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Cheese from Italy, Valle d'Aosta

Reblec

Freshly milked whole milk of Valdostana cows is warmed to about 36 °C in a copper cauldron and set with calf rennet. The curd is not cut; small portions are lifted into cloths or moulds to drain. The soft, white, creamy cheese is eaten within a couple of days, plain, with herbs or sweetened as a dessert.

Fully documentedCheese2.1 daysTraditional food product (PAT, Valle d'Aosta, sheet 1.1)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

Reblec, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: F Ceragioli, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
No fixed amounts recordedHousehold practice with no fixed amounts; the regional sheet says the method was never fixed in writing. Forms are small and vary in size.
Raw whole milk of Valdostana cows, freshly milked[vda-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Liquid calf rennet[onaf-sheet]
A little salt (regional sheet); the ONAF sheet says it is not salted[vda-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starterno starter or culture is named in the sheets; only calf rennet is added

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.1 days

Start
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36 °C

What changes: Freshly milked cow milk is warmed to about 36 °C in a copper cauldron

Step 1 of 5
Warm the fresh milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
36 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Freshly milked whole milk of Valdostana cows is warmed to about 36 °C in a copper cauldron and set with calf rennet. The curd is not cut; small portions are lifted into cloths or moulds to drain. The soft, white, creamy cheese is eaten within a couple of days, plain, with herbs or sweetened as a dessert. Made in 5 steps over 2.1 days. The longest step, chill and eat fresh, takes up to 2 days (ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters)).

Key numbers
Main stepup to 2 daysReported[onaf-sheet]Chill and eat fresh
Temperature36 °CReported[vda-sheet][onaf-sheet]Warm the fresh milk

What makes this one different

A household curd of Valdostana farm families, set slowly and never cut, ladled into cloths and eaten within days. It is barely ripened at all.

Rind
None
Size
Small cylinder or truncated cone, variable

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is raw and the cheese is not ripened. The ONAF sheet has it chilled after making and eaten within 2 days. The US CDC says people at higher risk of Listeria infection, including pregnant women, people 65 or older and people with weak immunity, should avoid cheese made from raw milk unless it is heated to 165 °F (74 °C) or until steaming hot.

History and sources

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

The name comes from the Franco-Provençal reblétchì, to milk again. Herdsmen were said to leave the cows part-milked and finish later, keeping the rich last milk out of the tax owed to owners. The regional sheet says the cheese was first described in detail by G.A. Negri in his 1957 book on the Valdostan cheesemaker.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [vda-sheet] Regione Autonoma Valle d'Aosta, traditional agri-food products list (art. 8 D.Lgs. 173/1998), identification sheet 1.1 'Reblec'gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Reblec'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Reblec' (id 883)web
  4. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov