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Cheese from Italy, Lazio

Provolone invecchiato di bufala di Formello

Buffalo milk, pasteurised at 72 °C (some batches use raw milk), is set at 38 °C with liquid bovine rennet. The curd is broken to rice-grain size, ripened 4–5 hours in hot whey and stretched by hand, then tied with string into a segmented pumpkin shape of up to about 20 kg. It hangs in a cold room at 4 °C for one to five years.

Fully documentedCheese12 months – 5 yearsTraditional food product (PAT, Lazio; no. 119 on the 2025 national list)Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedA single-dairy cheese; the sheet gives no batch size or doses. A form weighs up to about 20 kg.
Whole buffalo milk from Lazio buffalo farms[arsial-sheet]
Liquid bovine rennet[arsial-sheet]
Plant or synthetic string, for tying and hanging[arsial-sheet][onaf]

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 months – 5 years

Start
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2–4 °C

What changes: Buffalo milk is chilled for a few hours before work

Step 1 of 8
Chill the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
2–4 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Streptococcus
Lactobacillus
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

Buffalo milk, pasteurised at 72 °C (some batches use raw milk), is set at 38 °C with liquid bovine rennet. The curd is broken to rice-grain size, ripened 4–5 hours in hot whey and stretched by hand, then tied with string into a segmented pumpkin shape of up to about 20 kg. It hangs in a cold room at 4 °C for one to five years. Made in 8 steps over 12 months – 5 years. The longest step, age hanging in the cold, takes 12 months – 5 years (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…) and runs at 4 °C (ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultura…). In a related cheese, Mozzarella di Bufala Campana PDO made with natural whey starter (two dairies), Streptococcus and Lactobacillus formed the core of every sample except the raw milk does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step12 months – 5 yearsReported[arsial-sheet][onaf]Age hanging in the cold
Temperature4 °CReported[arsial-sheet]Age hanging in the cold

What makes this one different

A buffalo-milk provolone aged one to five years, hanging by its string in a cold room. The string makes its segmented pumpkin shape.

Rind
Thin, slightly elastic to rigid, ochre-yellow
Size
Up to about 20 kg; segmented pumpkin shape

Related ferments

Safety

The sheet describes pasteurising the milk at 72 °C for 10–15 seconds and says some batches are made with raw milk. The cheese ages at 4 °C for one to five years.

History and sources

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

The sheet traces the cheese to grandfather Peppe Esposito, a Campanian cheesemaker who moved to Formello near Rome in the 1950s to sell his family's buffalo cheeses in the Rome market.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [levante2023] Levante A, Bertani G, Marrella M, Mucchetti G, Bernini V, Lazzi C, Neviani E (2023), The microbiota of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana PDO cheese, a study across the manufacturing process, Frontiers in Microbiology 14:1196879 (abstract)paper
  2. [arsial-sheet] ARSIAL (Lazio regional agency for agricultural development), survey sheet of traditional products of Lazio under DM 350/99, 'Provolone invecchiato di bufala di Formello', copy hosted by ONAFgov
  3. [onaf] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), cheese page 'Provolone invecchiato di bufala di Formello' (id 1313)web
  4. [pat-lazio-2025] ARSIAL, 'PAT Lazio 2025', Italy's national list of traditional agri-food products (Law 238/2016, Annex I), Lazio section; entry 119 'Provolone invecchiato di bufala di Formello'gov