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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Italy, Lazio

Pressato a manomanu pressum

Raw ewe milk is set with lamb or kid rennet, broken to rice-grain size and rested under the whey. The curd is scalded with water at 80 °C and pressed into shape by hand, salted, dried for a few days and cold-smoked over apple wood. It is eaten soon after or ripened for up to 80 days. Made in 7 steps over 2.7 months. The longest step, ripen briefly, takes up to 2.6 months (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…) and runs at 10–12 °C (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…). Lactic acid bacteria carried by the raw milk does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepup to 2.6 monthsSet[arsial-pressato][onaf-pressato]Ripen briefly
Temperature10–12 °CSet[arsial-pressato]Ripen briefly

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give temperatures and times but no amounts. A cheese weighs 0.5–1 kg.
Raw whole ewe milk · From two to four milkings, filtered through a strainer or cloth; made November to June[arsial-pressato][onaf-pressato]
Lamb or kid rennet paste, or liquid rennet[arsial-pressato]
Hot water · At 80 °C, poured over the curd before pressing by hand[arsial-pressato]
Salt · Dry, or saturated brine[arsial-pressato]
Apple wood · Burned for the cold smoke[arsial-pressato][onaf-pressato]
Starter: none; no culture is named

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.7 months

Start
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38–39 °Cshapes, not to countLactic acid bacteria

What changes: Rennet goes into raw ewe milk warmed to 38–39 °C and it sets

Step 1 of 7
Warm the milk and add rennet
Time
30 min – 1 h
Set
Temperature
38–39 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: curd.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
gel
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

The curd is not left to drain in a basket. It is scalded with near-boiling water and pressed into shape by hand, as Columella described, which gives a texture close to a stretched curd. It is then cold-smoked over apple wood.

Milk
Raw whole ewe milk, November to June
Ripening
None or short, up to 80 days; ONAF gives about 15 days
Rind
Thin, soft, rough; straw-yellow after smoking, grey-brown with age
Size
0.5–1 kg; a dome or cylinder-cone with convex faces

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is raw and the cheese is soft and moist. The UK NHS advises that soft cheese made from unpasteurised milk be cooked until steaming hot for people at risk, because of Listeria.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes, a risk in soft cheese made from unpasteurised milk; 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

The Roman writer Columella describes manu pressum, curd shaped by hand under hot water, hardened in brine and coloured with apple-wood or straw smoke, in book VII of De re rustica, about 50 AD.

  1. [arsial-pressato] ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultural development), Lazio patrimonio agroalimentare, tra biodiversità e tradizione, PAT sheet 'Pressato a mano', p. 175gov
  2. [onaf-pressato] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Pressato a mano', PAT Regione Lazioweb
  3. [nhs-preg] NHS (UK), Foods to avoid in pregnancy (cheese section)gov
  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