Milk And Cheeses - Val Camonica, Italy

An area dedicated to cattle breeding and dairy farming has been created in the vicinity of the "Dairy
Cooperative Monte Bronzone" in Vigolo providing a building with services and equipment that can accommodate 40 to 50 people and hst lectures, as well as meetings for sampling products.
Stracchino Bronzone is a typical soft table cheese.  It has ancient origins, perhaps dating back before the tenth century. For the farmers on the hills overlooking the lakes of Endine and Iseo, this cheese has always been the traditional product par excellence, even though no historical evidence of this exists.
Some documents from the 1940s confirm that in those days refresher and advanced courses on processing techniques were periodically organised in the area.  Although supported by technical devices imposed b.y the recent EU standards, even today this process still continues on an artisanal level in keeping with the oldest traditions.  It is a cheese made with whole cow's milk with a soft , unheated curd.  It has a square shape with sides measuring 18+20 cm and a sides from 3+4 cm tall.
Ita weight varies from 1.5 to 2.2 kilos.  The milk is processed immediately after milking .
Coagulation occurs at a temperature between 35 and 38 degrees. When the curd is ready, it is first
cut it coarse chunks with a skimmer. After resting for 10 minutes, the coagulated mass is broken down with a curd knife. The curd is then left to stand and after another 19 minutes is is collected in special
canvases and transferred to the square-shaped moulds to drain the whey. It is then dry salted several
times. 
Maturation takes place at an ambient temperature 0of 10 - 12 degrees and with 90 per cent humidity.
During this phase, the stracchino is turned every day and cleaned with the help of a cloth soaked in a brine solution that acts as a antiseptic against mould.  The product is normally ready for sale 15 to 20 days. Features it has a sweet, creamy and slightly pale yellow in the undercrust.  The crust is thin, soft and rose-coloured.