Pecorino Toscano PDO

Production Features

Pecorino Toscano DOP is made with modern technology, using processes handed down over the centuries. The milk coming from flocks reared in the “home area”, is coagulated with calf rennet at a temperature comprised between 33 and 38 °C. Indigenous milk enzymes can be added, coming only from ceppoteca, a strain collection, kept by the Pecorino Toscano PDO Protection Consortium.

When the curd is broken, the lumps should reach the size of a hazelnut for Pecorino Toscano soft cheese and a corn kernel for the semi-hard cheese. The curd, after it is broken, is put in suitable cheese wheels to promote syneresis (i.e. whey draining). To make this process easier, the curd can be lightly pressed by hand. The cheese wheels are placed in rooms called hot or heated rooms caissons, where the heat and decreasing moisture help the draining. The meat is salted in brine or dry-salted, that is, by spreading salt on the Pecorino Toscano PDO’s surface. After this first part of the process, the cheese wheels are put to age. Aging also has precise times: the minimum amount of time is 20 days for soft cheese Pecorino Toscano and at least 4 months for the semi-hard cheese.