The making of caciotta

Scorrere in basso per la versione in italiano

During the morning I spent with Alice, she showed me how to make caciotta. She used fresh milk from the same morning milking.

Goat cheese has been made for thousands of years, and was probably one of the first produced dairy products. In its most simple form, the process of goat cheese making is made by three phases. First, raw milk is allowed to naturally curdle, and then let it drained and the curds pressed. Other techniques included the use of an acid (such as vinegar or lemon juice) or rennet to coagulate the milk. That is the case of paneer that Alice herself makes for the customer with special needs and tastes.

Below are the pictures of the process of caciotta making.

Pasteurized goat’s milk and rennet are poured into a large stainless steel pot and the temperature heated up to 40 C until the milk curdle. Later, the curd is cut in order to separate the solid part from the whey (made of water, protein, lactose and ferment).

When the curd has reached the right consistency, Alice adds flavours to it such as provencal herbs and dried tomato chips and pours it into the forms. The plastic forms have holes on the sides that allow them cheese to dry and stabilize. The forms are let to rest for about a hour.

After one of two hours, caciotta is removed from the plastic forms and transferred into the fridge for a short aging and from there to the customer's table.

In addition to the small shop in-house where Alice sells yoghurt and cheese, she is also one of the weekly stands taking part to the Farmer Market in Malo, on Saturday morning.

Info:
Grattanuvole Società Agricola S.S.
Via Prà 35, Valli del Pasubio
Vicenza, ITALY

Valleogra Farmer Market
Via Pasubio 13, Malo
Vicenza, ITALY
opening hours: Saturdays 08:30-12.30

Opening time: get in touch with Alice sending an email to alice.pertile@libero.it

Thanks to Alice for the great time together and good luck to her and her business!

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Versione in italiano

Caciotta tra le nuvole

Durante la mattinata trascorsa con Alice dell’azienda agricola Grattanuvole, ho imparato tutto quello che riguarda la produzione della caciotta. Al momento del mio arrivo, Alice aveva già trascorso alcune ore tra le sue caprette. Infatti la mungitura avviene regolarmente ogni mattina sera, mentre la produzione del formaggio a giorni alterni: lunedì, mercoledì e venerdì. Il latte per le nostre caciotte era quindi fresco di un paio d’ore.

La produzione di formaggio di capra data migliaia di anni e molto probabilmente si tratta di uno dei primi prodotti di caseificazione. Delle origini se ne parla ampiamente nella mitologia e letteratura greca. Omero riferisce che Zeus fu nutrito con il latte e i formaggi della capra Amaltèa, il cuo corno simboleggiava la cosidetta cornucopia dell’abbondanza. Secondo altre fonti, il formaggio, assieme ad ingredienti autoctoni come frutta e miele era la fonte principale di nutrimento durante le Olimpiadi. Si trattava sempre di latte caprino oppure di formaggio misto prodotto con latte ovino e caprino. Il latte vaccino non veniva quasi mai usato perché considerato nocivo. Classiche produzioni greche erano la feta, la ricotta mischiata con erbe e miele oppure formaggio stagionato scaldato sulle braci.

L’arte della caseificazione fu messa a punto dagli Etruschi che introdussero l’uso di cagli di origine vegetale composti da succo di fico, zafferano, carciofi e aneto e trasmessa successivamente ai Romani che la trasformarono in una produzione a larga scala.

I maggiori autori romani riportano notizie relative al consumo e legislazione dell’industria casearia: Varrone parla della bollitura e affumicatura della cagliata; Virgilio racconta che la razione giornaliera di pecorino dei legionari era di 27gr; Plinio il Vecchio, riporta una lista di prodotti caseari più rinomati a Roma e il “De Re Rustica” di Columella narra delle tecniche di caseificazione, non molto diverse da quelle attuali.

Come riportato da Columella e pratica ancora attuale ai giorni nostri, tre sono gli ingredienti chiave nella produzione di formaggio di capra: latte, caglio e cagliata. Nella sua forma più semplice, il latte di capra viene fatto cagliare, lasciato a sgocciolare e poi premuto nelle forme di formaggio, che variano di dimensione a seconda del prodotto finale. Altre tecniche che permettono al latte di coagularsi, includono l’uso di acidi come l’aceto e il succo di limone oppure il caglio. Anche Alice sfrutta questa gamma di opzioni, producendo del formaggio chiamato “paneer”. Una produzione tipicamente indiana, reso possibile grazie all’azione coagulante del limone preferito al caglio e più apprezzato da vegetariani e specialmente vegani.

Il processo di produzione della caciotta è molto semplice, come illustrato dalle foto in alto.

Il latte viene riscaldato direttamente nella caldaia a campana rovesciata di rame. Il materiale e la forma consentono una buona trasmissione del calore e compattazione della cagliata sul fondo con una migliore produzione di spurgo del siero. Al latte viene aggiunto il caglio, un’enzima che provoca la destibilizzazione delle micelle di caseina e la conseguente aggregazione delle stesse a formare la cagliata. Il caglio viene estratto dallo stomaco dei vitelli e si trova in commercio in forma liquida o in polvere. 

Per consentire il suo effetto ottimale è necessario che si raggiunga una temperatura di 40-45C. 

Una volta raggiunta la coagulazione, si lasciano passare circa 10-15 minuti, prima di procedere al taglio con lo spino (foto 1), in modo da aumentare la consistenza della cagliata (foto 2). Al tatto, si tratta di una sostanza elastica e liscia (foto 4). 

Dopo la rottura, la cagliata si cuoce a una temperatura superiore ai 40C con lo scopo di aumentare la coeasione tra i grumi caseosi (foto 3). Una volta cotta e raggiunta la consistenza adatta per la produzione della caciotta, Alice prepara le forme delle caciotte. Alcune decide di aromatizzarle con delle spezie provenzali, altre vengono lasciate bianche. Una volta riempite le forme, vengono lasciate a riposo per un paio d’ore e poi riposte nei frighi. Le caciotte verranno vendute al Mercato Contadino della Valleogra di Malo al sabato mattina oppure nello spaccio dell’Azienda Agricola.

Info:

Azienda Agricola Grattanuvole

Via Prà 35, Valli del Pasubio
orari: contattare alice.pertile@libero.it

Mercato Contadino della Valleogra
Via Pasubio 13, Malo Vicenza
orari: sabato 08:30-12.30

Grazie mille ad Alice per il tempo trascorso insieme e un enorme in bocca al lupo per la sua attività!

Alice dreams of goat cheese

On a warm morning of July, I drove my car up to the Prealps, in the province of Vicenza to meet Alice from the factory farm Grattanuvole ('scratchclouds' in English). I was about to spend the morning with her learning everything about goat breeding and cheese. I was clearly excited by the visit since I had such heard good stories about the farm and had tried also their yoghurt made from raw milk. I must admit that so far I haven't been such a goat dairies' fan but after tasting the yoghurt I had to at least give the goat milk another shot. As a matter of fact, it was absolutely delicious.

The story of Alice is the one of a woman who believes that only working hard you can make your dreams come true. Establish and run a farm with goats and make cheese every other day is certainly not the easiest of the tasks nor the most monetary rewarding job. Goats need to be milked twice a day every day, no exception. However, we all know that the strongest of the passions can lead us very far. Indeed Alice's path began quite some time ago.

Alice’s first encounter with goats happened at the same time when she got her degree in veterinary medicine in 2005. She tought that the goats could offer her an interesting niche in the job market and also the possibility to provide for the lack of veterinary assistance in the province. Not long time after, 3 goats were welcomed at Alice’s parents’ farm. These three ladies still belong to the breeding and when we talk about them Alice giggles showing a special affection for them. She explains that when they began to breed milk goats she found herself totally captured by the strong yet controversial personality of these animals. They are stubborn and sweet, smart and devoted but never entirely tamed by the man.

Slowly the idea of a dairy factory popped up in Alice’s mind hand in hand with the plan to establish a cattleshed and enlarge the size of the cattle. Several dairy courses and educational trips to dairymaids located in the North of Italy and abroad have come after. Alice was not alone but met the good company of another young dairymaid engaged in the process of learning how to make goat cheese. Traditionally, the dairymaid is a female job. The reason is that the goat milk is fragile compared to cow's milk and in order to make cheese one need to apply less strength to the curd. However surprisingly the best menthorship and advice came from a male dairymaid from Piedmont, who was willing to share with the two young women his skills and knowledge about the art of making goat cheese.

Trial after trial, the first edible cheese was a big achievement for Alice. It has been a continuous learning-by-doing process, enriched by discoveries that has piled up over the seasons- she explains. Milk is, indeed, a live material. Flavours change according to the way the goats are fed, meaning if they eat what the woods offer or inside the farm; the way the dairymaid works the milk; the different times of breast-feeding and the change of seasons.

Alice’s learning experiences are only one side of the long path to establish and run the factory farm. Of course, at some point confronting the Italian bureaucracy became inevitable. The neverending amounts of papers to fill in and health inspections to the premises became daily duties. Alice assures that establishing herself as an entrepreneur in this specific field wasn't as easy as many people tried to discourage her from her venture. She admits that determination has definitely been the key to survive that time when results were still in the form of hope. A big part of the acknowledgments surely go to her family for the support and help. 

Nowadays, she breeds about 30 milk goats and produce cheese 3 times a week. The range of products made by Grattanuvole includes amongst others pure and flavoured caciotta, robiola, paneer, ricotta, a variety of aged cheeses and yoghurt. All made locally from goats bred with love and care!

In the next post, you can read more about the production of goat cheese and Alice’s special cheeses.
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