The curd is broken in three stages and left 4 to 4.5 hours under the warm whey to ripen, then stretched by hand into one very large braid. Over a few days the braid flattens and turns creamy and spreadable, like stracchino.

Fully documentedCheese4.3 h – 4.9 hTraditional food product (PAT, Lazio)Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedMade in a farm dairy in steel multipurpose vats; the sheet gives no batch size or doses. Braid size and weight are not fixed.
Raw buffalo milk from Lazio buffalo farms[arsial-sheet]
Farm whey starter (lattoinnesto)Milk from earlier batches left to sour for 4–5 days, or until the cheesemaker judges the acidity right[arsial-sheet]
Liquid bovine rennet[arsial-sheet]
Starterfarm whey starter (lattoinnesto) soured 4–5 days

Total time across the recorded steps: 4.3 h – 4.9 h

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countStreptococcusLactobacillus38 °C

What changes: Whey starter goes into raw buffalo milk warmed to 38 °C

Step 1 of 7
Warm the milk with starter
Time
Not documented
Temperature
38 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Streptococcus
Lactobacillus

The milk may first be chilled for a few hours.

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 buffalo milk is warmed to 38 °C with a farm whey starter and set with liquid bovine rennet in 20–25 minutes. The curd is broken in three stages and left 4 to 4.5 hours under the warm whey to ripen, then stretched by hand into one very large braid. Over a few days the braid flattens and turns creamy and spreadable, like stracchino. Made in 7 steps over 4.3 h – 4.9 h. The longest step, ripen the curd under warm whey, takes 4–4.5 h (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…). In a related cheese, Mozzarella di Bufala Campana PDO made with natural whey starter (two dairies), Streptococcus and Lactobacillus formed the core of every sample except the raw milk does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4–4.5 hReported[arsial-sheet]Ripen the curd under warm whey
Temperature38 °CReported[arsial-sheet]Warm the milk with starter

What makes this one different

A buffalo pasta filata that is not eaten at once like mozzarella. The braid is left a few days so the inside softens into a spreadable, stracchino-like cream.

Rind
None or a soft, clean skin
Size
Variable, not defined; one very large braid

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is raw. The only heat step the sheet gives is the hand stretching, which it says starts once the buffalo milk is heated to 97.5 °C. The braid is a soft, moist cheese, and the US FDA says the high moisture of soft cheeses makes them susceptible to the growth of Listeria monocytogenes, if present. 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 Comté.

History and sources

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

The sheet links the name to Mugnano di Napoli, where it was probably made, and says its production was recovered from the cheesemaking tradition of the Esposito family, above all grandfather Peppe, a cheesemaker of Campanian origin who moved to Formello near Rome in the 1950s.

  1. [levante2023] Levante A, Bertani G, Marrella M, Mucchetti G, Bernini V, Lazzi C, Neviani E (2023), The microbiota of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana PDO cheese, a study across the manufacturing process, Frontiers in Microbiology 14:1196879 (abstract)paper
  2. [arsial-sheet] ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultural development), survey sheet of traditional products of Lazio under DM 350/99, 'Mugnaia di bufala', copy hosted by ONAFgov
  3. [onaf] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), cheese page 'Mugnaia di bufala' (id 1311)web
  4. [fda-rawcheese2016] US Food and Drug Administration 2016, FY 2014–2016 Microbiological Sampling Assignment Summary Report, Raw Milk Cheese Aged 60 Daysgov
  5. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov