A few more hints on Fossa Cheese
“A masterpiece of nature.”
What is the cheese di Fossa?
If we take a good cheese, pre-season it at least 60 to 70 days after its cheesemaking, and then place it in the pit for another three months or so, that’s when we get a good pit cheese. If then the cheese instead of good is excellent here is where the result will be excellent. There will in fact be a refermentation of the cheese, but this time anaerobically as the pit is sealed as we shall see better later. This process will transform our product from a simple cheese into a masterpiece of nature: Il Formaggio di Fossa.
The pit is nothing more than a hollow in the sandstone rock, often improperly referred to as tuff, normally having a flask shape and various sizes that obviously change its capacity.
In our company’s reality, there are only medium-small pits with a capacity of 40/60 ql. about. This is by choice having preferred pits that develop, given the “low” amount of product they contain, “softer” refermentations thus allowing us to better control the final product certainly appreciated by 90/95% of customers who prefer a cheese characterized yes to the pit but in a pleasant and recognizable way, not the result of a “violent” refermentation as often results with infossature of quantities greater than ours with the result that the final product turns out to be excessively spicy.
With the advent of the Fossa Cheese PDO, the special specification provides for pits surveyed and intended for the production of Sogliano PDO Fossa Cheese to have a truncated cone shape in addition to the above form. In both cases, the sizing will have the lower base with a diameter of about 3 meters and the upper base with a diameter of about 0.80 to 1.20 meters while the height can also exceed three meters. The top of the pit is structured to be enclosed with a natural wood lid that will be blocked and sealed with plaster, or other similar mortar, all around so that it is separated from external oxygen.
We thus understand how the pit is not simply a “hole” in which to store cheese–it is instead equipped in such a way that the cheese will never be in direct contact with the sandstone. To do this, special stringers are placed at the base of the pit that support a natural wooden plank, made up of several elements, on which the cotton cloth bags enclosing the cheese to be stuffed will be placed. The walls of the pit will also be insulated from the cheese by a lattice of reeds attached to special hoops that keep them neat. The space between the sandstone rock and the reeds is filled with a thickness of about 10 to 15 cm. of well-compacted wheat straw. In our reality, the straw comes from organic cultures and is placed in special sealed bags and stored in suitable environments.
At the base of the pit, centrally and below, of course, the bottom equipped as described above, we will have a sump of a suitable size to contain the fat and slurry that percolates throughout the cheese refermentation phase.
But then, we could observe, by implementing the arrangements described above everywhere we could dig pits and make them productive. The Japanese first, with all the photo shoots they also conducted at our plant, can be good witnesses to the fact that this is not so.
It is, in fact, the unique microclimate given by the mix of temperature and humidity that develops inside the pits carved into our sandstone rock and the skill of the ditchers, acquired and handed down in these places through the ages, that allows nature to produce this masterpiece of hers: Fossa Cheese, a true excellence of our beautiful Romagna.
What is a Pit?
What happens in the Pit after sealing?
The data we will refer to, while generic, are specifically related to our plant.
We used thermo-hygrometers, placed at various elevations, inside our pits throughout the curing phase to obtain the data below.
Therefore, we found average temperatures of 16 C° with 85 to 90 percent humidity at the time of infilling. Obviously small variations are possible and due to which of the 5 pits we refer to and the dimpling period itself. Once the pit is sealed, the phase of eliminating the oxygen in it will begin, and this will be all the less the more thorough the arrangement of the cheese bags has been. In fact, the closer these are the less residual oxygen we will find in the pit at its sealing. Variable-sized bags are prepared for this purpose. With the pit sealed we will have that the energy required now in this “burning” phase of residual oxygen causes a temporary rise in temperature up to 21/22 or even 24 C°. In this oxygen-free condition, anaerobic refermentation of the cheese is activated. The temperature will then gradually return after about 25 to 30 days to the initial value of about 16 C° and will remain that way on average until deboning.
Let us now see what happened to the cheese during its stay in the pit for three months. Here is the miracle that takes place underground.
At its “resurrection” we will find our product completely transformed in aroma in taste and also in its form. Its chemical and physical transformation, induced by the peculiar conditions of the pits, will return to us a cheese with a moist, fatty surface, no rind and a significantly decreased weight.
In fact, the anaerobic microclimate, the temperature, with an excursion up to about 24 C° but then tending to be stable on the initial value of about 16 C°, the high humidity and the presence of specific bacteria, are the architects of the transformation of an ordinary cheese into a lordly pit cheese.
We observe how the acidifying activity of lactic acid bacteria averts the development of alterative microbial species and degrades lactose, thus making the cheese more digestible.
The breakdown of proteins and lipids also takes place, which makes the final product even more qualitatively pleasing.
Organoleptic characteristics are certainly positively influenced by fermentation processes. The aroma is intense and persistent, with hints of underbrush and truffle.
Pecorino has an aromatic taste that tends toward spiciness. The cow’s milk is fine and delicate, slightly bitter. The mixture tastes balanced and gentle on the palate.
Fossa cheese has always generated a special fascination post the uncertainty about its origins but above all for the “mysterious” process of its refermentation, the rituality with which its burial is repeated, its resurrection after cica three months and finally for its unrepeatable fragrances that strike the senses.
The anaerobic refermentation of cheese
Historical Background and Tradition of Fossa Cheese from Sogliano
The fascinating history of Formaggio di Fossa draws its origins from the need of the people of the area to protect foodstuffs, generally wheat and cheese, to preserve them from possible raids, not infrequent at the time, in case of famines or sieges or even to face long winters.
This should be traced back at least to the Middle Ages and particularly around 1400. In recent times the Statutes of Sogliano, until then thought to be lost, were rediscovered in Spain by our distinguished fellow citizen H.E. Msgr. Pietro Sambi.
It is clear from these statutes that even then the practice of dimpling was regulated and controlled. Recall that from 1278 to 1640 Sogliano was under the control of the Malatesta family and the 14th-century Malatesta codices and Rimini statutes corroborate said practice of dimpling. Documents then dating back to the 15th century recite how the custom of “cheese burial” was widespread in Malatesta territory.
The specification of Formaggio di Fossa di Sogliano PDO , registered in the European Union by EC Regulation No. 1183 of November 30, 2009, regulates the entire PDO fossa supply chain.
Historically, infossatura took place only once a year in Sogliano, generally in August by the 15th, while sfossatura was done on the feast of St. Catherine on November 25. Instead, with the advent of PDO, it is possible to make two well-plotted and defined spring and summer dimples each year, respectively.
The PDO area includes historic Romagna (all of Romagna as well as some municipalities in the province of Bologna) and the entire Marche region.
Breeders, Processors, Seasoners, Dimmers and Packers/Portioners, are the actors in the Fossa production chain and therefore all subject to the controls set forth in the appropriate specification. A certifying body (currently Agroqualità of Rome) authorized by Mipaaf, the Ministry of Agricultural Food and Forestry Policies, performs all the controls to ensure complete compliance with the specification by all controlled entities. It therefore carries out pasture verification and of the feeding of milk-producing animals and the farms themselves, supervises the transport of milk to processing plants, its compliance with the expected physical-chemical organoleptic qualities, the whole process of cheese making and subsequent cell curing up to the boning, deboning, grooming of the cheese and its packaging.
Only once all these checks have been passed and given that the analyses of the sfossato product (sensory aesthetic and chemical) meet the standards laid down in the special specification, carried out by the certifying body, will the certification be issued with which the Formaggio di Fossa di Sogliano PDO cheese can be placed on the market.
Our pit curing facility is authorized at the Cesena AUSL and has identifier 010, consisting of 5 pits identified by the letters A-B-C-D-E.
The DOP its diciplinary and our pits.
