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Cheese from Italy

Provola dei Nebrodi PDOProvola dei Nebrodi

Provola dei Nebrodi is a pear-shaped stretched-curd cheese made from raw cow milk in the Nebrodi mountains of Sicily. No commercial starter is used. The native microflora of the raw milk and of the wooden vat and tools sours the curd for 16–24 hours, then it is stretched in hot whey, brined and hung to ripen.

Fully documentedCheese32 h – 2.2 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sources give the process, not a fixed batch size.
Raw whole cow milkFrom herds that graze at least 240 days a year; evening milk may be held cold[onaf-sheet]
Kid or lamb rennet pasteRennet in paste form, from kid or lamb[onaf-sheet]
SaltBrine for the shaped cheeses[onaf-sheet]
No commercial starter cultureThe sheet says acidification is left to the native microflora of the raw milk and of the biofilms on the wooden vat and tools[onaf-sheet]
Starterspontaneous, from the native microflora of the raw milk and of biofilms on the wooden vat and tools; the specification does not provide for commercial starter cultures

Total time across the recorded steps: 32 h – 2.2 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
4–6 °C

What changes: Cold evening milk is warmed and mixed with the morning milk

Step 1 of 8
Hold evening milk cold, warm and mix with morning milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
4–6 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
S. thermophilus
L. paracasei
Enterococcus

Output: vat milk.

Flavour
milky
Texture
liquid
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

none added

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

Provola dei Nebrodi is a pear-shaped stretched-curd cheese made from raw cow milk in the Nebrodi mountains of Sicily. No commercial starter is used. The native microflora of the raw milk and of the wooden vat and tools sours the curd for 16–24 hours, then it is stretched in hot whey, brined and hung to ripen. Made in 8 steps over 32 h – 2.2 days. The longest step, natural acidification on the tavuliere, takes 16–24 h (ONAF). Salt is up to 4 % (European Commission 2019). Lactococci and Streptococcus thermophilus and Lacticaseibacillus paracasei and Enterococcus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step16–24 hReported[onaf-sheet]Natural acidification on the tavuliere
Temperature4–6 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Hold evening milk cold, warm and mix with morning milk
Saltup to 4 %Reported[eu-single-doc][onaf-sheet]Firm in cold water and brine
AciditypH 5–5.4Reported[onaf-sheet]Stretch in the piddiaturi and shape by hand

What makes this one different

Provola dei Nebrodi is soured by the native microflora of the raw milk and the wooden tools, with no commercial starter. The curd rests on a wooden table for 16–24 hours before it is stretched in hot whey.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Provola al limone verdegreen lemon sealed in the paste; ripened >90 days
  • Provola sfogliaripened ≥5 months

Safety

Made from raw milk with no starter culture; the sheet says acidification is left to the native microflora, and the curd is stretched at pH 5.0–5.4. ANSES names Salmonella, enterohaemorrhagic E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes among the bacteria found in raw-milk cheeses, and advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheeses other than pressed cooked ones such as Gruyère.

History and sources

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

The single document calls it one of the oldest cheeses in Sicily and cites the writings of the priest Gaetano Salomone from 1870 and 1872, a manual for the district of Mistretta. The ONAF sheet adds the historian Antonino Uccello (1980) and Giuseppe Martorana (1988), and calls the cheese an exception in Sicily, where caciocavallo is usually square, and the only Sicilian provola that is aged. Belgium opposed the application in 2019 and withdrew on 16 June 2020; Regulation (EU) 2020/1319 of 22 September 2020 then registered the name.

  1. [onaf-sheet] ONAF, scheda 'Provola dei Nebrodi DOP' (repeats the production rules; the specification text itself was not available)web
  2. [busetta2023] Busetta G., Gaglio R., Mangione G. et al. 2023, Effect of commission implementing regulation (EU) 2020/1319 on the bacterial composition of PDO Provola dei Nebrodi cheese, International Journal of Food Microbiology 394:110188, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2023.110188paper
  3. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov
  4. [eu-single-doc] European Commission 2019, Publication of an application for registration, single document 'Provola dei Nebrodi' (PDO-IT-02394), Official Journal of the European Union C 257, 31.7.2019, p. 18spec
  5. [eu-reg] Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1319 of 22 September 2020 entering 'Provola dei Nebrodi' (PDO) in the register, Official Journal L 309, 23.9.2020, p. 7spec