Puzzone di Moena

Appearance & taste

Puzzone di Moena is a cylindrical wheel with a low, straight or slightly convex side and flat or convex faces, 34 to 42 cm in diameter, 8 to 12 cm high and weighing 9 to 13 kg. The rind is smooth or slightly furrowed and carries a supple smear whose ochre-yellow colour darkens with ripeness until it is light brown or reddish. The semi-cooked paste is semi-hard, soft and elastic, light whitish yellow, with a few small to medium-sized holes. Cheese made from alpine pasture milk has medium-sized to large holes and a deeper yellow paste.

The smell and aroma are intense and penetrating, with a slight hint of ammonia. The taste is strong, intense, slightly salty and/or sharp, with a barely perceptible, slightly bitter aftertaste. The cheese contains over 45 % fat in dry matter.

The rind carries the marking stamp “D.O.P. Puzzone di Moena” several times, together with the number of the cheese dairy, the batch and, for alpine pasture cheese, an “M”. It is sold whole or in pieces, where applicable with the indication “stagionato” (ripened) or “di malga” (from the alpine pasture); the latter is reserved for cheese made only from the milk of cows on alpine pastures.

Production

The milk comes from cows of the Bruna, Frisona, Pezzata Rossa, Grigio Alpina, Rendena and Pinzgauer breeds and their crosses. At least 60 % of the green fodder, that is hay from permanent grassland or fresh grass, comes from the area. Silage is banned, as is a range of feedingstuffs such as rapeseed cake meal, dried by-products of fruit and vegetable processing and by-products of the sugar industry.

Raw or thermised cow’s milk is used, sometimes partly skimmed by removing the cream that has risen; alpine pasture milk is also permitted. Cheese is made all year round. Washing is characteristic: during ripening each wheel is turned and bathed in lukewarm, possibly lightly salted water, less often as it ripens. This forms the smear on the rind, which according to the specification gives rise in the paste to the substances that shape the smell and taste. The cheese ripens for at least 90 days, and after 150 days it may be called “ripened”. Keeping the cows, milk production, cheesemaking, salting, care and ripening take place in the area.

Origin & history

The area is a typical mountain region in three parts: the Val di Fiemme, the Val di Fassa and Primiero-Vanoi. The meadows and pastures lie between 600 m and, on some alpine pastures, 2,000 m. Precipitation, strong differences between the seasons and mainly calcareous and dolomitic, partly siliceous soils allow a varied flora to grow, according to the specification with many old, endemic species. Small and medium-sized family farms tend the meadows and pastures and preserve old practices such as washing the wheels.

In the past the cheese was valued above all by poor people in the mountain villages: because of its strong, often salty taste, even small amounts improved the farmers’ simple dishes of polenta or potatoes.