Formai de Mut dell'Alta Valle Brembana

Appearance & taste

The wheel is cylindrical, with a straight or slightly convex side and a flat or almost flat top and bottom; it measures 30 to 40 cm in diameter, is 8 to 10 cm high and weighs 8 to 12 kg. The natural rind is thin and firm, straw-yellow, and becomes deeper in colour as the cheese ripens. The paste is compact and elastic, with irregularly distributed holes at least 1 mm in diameter, the “occhio di pernice” (partridge’s eyes), and may have small cracks. It is ivory to slightly straw-yellow: ivory when the cows eat hay in winter, straw-yellow when they are given green grass in summer. The cheese contains at least 42 % fat in dry matter.

The specification describes the flavour as delicate, aromatic, mild and not very salty, with a characteristic aroma.

After at least 45 days of ripening, each cheese bears a paper label with a stamp on one flat side: red for cheese made all year round on the valley floor, blue with the word “d’alpeggio” (from the alpine pastures) for cheese made on the alpine pastures between 20 May and 20 October. In the centre of the stamp is a stylised cowbell with a cut wheel of cheese, surrounded by 22 small bells. After more than six months of ripening, the cheese may be called “Riserva”; this word then appears in the stamp.

Production

The cows eat grass or hay from meadows and pastures; at least 50 % of the feed comes from the area. It may be supplemented with cereals, concentrates and oilseed cake. Silage is not permitted, because it can carry clostridia spores, which is critical for making and ripening the cheese.

Only raw whole milk with low natural acidity is used. On the alpine pastures the milk is made into cheese in the herders’ huts, the “baite”; the cheesemakers choose time and temperature from experience, but within the traditional ranges. The cheese ripens in the cheese store, the “casera”, where the cheesemaker decides, depending on temperature and humidity, when the cheese is turned and brushed. At the end of the alpine season, the alpine-pasture cheese is brought down to the valley, where ripening is completed; it can take several years. Cattle farming, milking, cheesemaking and ripening take place in the area; portioning and packing may also take place outside it.

Origin & history

The upper Brembana valley in the Bergamo Alps has been a separate administrative unit since 1364, and its legal order was strengthened under Venetian rule. It extends from 440 m in Lenna to 2,916 m on the Pizzo del Diavolo di Tenda near Carona. Moist air from the Mediterranean builds up against the Alps and brings more rain and snow towards the head of the valley, which benefits the pastures. According to the specification, the flora of the Bergamo Alps is among the richest in the Alps, with many endemic species.

It was above all livestock farmers who settled in the valley, and cheesemaking was the main reason for keeping cattle; numerous historical documents attest to it. In the past, some herders, the “bergamì”, drove their herds, the “bergamina”, down to the plain around Milan in winter and back to the alpine pastures in summer. Today the herds of the livestock farmers from the valleys move between May and October from the valley floor up to the alpine pastures and there from station to station, sometimes to over 2,000 m. Meanwhile, the meadows in the valley provide the hay for the winter.