Caciottone di Norcia

Appearance & taste

Caciottone di Norcia is cylindrical, with a straight side and rounded edges, 20 to 22 cm in diameter and 9 to 11 cm high; it weighs about 3.2 kg (± 12 %). The rind is smooth, washed and thin, straw-yellow to ochre-yellow depending on ripening. The paste is soft and supple, firmer near the rind, white to straw-yellow when cut and slightly cracked. The cheese contains at least 46 g of fat and 37 g of protein per 100 g of dry matter.

The specification describes the taste as fragrant and aromatic, with a typical creamy aftertaste. On the nose there are milky notes or aromas of heated dairy products and clarified butter. According to the specification, the sheep’s milk makes it more savoury than a cheese made only from cow’s milk. Depending on ripening time it comes mild (20 to 60 days), medium (61 to 120 days) or long-ripened as “Réserve” (121 to 365 days). It is sold whole or in pieces. The cheese or packaging bears a blue logo with the name, in which the word “di” stands in a circle.

Production

A mixture of at least 90 and at most 95 % cow’s milk and 5 to 10 % sheep’s milk is used. The milk is stored, pasteurised and coagulated. The curd is broken to about the size of maize grains and, through the choice of time and temperature in the vat, gains the suppleness that later gives the soft paste. The cheese is then moulded, dried, salted and ripened. All steps from processing the milk to the finished cheese, including ripening, take place in the area.

Origin & history

The area covers the municipalities of Norcia, Cascia, Monteleone di Spoleto, Preci and Poggiodomo in the Valnerina, province of Perugia. Cheese from mixed milk was already made there before the middle of the 20th century. Because the sheep were driven down to the valleys of Umbria and Lazio in winter, only a few animals stayed in the stalls, especially in remote places such as Castelluccio, and families mixed cow’s milk with the scarce sheep’s milk.

The sheep’s milk made the cheese keep longer, which mattered when salt was scarce and there were no refrigerators. This is why the Caciottone could be larger than the small, quickly eaten Caciotta made from cow’s milk alone. According to the specification, it became known beyond the area from the 1950s; traders from Lazio had it delivered to Rome from the post-war period. According to the specification, it has always been shown at the black truffle and mountain products fair in Norcia, held since the end of the 1950s; photos from the 1970s show wheels marked “Caciottone di Norcia”.