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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Czechia, South Bohemia

Niva (Jihočeská niva)Jihočeská Niva

Niva is a Czech blue cheese made since 1949 from pasteurised cow milk with lactic cultures and Penicillium roqueforti spores. The curd is salted, moulded into loaves, brined or dry-salted, pierced and ripened in cold cellars for at least four weeks, while blue mould grows through the paste. Made in 7 steps over 30 days. The longest step, ripen in cold cellars, takes at least 28 days (European Commission 2021) and runs at 8 °C (Komprda T 2008). Salt is 20 % (Komprda T 2008). Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis and subsp. cremoris and Penicillium roqueforti do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 28 daysSet[eambrosia-niva][seznamzpravy]Ripen in cold cellars
Temperature8 °CReported[komprda2008]Ripen in cold cellars
Salt20 %Reported[komprda2008]Brine or dry-salt the loaves
Fully documentedCheese30 daysPGI "Jihočeská Niva" (PGI-CZ-0405, registered by Reg. (EU) No 24/2010)Family: Blue-veined cheese family (Roquefort as template)More blue cheesesMore from Czechia

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe PGI specification fixes the ingredients but not the doses. The amounts are from one Czech plant's process as described in a 2008 study, per volume of cheese milk.
Pasteurised cow milk · Fat set to 3.45 % ± 0.15 % (3.3–3.6 %) under the PGI specification[eambrosia-niva]
0.9 %Butter starter culture (Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis and subsp. cremoris) · Dose in one plant's process[komprda2008]
Penicillium roqueforti spores · Strain and dose not disclosed by the producer[eambrosia-niva][komprda2008]
Rennet[eambrosia-niva][komprda2008]
15 g per 100 l of milkCalcium chloride[eambrosia-niva][komprda2008]
8 kg per 1000 l of milk, then a 20 % brineSalt · Mixed into the curd, then the loaves are brined (or dry-salted on the surface)[komprda2008][eambrosia-niva]
Starterlactic cultures and Penicillium roqueforti spores; the plant grows its own mould

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days

Start
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73 °C

What changes: Cow milk is set to a fixed fat level and pasteurised

Step 1 of 7
Standardise and pasteurise the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
73 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus lactis
Penicillium roqueforti
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

A cow-milk blue made in one large dairy since 1949, ripened at least four weeks. Unlike Roquefort it uses pasteurised cow milk, and the mould is grown in the plant's own laboratory.

Milk
cow milk
Fat in dry matter
50 % (from 50 % to under 55 %)
Salt
2.5–5.5 % (lower limit cut from 3 % in 2020)
Size
Loaves of 2 kg, 15 cm across and 12 cm high in one plant (2008)

Related ferments

Variants

  • Jihočeská Zlatá NivaA separate PGI blue cheese from the same region, registered in 2010.

Safety

Blue cheeses can build up tyramine. In one study, Niva held a mean of 380 mg/kg of tyramine after 49 days of ripening, from 10 to 875 mg/kg between vats, which matters for people taking MAO inhibitor drugs.

History and sources

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

Production at Český Krumlov began in 1949 under Andrej Charitonov, a Don Cossack who had learned blue-cheese making as a prisoner of war on Corsica. The mould was once grown on dried bread crusts and is now grown on groats in the plant's laboratory.

  1. [eambrosia-niva] European Commission, eAmbrosia register, Jihočeská Niva PGI-CZ-0405, minor amendment PGI-CZ-0405-AM02 (Ref. Ares(2021)1683837), quoting the single document and specificationspec
  2. [komprda2008] Komprda T., Dohnal V., Závodníková R. 2008, Contents of some biologically active amines in a Czech blue-vein cheese, Czech Journal of Food Sciences 26(6):428–440paper
  3. [vitova2004] Vítová E., Zemanová J., Bezděková Š., Babák L., Loupancová B., Březina P. 2004, Changes of free fatty acids during ripening of Niva cheese, Czech Journal of Food Sciences 22 (special issue):310–313paper
  4. [seznamzpravy] Seznam Zprávy, 'Madeta zmodernizovala v Českém Krumlově výrobu nivy'web