Processing of milk and cheese in Borgo Paludo's dairy (Fagagna)

PROCESSING PROCEDURES, PRESERVATION AND RIPENING

We use unpasteurised milk from two milking. The milk derived from evening milkings is refrigerated in the cheese factory at a temperature not lower than 8°C until the next morning.

The milk derived from morning milkings is directly put, when still warm, in the copper boiler to be mixed with the evening one.

The mass is heated up to 33°C before adding the natural starter culture directly prepared in our dairy with an amount of the highest quality milk heated and processed at 68°C, for a few seconds, to take away the microflora that can cause premature swelling and then heating it to room temperature to ease the genuine lactic microflora growth typical of this production area until reaching an acidity of 11-13 °SH/50 ml.
The next step consist of adding calf liquid rennet in which the chymases is clearly stronger than the pepsin; at this point starts the coagulation process and the milk is let stand for 25-40 minutes. When the clot has acquired enough compactness the curd is broken up with a curd-harp until the dairy grains are reduced in grain of wheat. When this level of breakage is reached the mass is keeped in movement with the wireframe and just after the grain seems purged it goes to the cooking stage.

Cooking can vary from 44°C to 46°C for about 20 minutes: in this processing stage the microflora, inserted through the starter culture and some of the natural one contained in the milk, multiplies with a consequent increase of the butermilk's acidity. This feature is exactly one of the parameters to monitor the working process, the whole process could be considered completed when the buttermilk's acidity reachs 2,6-2,8 °SH/50 ml.
After 10-30 minutes of mixing out of fire, the curd is drawn out from buttermilk with an hemp or linen canvas and put in metal bands until beeing pressed till the evening. When the canvas is removed, a mold is inserted between the mass and the bands that pressing on the crust engraves on the outer edges registry data and the name “Fagagna”. The salting consists in submerging the cheese in salt solution at 18°C for 48 hours. The ripening take place on wood boards in a room with a temperature of about 10°C and a 80-85% moisture; the minimum period of ripening consist in 60 days for “Fresh” cheese, 6 months for “Mezzano” and 12 months for the “Vecchio” (aged cheese).

The meticulous care dedicated to the nutrition of livestock from which the milk is obtained and then used for Fagagna's cheese is one of the key of the great success of this product. The farmers feeds livestock for most of the year with natural hay from the surrounding moraine hills. This fields are plenty of genuine fodder that guarantee an intensive and ancient smell to the hay, that hands over milk and cheese.

The production cycle starts from the delivery of fresh milk to the Fagagna's dairy, two times in a day. In the early morning the raw milk delivered is mixed with the evening milk of the day before in the copper boilers and heated up to 33°C.

Right after the local starter culture is added with the rennet and then, thanks to the milk coagulation, a thre's a period to wait until the curd is fully formed. At this point the curd is broken up with a “harp”, named after its shape.

The precessing of breaking the curd have to be made really slowly to preserve fats and not loosing it. After than there's a cooking period at about 44-46°C stiring continuously the curd. The cheese mass that is settled on the bottom is pulled out from buttermilk with a canvas, a process that comes from tradition; it is then drained off and put in the molds.

These molds are pressed, branded and put in solution of salt and water. After 48 hours they are pulled out from salt solution and left in the ripening rooms.