Nostrano Valtrompia

Appearance & taste

Nostrano Valtrompia is a cylindrical wheel with almost straight sides, 30 to 45 cm in diameter, 8 to 12 cm high and weighing 8 to 18 kg. The hard rind is yellowish brown to reddish. The paste is hard but not excessively grainy and may have medium-sized, evenly distributed holes. Its colour is straw-yellow tending towards yellowish green, partly because of the saffron. The cheese contains 27.5 to 45 % fat in dry matter and at most 36 % moisture.

Its taste and aroma are full and intense. At minimum ripeness the cheese has no sour notes; after very long ripening it has very slightly pungent aromas.

The words “Nostrano Valtrompia” with the producer’s identification number are embossed several times all around the side; a round paper label may also be added on one face. Portions must show part of the side so that the origin remains recognisable.

Production

The milk comes from the area, at least 90 % of it from Italian Brown cows entered in the herd book. At least 75 % of the dry matter of the feed is grass or hay from species-rich meadows; at least half of the daily ration consists of grass or hay from such meadows in the area, with wild plants such as cocksfoot, sheep’s fescue, annual meadow grass, timothy and mountain clover. Maize silage is banned. Between June and September, depending on the weather, the cows spend at least 60 days on valley or mountain pastures.

Cheese is made all year round. The milk is left to stand so that the cream rises and can be skimmed off; this lowers the fat content, and a specific microflora develops that acidifies the curd in the vat and shapes the taste and aroma during ripening. 0.05 to 0.2 g of saffron per 100 kg of milk is added to the milk or to the curd and whey mixture; according to the specification, this prevents the paste from becoming too green because of the partial skimming and the feed. Copper vats and often home-made tools are used: the “spino” (curd harp), the “rotella” (stirrer) and the “spannarola” (flat ladle).

The cheese ripens for at least twelve months; a total of 13 months passes from milk to marketing. During ripening the wheels are rubbed down and oiled with linseed oil so that they do not dry out too quickly; this makes the rind hard and gives it its colour. Production and processing of the milk, ripening, rubbing and oiling take place in the area.

Origin & history

The area covers 18 municipalities in the Trompia valley (Valle Trompia) in the province of Brescia and the mountain area of the municipality of Gussago with the hamlets of Quarone and Civine. It is characterised by steep slopes, narrow meadows on the valley floors and rolling mountain pastures up to over 1,800 m. According to the specification, the herbs that the cows eat fresh on the alpine pasture in summer and as hay for the rest of the year pass their aroma compounds directly into the milk.

The rugged terrain made industrial milk processing difficult. As a result, production is still dominated today by small family farms where the livestock farmers are also cheesemakers and ripeners. There the milk is still collected and processed in buckets, churns and bowls, and the knowledge is passed down orally from father to son.