Formaggio di Fossa

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Formaggio fi Fossa
Pit for storing the cheese

Formaggio di Fossa is an Italian semi-hard cheese made from sheep's or cow's milk . It comes from the Emilia-Romagna region and the Marche , especially from Talamello , Sogliano al Rubicone . The name of the cheese is derived from the term fossa for pit. It was originally stored in tufa caves to protect it from theft by the army of the French King Charles VIII . It has been known since the 14th century and has been legally protected under the name Formaggio di Fossa di Sogliano DOP since 2009 .

The raw or pasteurized milk is at 30-38 ° C with natural Lab curdled and after cutting the curd cm pressed by hand into cylindrical molds having a diameter of 12-20 cm and a height of 6-10. Maturation takes place in several steps: after the loaves have matured in the open air for two to three months, they are put into cotton sacks in August and stored on straw in caves, where they develop their characteristic and unusual taste profile. Before the cheese is stored, the 3 meter deep and wide pit is disinfected with fire , the floor is covered with wood and the walls are covered with a layer of straw. The pit is closed with a board and stones, sandstone powder and sand are piled on top to hermetically seal it. In the pit there is a climate of 20 ° C with a humidity of 80 to 90 percent. Traditionally, the caves are opened on November 25th , the feast day of Catherine of Alexandria .

Its fat content is at least 40.5 to about 45% fat i. Tr. The rindless loaves are irregularly shaped, weigh around 500 g to 1.9 kg and have a damp surface that can be covered with butter fat or mold . The interior is ivory or straw-colored and has a firm, crumbly structure. The scent is described as intense, reminiscent of humus , undergrowth or truffle . The taste is very intense and, depending on the milk used, bitter to piquant, the aroma is sweet and buttery.

From 1999 to 2009 the amount produced increased from 120 to 200 tons annually.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Marta Bertolino: formaggio di fossa . In: Catherine Donnelly (Ed.): The Oxford companion to cheese . Oxford University Press , New York 2016, ISBN 978-0-19-933088-1 , pp. 284-285, 289-290 .
  2. ↑ a b c Mauro De Santi, Maurizio Sisti, Elena Barbieri, Giovanni Piccoli, Giorgio Brandi, Vilberto Stocchi: A combined morphologic and molecular approach for characterizing fungal microflora from a traditional Italian cheese (Fossa cheese) . In: International Dairy Journal . tape 20 , no. 7 , March 1, 2010, p. 465-471 , doi : 10.1016 / j.idairyj.2010.02.004 .
  3. ↑ a b Lexicon of cheese . Komet Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89836-733-2 , pp. 132 .