Casciotta d'Urbino

Appearance & taste

Casciotta d’Urbino is a flat cylinder with convex sides, 12 to 16 cm in diameter and 5 to 9 cm high; depending on its size the wheel weighs 800 to 1,200 g. The rind is about 1 mm thin and straw-yellow after ripening; it is not edible. When cut, the paste is whitish to straw-yellow, soft and crumbly, with a characteristic distribution of small holes, the “buchini”, which form through natural gas production. The cheese contains at least 45 % fat in dry matter.

Because Casciotta d’Urbino does not ripen for long, it keeps the aromas of fresh milk, which can be noticed above all in its fresh, aromatic smell. The specification describes the taste as mild, sweet, full-bodied and pleasantly sour, typical of sheep’s and cow’s milk.

On one of its flat sides the cheese carries a label with the logo: a stylised straw-yellow wheel of cheese with a blue edge, with a quarter cut out of it, below it a red ribbon with a swallowtail, and above it, in a semicircle, the name “Casciotta d’Urbino”.

Production

The cheese is made from 70 to 80 % whole sheep’s milk and 20 to 30 % whole cow’s milk. Permitted are sheep breeds such as Sarda, Sopravissana, Comisana, Lacaune or Assaf and cows of the Italian Holstein, Italian Brown, Italian Red Pied and Jersey breeds as well as crossbreeds. The animals may be kept in the shed or on pasture. For cows and sheep, at least 50 % of the basic feed and at least 75 % of the dry matter in the green fodder of the daily ration come from the area. Because not enough feed grows in the area, feed and concentrates from outside are permitted.

All steps from animal husbandry and milking to cheesemaking and ripening take place in the area. The cheese is sold as a whole wheel or in pieces, including vacuum-packed.

Origin & history

The area comprises the province of Pesaro e Urbino and the municipalities of Novafeltria, Talamello, Sant’Agata Feltria, Casteldelci, Maiolo, San Leo and Pennabilli in the province of Rimini. Farming there relies on the local pastures, which are used with care; according to the specification, their plants give the milk, and thus the cheese, its typical smell and taste.

Sheep and cattle farming go back to the year 1500, when the dukes of the houses of Montefeltro and Rovere promoted it in order to limit transhumance on their lands. Much evidence from the Renaissance shows that cheese was already widespread in the area at that time. The size, weight and height of the cheese go back to moulds made of terracotta and clay with a closed, curved base and a small hole for the whey, as are typical of the area around Urbania.