Castelmagno

Appearance & taste

Castelmagno is cylindrical with flat faces, 15 to 25 cm in diameter and 12 to 20 cm high, and weighs 2 to 7 kg. The thin, smooth rind is reddish-yellow and not edible; after the minimum ripening it is even and firm, and with longer ripening it becomes thicker, darker and wrinkled. The paste is at first pearl-white to ivory and crumbly. With longer ripening it becomes more compact and ochre-yellow with blue-green veining, which can also result from the traditional piercing with long iron needles. The cheese contains at least 34 % fat in dry matter. Its taste is at first fine, delicate and slightly salty and becomes increasingly savoury as it ripens.

When the cheese is moulded, the mark of origin is stamped into the top: a stylised “C” with suggested Alpine peaks around a cheese with a piece cut out of it. On top comes a paper label in the shape of an Occitan cross, blue for “Prodotto della Montagna”, musk green for “di Alpeggio”, each with the note “crosta non edibile” (rind not edible).

Production

The milk comes from cows of the Barà Pustertaler, Bruna, Pezzata Rossa d’Oropa, Pezzata Rossa, Montbéliard, Grigio Alpina, Piemontese or Valdostana breeds and their crosses. Their basic feed is grass or hay, mainly from the species-rich meadows and pastures of the three municipalities; maize silage is prohibited. The cows are milked at most twice a day, and milk from at most four consecutive milkings is processed.

The milk is not cooled below 6 °C, partly skimmed by skimming off the cream if necessary and warmed to 30 to 38 °C; pasteurisation, thermisation and starter cultures are prohibited. With liquid calf rennet it coagulates in about 30 to 90 minutes. The curd is stirred for 10 to 15 minutes, rests for at least 18 hours and then lies for two to four days in the whey separated off earlier in order to ferment. After that it is cut, broken up, stirred again and salted, wrapped in cloths and pressed in moulds for at least one day. The cheese ripens for at least 60 days on wooden boards in cool, damp natural caves or equivalent rooms at 5 to 15 °C and 70 to 98 % humidity, where the typical natural moulds form. Production and ripening take place in the three municipalities.

The term “di Alpeggio” is borne by cheese whose milk comes from animals that graze from the beginning of May to the end of October and feed at least 90 % on native plants, and which is made entirely on the alpine pasture above 1,000 m.

Origin & history

The specification names as natural factors the mountain climate of the area, the feed shaped by alpine herbs and the natural ripening of the wheels. Because all production takes place above 600 m, the label may bear the term “Prodotto della Montagna”. In addition, there is the cheesemaking tradition preserved over centuries with its own working techniques.