Asiago (cheese)

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Asiago
Asiago in different stages of maturity

Asiago , also Asiago Fresco or Asiago Pressata , and matured Asiago d'Allevo or Asiago Stagionato , is a northeast Italian cheese made from cow's milk with a protected designation of origin . The Asiago Fresco ( fresh ) is a semi-hard semi-hard cheese , while the Asiago d'Allevo is a hard cheese marketed in three age groups with a long to very long maturation period.

There are two very different types, Asiago Fresco or Asiago Pressato and the long-matured Asiago d'Allevo or Asiago Stagionato. The Asiago d'Allevo is available as Asiago Mezzano, Asiago Vecchio and Asiago Stravecchio, in ascending order of maturation time. Asiago, whose entire production, from grazing the cows to ripening the cheeses, takes place at an altitude of at least 600 meters, can be marketed as Prodotto della Montagna .

properties

Asiago Fresco or Asiago Pressato cheeses are 30–40 cm in diameter, around 11–15 cm high and weigh 11–15 kg. They are marked on the edge with "ASIAGO", the DOP logo and an individual number on the underside. The number gives information about the year and the place of production. The bark is smooth, thin and elastic with a yellowish gray color. It has a light straw-colored dough with lots of small, irregular holes. The rather soft cheese has a pleasantly mild taste of butter and cream with a hint of yoghurt.

The Asiago d'Allevo or Asiago Stagionato wheels have a diameter of 30–35 cm, a height of around 9–12 cm and weigh between 8 and 12 kg. The bark is thin but hard and smooth.

The composition of Asiago is set out in Italian food law. Accordingly, the Asiago Fresco may have a moisture content of 39.5 ± 4.4 g / 100 g cheese. The fat content may be 30.0 ± 4.0 g / 100 g cheese and the protein content 24.0 ± 3.5 g / 100 g cheese. The fat in the dry matter must be at least 44 percent. For Asiago d'Allevo, the values ​​are 34.5 ± 4.0 g water / 100 g cheese; 31.0 ± 4.5 g fat / 100 g cheese; 28.0 ± 4.0 g protein / 100 g cheese, and at least 34 percent fat in the dry matter. The salt content is 1.5 g / 100 g for the Asiago Fresco and 2.5 g / 100 g for the Asiago d'Allevo. The energy values ​​per 100 g of cheese are around 1585 kJ for the Asiago d'Allevo and around 1525 kJ for the Asiago Fresco.

history

Cheese has been produced on the Asiago plateau , the capital of the Seven Municipalities , a language island of the Cimbri in the province of Vicenza , Veneto region , for over a thousand years. In literature, the Asiago is often ascribed a tradition that goes back to the Middle Ages and even ancient times. As with other cheeses that are said to be centuries old, this information cannot be verified, as the contemporary reports do not provide a sufficiently precise description of the cheese mentioned. Today Asiego is produced on the entire plateau up to the Vezzena Pass and Lusern . In the past, the milk was mainly supplied by sheep . Since the 16th century, sheep farming has gradually been replaced by cattle farming, and Asiago has been made exclusively from cow's milk since the 19th century. The cheese production process used at that time is now refined with modern techniques and is widespread in the small and medium-sized dairies in the production areas. With the migration of the population, the production of Asiago cheese also came to the neighboring Trentino .

The long-matured hard cheese Asiago d'Allevo is the original variant of Asiego. It was not until the 1920s that the pressed and only briefly matured semi-hard cheese Asiago Fresco began to be marketed , which the mountain farmers had been producing for their own needs since the time they switched to cattle farming. With its softer texture and sweet taste compared to hard cheese, it meets the needs of today's consumers.

In 1979, 56 dairies joined forces and founded the "Consorzio per la tutela del formaggio Asiago" (Consortium for the Protection of Asiago Cheese). Their aim was to improve the quality of the product, promote sales and ensure correct compliance with production regulations.

Since 1955 the Asiago has been allowed to use the name "Denominazione Tipica". In 1978 he received the " Denominazione d'Origine Protetta " (DOP) as a product with a protected designation of origin. Asiago has been a product with a protected designation of origin since 1996 .

Asiago is made exclusively in cheese factories in the following areas of origin:

In addition to determining the origin of the cheese, regulations are also used to determine the cheese's production conditions. The feed permitted for feeding the cows is described and some feed is expressly excluded.

Since the end of the 20th century, the production of Asiago has increased sharply. It was doubled between 2009 and 2015 alone. In 2014, Asiago ranked sixth among the cheeses with a protected designation of origin produced in Italy with 21,500 tons. In 2016, the Consortium for the Protection of the Asiago mountain coordinated the deliveries of 1,595 dairy farms and supervised production in 36 cheese factories and six ripening plants.

Manufacturing

Asiago, taken from the molds immediately after draining

Asiago Fresco or Asiago Pressato

For production, raw milk or pasteurized whole milk is heated to 35–40 ° C. While a natural starter culture was added in the past, commercially available cultures from Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus . By adding liquid or powdered rennet , the milk thickens in 15 to 25 minutes, in certain cases table salt may also be added. The curd is cut into approximately walnut sized pieces, and this fraction is heated to 42-46 ° C in order to compress it. Warmed water can be added to remove lactose and to reduce acidity in the first phase of ripening. The curd is scooped into special wooden shapes, which are called fascere and which have the Asiago lettering all around. The cheese is pressed in the molds for three to twelve hours to remove excess whey . The molds are then placed in a drying room , the frescura , for two to six days at 12 to 20 ° C. Salting is done with dry salt or by soaking the loaves in brine for three days . Maturation at a temperature of 10 to 15 ° C takes at least twenty days and rarely longer than 40 days. The cheese reaches its peak around fifty days and, due to its limited shelf life, must be consumed within two months.

Asiago d'Allevo or Asiago Stagionato

The production of Asiago d'Allevo differs significantly from that of Asiago Fresco. First, the raw milk for an evening and morning milking is cooled down to 4 to 11 ° C. The cream from the evening milk is skimmed off. The now mixed and semi-fat milk is heated to 33 to 37 ° C and mixed with a specific starter culture and rennet. The addition of lysozyme (E 1105) and, under certain conditions, 0.5% table salt is permitted. After curdling, the thickened meat is heated to 46–48 ° C, a significantly lower temperature than for Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano , which are heated to around 56 ° C. After 10 to 15 minutes, the curd is cut into hazelnut-sized pieces and left to rest in the heated whey for another 20 to 30 minutes. The smaller fraction ensures that more whey flows off and that pressing can be dispensed with. The curd is first heated to around 47 ° C. With the heating, the "boiling", the texture of the curd and its microflora are influenced. Then the curd is filled into molds, only lightly pressed and placed in a warm room for a few hours. Salting with dry salt is followed by a rest period of ten to twenty days at 12 to 16 ° C. Alternatively, the cheese wheels can be placed in a brine for about ten days . After that, the ripening begins, which lasts from three months (for Prodotto della Montagna , otherwise four months) to over two years.

  • Asiago Mezzano: Maturation for four to six months, the rind is yellowish-gray in color. The dough is compact but still soft, intensely light straw-colored, with small to medium-sized cheese holes, very tasty but still sweet;
  • Asiago Vecchio: Maturation for ten to eighteen months, the rind is brownish-gray in color. It is a somewhat harder cheese with larger holes. Its taste is pleasantly strong and slightly hot;
  • Asiago Stravecchio: Maturation from 15 months to two or more years, the rind is brownish-gray in color. It is a very hard cheese with a brittle batter.

Prodotto della Montagna

For products that are marketed as Prodotto della Montagna , additional requirements apply. The cows may not be fed with silage , no lysozyme may be added to the milk for the Asiago d'Allevo, and the Asiago Fresco must mature for at least 30 days.

Asiago in the United States

The protection of the Asiago designation of origin only extends to the European Union and those states with which the EU has concluded bilateral agreements for the recognition of protected designations of origin. In the United States , cheese with the names Asiago soft cheese or Asiago fresh cheese , Asiago medium cheese and Asiago old chesse is produced and sold. A regulation of the Food and Drug Administration regulates the production conditions. Most of the industrially manufactured cheeses can also be made using milk powder, but never from raw milk . The treatment of the milk with chemical bleaching agents and the rind with antifungal agents as well as the addition of vitamin A to replace the vitamin A destroyed during the bleaching are permitted. Asiago medium cheese must mature for at least six months and for Asiago old cheese at least twelve months.

consumption

The Asiago Fresco can be used both as a table cheese and as an ingredient in food preparation. A light white wine or a mild rosé wine is recommended as a wine, and a dry sparkling wine as an aperitif.

Asiago Mezzano is very suitable as a table cheese, often combined with ripe pears. The Asiago Vecchio can serve as a dessert. As a rarity for gourmets, Asiago Stravecchio has a characteristic taste with a hint of dark chocolate. It is often eaten with polenta or mushrooms. For Asiago d'Allevo, the wine recommendation depends on the maturation time: the longer the maturation, the stronger and more structured the wine should be. A heavy red wine goes well with Asiago Stravecchio.

Web links

Commons : Asiago  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Erasmo Gastaldello: Asiago . In: Catherine Donnelly (Ed.): The Oxford Companion to Cheese . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2016, ISBN 978-0-19-933088-1 , pp. 46-48 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Marco Gobbetti, Erasmo Neviani, Patrick Fox: The Cheeses of Italy: Science and Technology . With Contribution by Gian Maria Varanini. Springer International, Cham 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-89853-7 , chap. 6 , p. 98-274 , especially pp. 126-131 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-319-89854-4_6 .
  3. ↑ a b Marco Gobbetti, Raffaella Di Cagno: Extra Hard Varieties . In: Paul LH McSweeney, Patrick F. Fox, Paul D. Cotter, David W. Everett (Eds.): Cheese. Chemistry, Physics & Microbiology. Fourth edition . Volume 2. Academic Press, London a. a. 2017, ISBN 978-0-12-417012-4 , chap. 32 , p. 809-828 , doi : 10.1016 / B978-0-12-417012-4.00032-6 .
  4. ^ P. Manzi, S. Marconi, MG Di Costanzo, L. Pizzoferrato: Composizione di formaggi DOP italiani . In: La rivista di Scienza dell'Alimentazione . tape 36 , 2007, p. 9–22 (Italian, fosan.it [PDF; 145 kB ]).
  5. ↑ a b Disciplinare di Produzione DOP Asiago . In: Consorzio di tutela del formaggio Asiago (ed.): DM03 / 08/2006 Gazzetta Ufficiale n.190 del 17/08/06 . August 17, 2006 (Italian, asiagocheese.it [PDF; 261 kB ]).
  6. ↑ A comparison of fresh and mature Asigo. In: Consorzio di tutela del formaggio Asiago. Retrieved January 24, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Marco Gobbetti, Erasmo Neviani, Patrick Fox: The Cheeses of Italy: Science and Technology . With Contribution by Gian Maria Varanini. Springer International, Cham 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-89853-7 , chap. 2 , p. 13-37 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-319-89854-4_2 .
  8. ↑ a b c Katja Hartmann, Giuseppe Licitra, Elisabeth Eugster-Meier, Marie-Therese Fröhlich-Wyder, Ernst Jakob, Daniel Wechsler, Jean L. Maubois, Kimon-Andreas G. Karatzas, Thomas Bintsis, Efstathios Alichanidis, Maria Belén López Morales , Françoise Berthier, İrem Uzunsoy, Barbaros Özer, Ylva Ardö: Hard Cheeses . In: Photis Papademas, Thomas Bintsis (Ed.): Global Cheesemaking Technology. Cheese Quality and Characteristics . John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ and Chichester 2018, ISBN 978-1-119-04615-8 , chap. 2 , p. 204-246 , doi : 10.1002 / 9781119046165.ch2 .
  9. ↑ a b The history of the consortium. In: Consorzio di tutela del formaggio Asiago. Retrieved January 24, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Regulation (EC) No. 1107/96 of the Commission of June 12, 1996 on the registration of geographical indications and designations of origin in accordance with the procedure under Article 17 of Regulation (EEC) No. 2081/92 of the Council , accessed on January 19, 2020
  11. ↑ Ivana Piccitto: Italy . In: Catherine Donnelly (Ed.): The Oxford Companion to Cheese . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2016, ISBN 978-0-19-933088-1 , pp. 384-387 .
  12. ↑ Marco Gobbetti, Erasmo Neviani, Patrick Fox: The Cheeses of Italy: Science and Technology . With Contribution by Gian Maria Varanini. Springer International, Cham 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-89853-7 , chap. 5 , p. 61-97 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-319-89854-4_5 .
  13. ↑ Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, Chapter I, Subchapter B, Part 133, Subpart B, Sections 133.102 - Asiago fresh and asiago soft cheese, 133.103 - Asiago medium cheese, 133.104 - Asiago old cheese . April 1, 2011 ( govinfo.gov [PDF; 150 kB ]).