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Cheese from Italy, Basilicata

Padraccio

A boundary entry, a cacioricotta-type curd eaten fresh. Raw goat milk is heated over a wood fire in a tinned copper pot to 85–90 °C, which sets the whey proteins, then cooled to 36–38 °C and set with farm lamb or kid rennet in about 30 minutes. The curd is broken hard to rice-grain size, left to knit under the whey, shaped by hand into balls or eggs 10–25 cm across and lightly salted.

Fully documentedCheese30 minTraditional food product (PAT, Regione Basilicata; ALSIA sheet)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

Padraccio, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Openyourm, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
No fixed amounts recordedNo doses are given. Each cheese is 10–25 cm across; ONAF gives 0.3–2.5 kg.
Raw whole milk of grazing goats[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Farm-made kid or lamb rennet[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt, a light salting[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 min

Start
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85–90 °C

What changes: Raw goat milk is heated over a wood fire to 85–90 °C

Step 1 of 4
Heat the milk over a wood fire
Time
Not documented
Temperature
85–90 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

At this heat the whey proteins coagulate, as in cacioricotta.

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, a cacioricotta-type curd eaten fresh. Raw goat milk is heated over a wood fire in a tinned copper pot to 85–90 °C, which sets the whey proteins, then cooled to 36–38 °C and set with farm lamb or kid rennet in about 30 minutes. The curd is broken hard to rice-grain size, left to knit under the whey, shaped by hand into balls or eggs 10–25 cm across and lightly salted. Made in 4 steps over 30 min. The longest step, cool and set with rennet, takes 30 min (ALSIA (Agenzia lucana di sviluppo e innovazio…) and runs at 36–38 °C (ALSIA (Agenzia lucana di sviluppo e innovazio…).

Key numbers
Main step30 minReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Cool and set with rennet
Temperature36–38 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Cool and set with rennet

What makes this one different

Like a cacioricotta, the milk is first heated to 85–90 °C so the whey proteins set with the casein; it is shaped by hand rather than moulded and is not kept.

Rind
None; white, smooth surface
Size
Ball or egg shape, often slumped
Season
June to September

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is heated to 85–90 °C before rennet goes in; the cheese is eaten fresh and, per ONAF, kept at most briefly at 4 °C.

Hazards the sources name: Escherichia coli O157:H7 survived manufacture and 90 days of ripening in lab-contaminated goat cacioricotta, a related cheese.

History and sources

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

ONAF says shepherds once took the fresh balls up to the pasture as food and used them as a gift or as payment for small favours. They were made from the curd left over after the day's goat cheeses were shaped. The curd was pressed by hand and wrapped in fern leaves. Local testimony shows it has been made for at least 25 years.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [pat-sheet] ALSIA (Agenzia lucana di sviluppo e innovazione in agricoltura), Regione Basilicata PAT sheet 'Padraccio' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Padraccio'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Padraccio' (id 344)web
  4. [ioanna2018] Ioanna F, Quaglia NC, Storelli MM, Castiglia D, Goffredo E, Storelli A, De Rosa M, Normanno G, Jambrenghi AC, Dambrosio A. 2018, Survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7 during the manufacture and ripening of Cacioricotta goat cheese, Food Microbiology 70:200-205 (abstract; a challenge study on a related goat cheese, not this cheese)paper
  5. [celano2022] Celano G, Costantino G, Calasso M, Randazzo C, Minervini F. 2022, Distinctive Traits of Four Apulian Traditional Agri-Food Product (TAP) Cheeses Manufactured at the Same Dairy Plant, Foods 11(3):425 (includes an Apulian cacioricotta of cow and ewe milk; a related cheese, not this cheese)paper