Pecorino di Carmasciano, or simply Carmasciano, is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During productio ...

of the

Pecorino Pecorino cheeses are hard Italian cheeses made from sheep's milk. The name "" derives from ''pecora'' which means sheep in Italian. Overview Of the six main varieties of pecorino, all of which have Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) stat ...

family of cheeses made from

sheep's milk Sheep's milk (or ewes' milk) is the milk of domestic sheep. It is commonly used to make cultured dairy products such as cheese. Some of the most popular sheep cheeses include feta (Greece), ricotta (Italy), and Roquefort (France). Sheep breeds S ...

. It has been recognized since 2009 by the Italian

Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies The Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, it, Ministero delle Politiche Agricole, Alimentari e Forestali, italic=no or MiPAAF, is an Italian government department. It was formed in 1946 as the Ministero dell'Agricoltura e delle F ...

as a ''

prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale ''Prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale'' (PAT) is an official approval for traditional Italian regional food products similar to the Protected Geographical Status of the European Union. A list of approved products is published by the Ministry ...

'' (), abbreviated as PAT. Pecorino di Carmasciano was featured at

Expo 2015 Expo 2015 was a World Expo hosted by Milan, Italy. It opened on May 1 at 10:00 CEST and closed on October 31. Milan hosted an exposition for the second time; the first was the 1906 Milan International. The Bureau International des Expositi ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

Place of origin

Carmasciano cheese is produced in the area known as Carmasciano, which is constituted by the towns of

Guardia Lombardi Guardia Lombardi (), known as ''La Uàrdia'' () in the Irpinian dialect, is a small town and '' comune'' in the Province of Avellino in Campania, Italy. At an elevation of , it is located in Irpinia in the Apennine Mountains of Southern Italy. I ...

Rocca San Felice Rocca San Felice is a town and '' comune'' in the province of Avellino, Campania, southern Italy. Geography Located in the central area of Irpinia, the municipality borders with Frigento, Guardia Lombardi, Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi, Sturno and V ...

, and

Frigento Frigento is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Avellino, Campania, Italy. It is located in the Ansanto valley and bordered by the municipalities of Carife, Flumeri, Gesualdo, Grottaminarda, Guardia Lombardi, Rocca San Felice, Sturno, and V ...

in the mountains of Alta

Irpinia Irpinia (Modern Latin ''Hirpinia'') is a geographical and cultural region of Southern Italy. It was the inland territory of the ancient '' Hirpini'' tribe, and its extent matches approximately today's province of Avellino. Geography The territo ...

in the Italian

Province of Avellino The Province of Avellino ( it, Provincia di Avellino) is a province in the Campania region of Southern Italy. The area is characterized by numerous small towns and villages scattered across the province; only two towns have a population over 20,0 ...

of the

Campania (man), it, Campana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demog ...

region. The general area known as Carmasciano dates back to the

Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

and was documented by

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

as the area between Guardia Lombardi and Rocca San Felice. "Carmasciano" was the name of a Roman soldier who was given the land by the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...

for his success in war. The cheese may occasionally be made in

Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It has been a historical spot of significance in mezzogiorno history. Information Geography Just on a hilltop near the Fredano ...

Torella dei Lombardi Torella dei Lombardi is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Avellino, Campania, southern Italy. History The town was firstly mentioned in the 9th century as ''Turella''. In 1980, along with many other settlements in the province and the neigh ...

, Villamania, and Morra de Sanctis. It is made from the

unpasteurized Pasteurization or pasteurisation is a process of food preservation in which packaged and non-packaged foods (such as milk and fruit juices) are treated with mild heat, usually to less than , to eliminate pathogens and extend shelf life. Th ...

milk of the Laticauda breed of sheep. The name Laticauda literally means "broad-tailed," as the sheep is of the fat-tailed type. The Laticauda sheep are present only in the Campanian Apennines, with their numbers estimated to be around 50,000. For this reason, Carmasciano is produced only in limited quantities on small, family-owned farms and is expensive. A 2015 survey indicated that only five farms currently produce around 2000 wheels of Carmasciano each year.

Production

The characteristics of the cheese are influenced by the conditions of the sheep. In the Ansanto valley, the sheep graze on

alfalfa Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, and silage, as ...

and

sainfoin __NOTOC__ ''Onobrychis'', the sainfoins, are a genus of Eurasian perennial herbaceous plants of the legume family (Fabaceae). Including doubtfully distinct species and provisionally accepted taxa, about 150 species are presently known. The Flo ...

herbs near a

fumarole A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or other rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcani ...

(sulfurous fissure). This fissure, known as Mefite, is named after the Samnite goddess

Mefitis Mefitis was the Samnites, Samnite goddess of the foul-smelling gases of the earth, worshipped in central and southern Italy since before Roman times, with her main shrine at the volcano Ampsanctus in Samnium. There was a temple dedicated to her ...

(hence also the English word "mephitic" meaning sulfurous). It is located within

. The fumarole emits gaseous carbon dioxide and

sulfuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular fo ...

, which is carried by the wind and influences the formation of the cheese. The wheels of Carmasciano are usually in diameter and in height, weighing . They are produced in

cylindrical A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an in ...

form. The unpasteurized milk is put into a tinned copper boiler called a "caccavo" that is placed over a wood-burning fire, where it is heated to . It is continually mixed with a ''ruotolo'', a wooden utensil with a rounded tip. The cheese is then coagulated with

rennet Rennet () is a complex set of enzymes produced in the stomachs of ruminant mammals. Chymosin, its key component, is a protease enzyme that curdles the casein in milk. In addition to chymosin, rennet contains other enzymes, such as pepsin an ...

from lamb or

calf Calf most often refers to: * Calf (animal), the young of domestic cattle. * Calf (leg), in humans (and other primates), the back portion of the lower leg Calf or calves may also refer to: Biology and animal byproducts *Veal, meat from calves *C ...

and left to rest for 15 minutes. The curds are worked by hand and chopped to the size of a grain of rice and are left to settle on the bottom of the caccavo. The paste is left to rest for 48 hours, then collected and placed in a

wicker Wicker is the oldest furniture making method known to history, dating as far back as 5,000 years ago. It was first documented in ancient Egypt using pliable plant material, but in modern times it is made from any pliable, easily woven material. ...

basket and blanched in hot

whey Whey is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a byproduct of the manufacturing of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is a byproduct resulting from the manufacture of rennet types of har ...

. Once dry, after 5 to 10 days, the cheese is salted, washed with wine, and massaged every other day with

olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: ...

white wine White wine is a wine that is Fermentation in winemaking, fermented without skin contact. The wine color, colour can be straw-yellow, yellow-green, or yellow-gold. It is produced by the alcoholic fermentation of the non-coloured Juice vesicles, ...

, and

vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to eth ...

. Finally, the cheese matures on wooden boards in a cool room, where its rind is sprinkled with

chili pepper Chili peppers (also chile, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or chilli), from Nahuatl '' chīlli'' (), are varieties of the berry-fruit of plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for ...

to keep insects away. It is aged for at least 3 to 4 months, though sometimes it is aged for up to 24 months. Carmasciano is a

hard cheese There are many different types of cheese. Cheeses can be grouped or classified according to criteria such as length of fermentation, texture, methods of production, fat content, animal milk, and country or region of origin. The method most com ...

that has a brown, hard, wrinkled and unctuous rind. It has a medium to medium-high aroma and can become spicy, though is not typically

pungent Pungency () refers to the taste of food commonly referred to as spiciness, hotness or heat, found in foods such as chili peppers. Highly pungent tastes may be experienced as unpleasant. The term piquancy () is sometimes applied to foods with a l ...

. It is a natural antioxidant. Carmasciano is eaten as a table cheese and is usually paired with red wine, and the most seasoned wheels are used to season

pasta Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Rice flour, or legumes such as beans or lentils, ...

dishes.

References

{{Authority control Cuisine of Campania Italian cheeses Sheep's-milk cheeses Province of Avellino Guardia Lombardi Ark of Taste foods

Place of origin

Production

See also

References