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Cheese from Italy, Campania

O' Peluso

A boundary entry, set by heat rather than by fermentation. After a shepherd makes caciotta from sheep, goat or mixed milk, the whey left in the pot is heated again and stirred until a fine "curd powder" settles. This is squeezed by hand into an unsalted ball of about 200 g, wrapped in fig or vine leaves and eaten the same day or the next.

Fully documentedCheeseTraditional food product (PAT, Campania; 21st regional list, DM 15.02.2021); listed as entry 118 of the Campania section of the 2022 national list, with the mark for a derogation from hygiene rulesFamily: Whey cheese (heat-precipitated whey protein) family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedShepherds' and small producers' practice with no fixed amounts. Each ball weighs about 200 g. No salt is added.
Whey left in the pot after making caciotta of sheep, goat or mixed milk[asl-sheet][onaf]
Large fig or vine leaves, or parchment paper, for wrapping[asl-sheet][onaf]
Starternone; set by heat
Start
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What changes: Lamb or kid rennet goes into the warmed sheep or goat milk for the caciotta

Step 1 of 5
Make the caciotta first
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

This is the parent cheese; its whey becomes O' Peluso.

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 boundary entry, set by heat rather than by fermentation. After a shepherd makes caciotta from sheep, goat or mixed milk, the whey left in the pot is heated again and stirred until a fine "curd powder" settles. This is squeezed by hand into an unsalted ball of about 200 g, wrapped in fig or vine leaves and eaten the same day or the next.

What makes this one different

A whey cheese like ricotta, but made from the last whey of a caciotta, never salted, squeezed by hand into small balls and wrapped in fig or vine leaves.

Rind
None; ivory white, soft and crumbly
Size
Round or slightly oblong, about 200 g

Related ferments

Safety

The whey is heated again in the pot before the curd is gathered, and the cheese is eaten within a day. The national list marks it as made under a derogation from the hygiene rules.

History and sources

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

The ASL Avellino sheet says that by tradition the balls are shared among the family's children at the end of the cheesemaking, a ritual still kept today by most grandparents and shepherds.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
Process times
The sources we found give no figure for how long any of its steps take.
Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [asl-sheet] ASL Avellino, C.Ri.P.A.T. (reference centre for traditional agri-food products), sheet 'O' Peluso', copy hosted by ONAFgov
  2. [onaf] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), cheese page 'O' Peluso' (id 1307)web
  3. [pat-national] MiPAAF, Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali ai sensi dell'articolo 12, comma 1, della legge 12 dicembre 2016, n. 238, Allegato I (22nd revision, 2022; copy hosted by Regione Puglia, veg.biodiversitapuglia.it)gov