Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Italy, Liguria, province of Genoa

Tomini caprini della Valbrevenna (Caprino della Val Brevenna)Caprino della Valbrevenna

These are small cylinders of raw goat-milk cheese, about 5 cm across, set slowly by lactic souring at 20–25 °C with a little calf rennet added late. The curd drains a day in perforated moulds; in Valbrevenna the little cheeses are then dusted with chestnut or beech ash for two hours and ripened about 10 days. Made in 6 steps over 12 days. The longest step, ripen briefly, takes 10 days (Regione Liguria). Native lactic bacteria, from added cultures or sour whey of the last batch does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step10 daysReported[pat-liguria][onaf-brevenna]Ripen briefly
Temperature20–25 °CReported[onaf-brevenna]Let the milk sour and set
Fully documentedCheese12 daysTraditional food product (PAT, Regione Liguria; regional text filed under Caprino di malga)Family: Lactic soft-ripened cheese family (goat/sheep/cow lactic curd)More lactic soft-ripened cheesesMore from Italy

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sources give temperatures and times but no amounts. Each tomino is about 5 cm across and weighs about 180–200 g.
Raw whole goat milk[pat-liguria][onaf-brevenna]
Native lactic cultures and/or sour whey from the last batch[onaf-brevenna]
Calf rennet (a small quantity)[onaf-brevenna]
Salt · Added to the curd in the vat[onaf-brevenna]
Chestnut or beech ash[pat-liguria][onaf-brevenna]
Starter: native lactic cultures and/or sour whey from the previous make

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Sour whey from the last batch, or native cultures, goes into raw goat milk

Step 1 of 6
Add sour whey to the raw milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: inoculated goat milk.

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

What makes this one different

The curd is set mostly by slow lactic souring with whey from the last batch, finished with a little rennet, and the little cheeses are dusted with chestnut or beech ash for two hours.

Size
Cylinder about 5 cm across (5–6 cm), about 2 cm high, about 180–200 g
Season
Made March to October
Related make
The same regional text describes a raw goat formaggetta 10–14 cm across, set by rennet, sometimes with some cow milk, eaten fresh or after about thirty days

Related ferments

Variants

  • Unashed caprinoWhite to straw-coloured, eaten fresh or after about a month.

Safety

The milk is raw and the cheese is eaten after about 10 days. ANSES names soft raw-milk cheeses among the main sources of hazards and advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and immunocompromised people to avoid raw-milk cheeses.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (named for soft raw-milk cheeses).

History and sources

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

The regional text notes that goat herds in the Ligurian valleys have grown in number, with semi-intensive keeping on natural pasture plus cultivated forage.

  1. [pat-liguria] Regione Liguria, PAT sheet 'Caprino di malga' (Caprino della Valbrevenna, Caprino di malga delle Alpi Marittime), copy hosted by ONAFgov
  2. [onaf-brevenna] ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters), technical sheet 'Caprino della Val Brevenna'web
  3. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov