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Cheese from Italy, Piemonte

SalignunSalgnun

A dairy preparation made from another cheese. Tometto, a raw cow cheese about a week old, is crumbled fine with salt, chilli and cumin seed and rolled into small balls. They are eaten fresh or dried on wooden boards, and in the past hung in the chimney hood, where smoke dried them faster.

Fully documentedCheese10 days – 22 daysPAT (traditional agri-food product, Piemonte; D.D. 460/2015, product I 07)Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sheets give no doses for the salt and spices. A ball weighs 0.25–0.5 kg.
Tometto, about a week oldSome makers use cow ricotta instead[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt[pat-sheet]
Chilli[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Cumin seed[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Starterthe Tometto base may be made with added ferments (ONAF)

Total time across the recorded steps: 10 days – 22 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
36 °C

What changes: Raw cow milk is set at about 36 °C into a firm Tometto

Step 1 of 5
Make the Tometto
Time
Not documented
Temperature
36 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The regional sheet stresses a Tometto that has soured properly as the base of a safe product.

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

A dairy preparation made from another cheese. Tometto, a raw cow cheese about a week old, is crumbled fine with salt, chilli and cumin seed and rolled into small balls. They are eaten fresh or dried on wooden boards, and in the past hung in the chimney hood, where smoke dried them faster. Made in 5 steps over 10 days – 22 days. The longest step, dry or smoke, takes 3–15 days (ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori F…).

Key numbers
Main step3–15 daysReported[onaf-sheet]Dry or smoke
Temperature36 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Make the Tometto

What makes this one different

A spiced ball made from a week-old Tometto rather than from milk, and traditionally dried in the smoke of the hearth. It is the Canavese cousin of the Valsesia's Salagnùn.

Size
Roughly round, 0.25–0.5 kg
Rind
None when fresh; darker and thicker the longer it is dried in smoke

Related ferments

Safety

The regional sheet names the base cheese and the spices as the risks, and asks for a Tometto that has soured properly, clean spices and wood certified for food smoking. The Tometto is made from raw milk, and CDC says products made from raw milk can expose people to germs such as Campylobacter, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella and Salmonella.

Hazards the sources name: Coagulase-positive staphylococci, E. coli and Enterobacteriaceae, which peaked about 7 days after making and fell by the end of 90 days' ripening in a related Piedmont toma, Toma tipo Piemonte (not Salignun, whose base is a week-old Tometto). In that study of six batches, staphylococcal enterotoxins were not detected and Listeria and Salmonella met the food-safety criteria.

History and sources

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

The ONAF sheet says that in the past leftover salignun was shaped into a cheese called mörtrett, which was smoked above the chimney hood and then grated or kept for some months. It adds that in the Biellese a similar preparation, sargnon an bala, was made as small balls dried near the chimney and, when very aged, grated. The regional sheet says the balls were hung in the chimney hood to dry faster and keep longer.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Piemonte, D.D. 24 July 2015 n. 460 (BU38S1, 24 September 2015), Schede tecniche prodotti PAT, category I product 07 'Salignun o Salgnun' (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Salignun'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Salignun' (id 765)web
  4. [astegiano2014] Astegiano S, Bellio A, Adriano D, Bianchi DM, Gallina S, Gorlier A, Gramaglia M, Lombardi G, Macori G, Zuccon F, Decastelli L (2014) Evaluation of Hygiene and Safety Criteria in the Production of a Traditional Piedmont Cheese. Italian Journal of Food Safety 3(3):1705paper
  5. [cdc-raw-milk] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Raw Milk (31 January 2025)gov