Pecorino Crotonese

Appearance & taste

Pecorino Crotonese is cylindrical, with a flat or slightly convex surface and a flat or slightly convex side; the wheels show the imprints of the basket into which the curd was pressed. Wheels of 0.5 to 3 kg are 5 to 12 cm high and 10 to 18 cm in diameter; wheels of 5 to 15 kg are 12 to 20 cm high and 18 to 30 cm in diameter. The cheese contains at least 40 % fat in dry matter and at least 25 % protein.

The fresh cheese (“Fresco”) has a thin, white or slightly straw-coloured rind with clearly visible basket imprints and a delicate, creamy, milky-white paste with a few holes; its taste is pronounced, soft and slightly sharp. The semi-hard cheese (“Semiduro”) has a thick, light brown rind, a compact paste and an intense, harmonious taste. The ripened cheese (“Stagionato”) ripens for over six months and has a hard brown rind, which may be coated with olive oil or olive oil lees, a pale straw-yellow paste and an intense taste with a slightly sharp finish.

When cut, the cheese smells slightly of sheep’s milk, combined with notes of hay and ripe field herbs, a hint of hazelnut and a touch of smoke. The compact paste at first feels grainy in the mouth; as it is chewed the grains dissolve. Pecorino Crotonese is eaten as a table cheese, fresh, semi-hard, ripened or grated.

Production

The sheep are kept semi-wild: during the day they graze freely, in the evening they come into the fold. For most of the year they eat pasture grass and unfermented hay from the area. GMO-free concentrates from outside are allowed when grazing is not possible, for example in cold winters or dry summers, but at most 40 % over the year.

The whole sheep’s milk is used raw, thermised or pasteurised; additives and preservatives are not allowed. Treated milk may be inoculated with native lactic acid cultures from a list kept by the protection consortium. It is curdled with kid rennet paste and salted with rock salt. The cheesemaker breaks up the curd with a wooden stick, the “miscu”, to the size of rice grains. The curd is stirred by hand, pressed into baskets, turned and placed several times in the milky whey, the “lacciata”, in which the cheese sours for one to two days. During ripening a layer of mould forms; the wheels are turned, brushed or washed and coated with olive oil or olive oil lees. Animal husbandry, milking, making and ripening take place in the area.

Origin & history

According to the specification, the area essentially corresponds to the Marquisate of Crotone, founded in 1390. It extends from the clay hills around Crotone across the neighbouring uplands to the heights of the Sila Piccola and Sila Grande, which serve as summer pastures for the flocks from the hill country between the mountains and the Ionian Sea. The winters are cold, the summers hot, and the humidity is constant at an average of 58 %, which according to the specification favours even ripening without significant hole formation. Ryegrass, clover, chicory, sweet clover and lucerne grow on the pastures; aromatic compounds from these plants shape the flavour of the cheese. There are 398 sheep farms in the area with about 49,000 animals.

According to the specification, evidence of the making of the cheese goes back to the early Middle Ages, and its export has been documented since the 16th century. At the time of the Austrian viceroys in Naples (1707–1734) a great deal of it was exported; in January 1712 around 200 quintals of “Cotrone cheese” were sold in Naples.