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Cheese from Italy, Piedmont, the province of Cuneo and the municipality of Villafranca Piemonte

Raschera PDO

Cow milk, sometimes with a little sheep or goat milk, may be heat-treated and seeded with lactic cultures or natural starters, then set with rennet at 27–38 °C. The curd is broken to maize-kernel size, pressed in round or square moulds and worked for at most 7 days before salting in brine and/or dry. It ripens at least one month in natural caves or rooms that copy them, growing a thin grey to reddish rind.

Fully documentedCheese30 daysPDO (EU), Reg. (EC) No 1263/96; amended 2013 (Reg. (EU) No 1086/2013) and 2022 (OJ L 100, 28.3.2022)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification gives conditions, not doses. Round cheeses weigh 5–9 kg, square ones 6–10 kg.
Cow milk from two or more milkings, possibly partly skimmed[rasch-2013][rasch-2021]
Small quantities of sheep and/or goat milk (optional)[rasch-2013][rasch-2021]
Lactic cultures (fermenti lattici) and/or natural starters (innesti naturali), optional[rasch-2013][rasch-2021]
Rennet; animal rennet must contain at least 80 % chymosin, non-animal coagulants allowed[rasch-2021]
Salt, dry and/or as brine[rasch-2021]
Starteroptional lactic cultures and/or natural starters

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
27–38 °C

What changes: Rennet and optional cultures go into the cow milk

Step 1 of 5
Seed and set the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
27–38 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The milk may be heat-treated and seeded with lactic cultures or natural starters, which help form the eyes.

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

Cow milk, sometimes with a little sheep or goat milk, may be heat-treated and seeded with lactic cultures or natural starters, then set with rennet at 27–38 °C. The curd is broken to maize-kernel size, pressed in round or square moulds and worked for at most 7 days before salting in brine and/or dry. It ripens at least one month in natural caves or rooms that copy them, growing a thin grey to reddish rind. Made in 5 steps over 30 days. The longest step, ripen in caves, takes at least 30 days (European Commission 2013).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 30 daysSet[rasch-2013][rasch-2021]Ripen in caves
Temperature27–38 °CSet[rasch-2021]Seed and set the milk

What makes this one different

Mostly square, and ripened in natural cave cellars or rooms that copy them, which shapes the rind's moulds. The d'Alpeggio type is made only from summer pasture milk above 900 m.

Shapes
Round, 30–40 cm across with a 6–9 cm edge, 5–9 kg; square, 28–40 cm sides with a 7–15 cm edge, 6–10 kg
Fat
Fat in dry matter at least 32 %
d'Alpeggio
Made from milk of grazing animals in the mountain-pasture season, 1 June to 15 October, in named municipalities above 900 m
Ripening
At least one month; 'Oltre quattro mesi' for at least 120 days

Related ferments

Variants

  • Raschera d'AlpeggioMade and ripened only in named Monregalese municipalities above 900 m, from summer pasture milk.

Safety

The milk may be raw or heat-treated.

History and sources

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

The cheese has been made for more than a century on the pastures around Mondovì, and herds moving down to the plain in bad weather spread it across the Cuneo plain. Archive documents of Pamparato and Ormea dated 1460–1520 record herders paying the local lord in cheese for the use of the pastures. The name comes from a pasture and lake of the same name below Monte Mongioie in Magliano Alpi, and the square shape made the cheeses easier to carry down by mule. A presidential decree of 16 December 1982 recognised the denomination, published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale of 18 July 1983. The 2022 amendment added Villafranca Piemonte, raised the setting temperature to 38 °C and allowed brine-only salting.

  1. [rasch-2013] European Commission 2013, publication of an amendment application and single document 'Raschera' IT-PDO-0217-0023-31.05.2011, OJ C 109, 16.4.2013 (CELEX 52013XC0416(04)), via publications.europa.euspec
  2. [rasch-2021] European Commission 2021, publication of an amendment application and single document 'Raschera', OJ C 439, 29.10.2021 (CELEX 52021XC1029(03)), approved by OJ L 100, 28.3.2022, via publications.europa.euspec
  3. [rasch-1983] Decreto del Presidente della Repubblica 16 dicembre 1982, Riconoscimento della denominazione di origine del formaggio «Raschera», Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana n. 195, 18 July 1983, pp. 5708–5709, with the production specification's notes on history and the link to the territory (eAmbrosia attachment 59782)spec