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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Italy, Lazio

Pecorino ai bronzi

Raw ewe milk from two milkings is set with liquid rennet at 38 °C, broken to rice-grain size, pressed by hand in baskets and dry-salted. The young cheeses are washed with oil and vinegar, kept a month in wooden chests and then stood on edge for 45 days in wooden casks called bronzi. Made in 9 steps over 2.8 months – 3 months. The longest step, ripen on edge in the bronzi, takes 45 days (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…). Lactic acid bacteria carried by the raw milk and Lactococcus lactis, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Latilactobacillus curvatus, the species isolated from Pecorino di Picinisco, the raw-milk cheese this one is a variant of do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step45 daysSet[arsial-bronzi][onaf-bronzi]Ripen on edge in the bronzi
Temperature4 °CSet[arsial-bronzi][onaf-bronzi]Mix the two milkings

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe regional sheets give temperatures and times but no amounts. Each cheese weighs 0.7–0.8 kg.
Raw whole ewe milk · Evening milk chilled to 4 °C, mixed with the morning milk; made March to September[arsial-bronzi][onaf-bronzi]
Liquid rennet[arsial-bronzi][onaf-bronzi]
Salt · Dry salt spread on the faces[arsial-bronzi]
Olive oil and vinegar · For washing the rind before and during ripening[arsial-bronzi][onaf-bronzi]
Starter: none; no cultures are added to the raw milk

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.8 months – 3 months

Start
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4 °C

What changes: Starting material: raw ewe milk, the evening milking chilled and mixed with the morning one

Step 1 of 9
Mix the two milkings
Time
Not documented
Temperature
4 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Lactococcus lactis
L. plantarum
L. curvatus

Output: raw whole ewe milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
white

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

It is the Pecorino di Picinisco method moved to a damper area. To keep damp out, the cheeses ripen first in wooden chests and then on edge in closed wooden casks (bronzi), and the rind is washed three times, the last two with oil and vinegar.

Milk
Raw whole ewe milk from crossbred Massese and Comisana flocks kept on open pasture
Ripening
About 75 days after drying, 30 in chests and 45 in casks
Rind
Hard and smooth, treated with oil and vinegar; straw-yellow turning brown
Size
0.7–0.8 kg; flat-faced cylinder, side 8–10 cm

Related ferments

Variants

  • Caciotta mista ai bronziA smaller mixed-milk caciotta ripened the same way in the bronzi.

Safety

The milk is raw. In a challenge study, E. coli O157 added to raw ewe milk was still detectable in pecorino after 90 days of ripening, so clean milk matters. The regional sheet notes that, as a PAT product, it may use the hygiene derogations allowed for traditional foods.

Hazards the sources name: Escherichia coli O157 in raw ewe milk; in a challenge study it was still detectable in pecorino after 90 days of ripening.

History and sources

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

Known from local oral tradition, traces in municipal archives and at least 25 years of sale in local shops and markets. The casks are thought to have been used to protect the cheese from the damp of its area.

  1. [arsial-bronzi] ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultural development), Lazio patrimonio agroalimentare, tra biodiversità e tradizione, PAT sheet 'Pecorino ai bronzi', p. 170gov
  2. [onaf-bronzi] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Pecorino ai bronzi', PAT Regione Lazioweb
  3. [roselli2025] Roselli M., Colafranceschi F., Cipriani V. et al. 2025, Isolation and characterization of lactic acid bacteria from an Italian traditional raw milk cheese (Pecorino di Picinisco), Microorganisms 13(6):1368, doi:10.3390/microorganisms13061368 (abstract)paper
  4. [centorotola2021] Centorotola G., Sperandii A.F., Tucci P. et al. 2021, Survival rate of Escherichia coli O157 in artificially contaminated raw and thermized ewe milk in different Pecorino cheese production processes, International Journal of Food Microbiology 347:109175, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2021.109175 (abstract)paper