CHEESES OF THE PIEDMONT REGION OF ITALY
Introduction	Bra Tenero	Bra Duro	Raschera	Castelmagno	Toma Piemontese	Murazzano
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Castelmagno

Characteristics (Denomination of Protected Origin 1 July 1996) - Castelmagno is a cylindrical cheese with flat surfaces.  The cylindrical shape has a diameter of 15-25 cm, an edge of 15-25 cm and a weight of 2-7 kg.  The cheese is ripened for atleast 60 days but frequently for longer e.g. 180 days.  The crust is wrinkled, hard, reddish-grey with yellow and white highlights.  The dough is white or ivory-white or dark-yellow without holes.  In ripened cheese, greenish-blue veins due to mould growth may be present.  The texture is hard, compact and very friable.  In fresher cheeses, the odour is fine and delicate, becoming very strong and persistent in aged cheeses.  The taste is very savoury and mainly salty in ripened products.

Production area - The cheese is produced in three villages in the province of Cuneo: Castelmagno, Pradleves and Monterosso Grana.

Cheesemaking - Castelmagno is produced with partly skimmed raw cows' milk.  The milk is coagulated by the addition of bovine liquid rennet at a temperature of 27-30° C. Starters are not used.  The curd is cut to produce granules with the size of a hazelnut and left to rest for some minutes.  Then the whey is removed, the curd is cut roughly, put into containers and covered with acidified whey obtained from previous cheesemaking.  After a period of 3 to 6 days, the curd is carefully crumbled, salted and put into special cylindrical moulds and pressed strongly.  The cheese is then dry-salted (three days per side).

Composition - The composition of Castelmagno cheese is shown in table 16.

How to cite this article

Zeppa, Giuseppe (2004).   [On-line] UK: Available:  Accessed:

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