Toma Piemontese

Appearance & taste

Toma Piemontese is cylindrical, with a flat or almost flat top and bottom and a slightly convex side. After the minimum ripening period the wheel measures 15 to 35 cm in diameter, the side is 6 to 12 cm high, and it weighs 1.8 to 9 kg. The paste is pale straw yellow and occasionally has delicate natural veining near the rind.

In the full-fat type the rind is inedible, elastic and smooth, light straw-coloured to reddish brown depending on ripening. The paste is soft, with small, evenly distributed holes, the taste mild and pleasant, with a delicate aroma. In the medium-fat type the rind is inelastic, rustic and deep straw yellow to reddish brown, the paste elastic or semi-firm depending on ripening, with small holes. It tastes intense and harmonious, with a distinctive aroma that grows with ripening. The full-fat type has at least 40 % fat in dry matter, the medium-fat type at least 20 %.

Each wheel is branded in the centre of the top: the head of a cow with a stylised “T”, to its left the code of the dairy, and for the medium-fat type a large “S” above it. There is also a paper label 14 to 27 cm in diameter with the logo, a stylised cow with a blue body, and the lettering “Toma Piemontese DOP”, for the medium-fat type with “Semigrasso”.

Production

The dairy cows eat mainly fresh green fodder, silage or hay, most of which comes from meadows and pastures in the area. Cow’s milk, salt, calf rennet or a non-animal coagulant and, where applicable, dairy bacteria or natural starter cultures produced in the area or carried over from a previous batch are used. The curd is not heated or only slightly heated. The cheesemakers cut it so finely that a curd with very small grains forms; the soft paste with its small, evenly distributed holes depends on this.

Traditionally the cheese ripens in natural caves or other rooms with very high humidity, which keeps the paste soft. Dairy farming, curdling, moulding, cleaning, salting and ripening take place in the area; portioning and packaging are also permitted outside it.

“Toma Piemontese d’Alpeggio” comes from cows that graze on mountain pastures from 1 June to 15 October and receive at most 10 % of the dry matter of their daily ration as supplementary feed. The milk is processed on the mountain pasture; for mountain farms with a cowshed this applies to pastures above 900 m, and the milk is processed in the mountain area.

Origin & history

The area receives 800 to 1,500 mm of rainfall a year, with the least in winter, the most in spring and further peaks in summer and autumn; in the plains much of the land can be irrigated. The sun shines for an average of 5.4 hours a day, 8.4 in July and 3.5 hours in November and December. The fodder plants therefore suffer little from heat and drought and grow abundantly. Meadows and pastures are rich in ryegrass, lucerne, clover and other grasses and legumes. According to the specification, climate and soil form a combination found nowhere else in Europe, and together with the skill of the cheesemakers they shape the soft paste of Toma Piemontese.