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Home » Podcasts and Videos, Tuscany, conversations

How to make pecorino cheese

rounds_smWith warm thanks to Betty and Salvatore at the Azienda Agricola La Torraccia (Regello, FI).
And to Toni Lydecker for organizing our fun outing in the context of research for her next book. (Her new book, Seafood alla Siciliana: Recipes and Stories from a Living Tradition comes out this fall and promises to be a beautiful, mouth-watering, and entertaining read).
And especially to AJ Weiss (Arturo in Letto) for being inspired, in only 24 hours’ time, by curds and whey enough to write the beautiful “Bucolic Cheese” song!


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Submitted by arttrav on June 7, 2009 – 2:54 pmView Comments

  • Adrienne

    Love the video and the music. Well done! Do they soak the cheese in brine at some time? And do they add rennet or some other “starter”? Just curious because I have seen cheese made in Gruyeres, Switzerland, where those steps are added.

  • admin

    I didn’t see the salt process so couldn’t narrate it, but i’m glad you ask! The rounds made that day sit out for a day to dry, then sit in a vat of salt for 8 hours, turned once every 3 hours. They don’t use brine, just dry salt.

    I learned that the starters are animal or vegetable based depending on the type of cheese being made. The marzolino you see me holding up at the end of the video was started with artichokes.

  • http://www.WanderingEducators.com Jessie Voigts

    WOW! what an incredible, incredible feature. i had no idea that it was made this way – and with such care by betty and salvatore.

    the music was especially beautiful. will he put it on his website?!

    thanks for sharing!

  • lesley weiss

    What a wonderful family…never a day off, even Christmas! God love them for their hard work and dedication. I long for a farm nearby like this one. I felt like I was watching PBS.
    And…what enjoyable music all the while!

  • http://www.arttrav.com/headline/year-of-posts-2009/ Arttrav.com » A year of posts – arttrav looks back at 2009

    [...] was all about “the cheese video” – how to make pecorino cheese – which has some serious (unrealized) viral potential [...]

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