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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Italy, Lazio

Pecorino dei Monti della Laga

Ewe milk with up to 30 % goat milk is set with lamb rennet paste at 38 °C, broken to rice-grain size and semi-cooked at 46 °C for 30 minutes. The cheeses are pressed by hand, dry-salted for two days, dried on wooden boards and ripened for 3–6 months. Made in 8 steps over 3.4 months – 6.7 months. The longest step, ripen in a cellar, takes 3–6 months (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…). Lactic acid bacteria carried by the milk and Lactococcus lactis, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Latilactobacillus curvatus, found in Pecorino di Picinisco, a raw-milk ewe cheese of southern Lazio do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3–6 monthsSet[arsial-laga][onaf-laga]Ripen in a cellar
Temperature4 °CSet[arsial-laga]Chill and mix the milk

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe sheets give the share of goat milk but no other amounts. A cheese weighs 2–3 kg.
Whole ewe milk · From two milkings, chilled to 4 °C[arsial-laga][onaf-laga]
Up to 30 %Goat milk[arsial-laga][onaf-laga]
Lamb rennet paste[arsial-laga][onaf-laga]
Salt · Dry salt on both faces[arsial-laga][onaf-laga]
Starternone; no cultures are added

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.4 months – 6.7 months

Start
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4 °C

What changes: Starting material: ewe milk with up to a third goat milk, chilled to 4 °C

Step 1 of 8
Chill and mix the milk
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: mixed ewe and goat 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 a mixed-milk pecorino, with up to 30 % goat milk, and its curd is semi-cooked at 46 °C for half an hour. It needs no starter and ripens 3–6 months in mountain cellars.

Milk
Ewe milk with up to 30 % goat milk, raw or pasteurised
Ripening
3–6 months after 10–20 days of drying
Rind
Thin to fairly thick, hard, oily, ribbed by the basket; ochre to brown
Size
2–3 kg; cylinder, side 6–8 cm

Related ferments

Safety

Milk may be used 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 or pasteurising 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 and traces in municipal archives, and sold in local shops and markets for at least 25 years. The sheet links it in part to the Pecorino del Pastore described in the Istituto di Sociologia Rurale's atlas of Italian cheeses.

  1. [arsial-laga] ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultural development), Lazio patrimonio agroalimentare, tra biodiversità e tradizione, PAT sheet 'Pecorino dei Monti della Laga', p. 170gov
  2. [onaf-laga] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Pecorino dei Monti della Laga', 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