ITALIAN CHEESE

THE CHEESE

The cheese is a product obtained from the acidic or rennet coagulation of whole or partially skimmed whole milk or of the cream of milk, also making use of ferments and cooking salt.

CHEESE PRODUCTION
To make the cheese, the milk is poured into a boiler (steel or copper container), where it is heated at a variable temperature according to the cheese to be obtained. Whether using raw milk or pasteurized milk, it is possible to inoculate natural or selected lactic bacteria to encourage fermentation processes by acidification. In the same way you can get blue cheeses. Following the eventual inoculation of the ferments, the rennet is introduced, composed of enzymes obtained from the stomachs of the infants such as veal, kid or lamb.

It is also possible to use coagulants that are not derived from animals but from plants, microbial or fungal. Today there is a return to plant coagulants as used in ancient Rome and in Abruzzo, which is based on the use of sheep milk thistle (so-called caciofiore). In the case of acid coagulation cheeses, rennet or coagulant is not used but lactic fermentation determined by the bacteria of the original milk or by inoculation of natural or selected lactic bacteria is exploited.

The rennet is able to cleave in many fragments the casein present in the milk, and to then coagulate also the fat mass particles no longer emulsifiable in water, which float forming a gelatinous and fragile mass called curd or junket. The various types of cheese are obtained from the curd:

Soft cheeses,
obtained by breaking the curd into large fragments (about the size of a walnut), which are squeezed and kneaded; the water content remains high: the cheeses obtained must be consumed immediately or stored in the refrigerator (stracchino, quark ...).
Semi-hard cheeses,
obtained by breaking the curd into fairly small fragments (about the size of an olive), which are compressed and left to age (Fontina, Puzzone di Moena, and some spun pastries such as provolone, caciocavallo ...).
Hard cheeses,
obtained by breaking the curd into very small fragments (about the size of a grain of rice), which are cooked over 46 ° C and stirred continuously; the dough obtained is compressed, salted and left to age for a period of several months (pecorino, emmental) a few years (Grana Padano, Parmigiano Reggiano ...).

HISTORY
The history of cheese has very ancient origins in the Mediterranean basin, in North Africa and in Asia Minor. Legend has it that a shepherd put milk in a sheep's stomach in which he had rennet, where he turned into cheese; the observation of the viscera of slaughtered animals still breastfeeding was probably decisive. The most ancient testimonies date back to the 3rd millennium BC

The oldest found find that witnesses the production of cheese dates back to the Sumerians, in Mesopotamia, in the third millennium BC. Other documents dating back to the same period testify the knowledge of the processing methods and production of cheese can also be found in Egypt. For the spread of cheese in Italy we will have to wait 1500 BC, which will then give rise to famous Italian cheeses such as gorgonzola.

The art of producing cheese has been increasingly improved and established itself among the ancient Greeks and the ancient Romans. In the Middle Ages there was initially an involution, as only in the monasteries was it possible to preserve the Latin tradition, but in the later period the cheeses began to be appreciated and to appear on the noble tables. A treatise on the nutritive qualities of the product was written by the Vercelli doctor and academician Pantaleone da Confienza in his Summa Lacticinorum, in the second half of the fifteenth century