Above image from gransigliodellaforchetta.it

Variety is the spice of life, or so they say. If we sit down to think about it, there certainly seems to be some sense to this notion. What indeed would life be like if we all wore the same clothes, spoke the same language, did the same things each day, watched the same T.V. programmes and so on?

Fortunately, the wonder of creation is that things aren’t always the same, and this certainly adds a lot of value and interest to what would otherwise be the mundanity of daily life. And even more fortunately for cheese lovers, this variety applies all the way to cheese!

It is hard to say how many different types of cheese exist. Estimates range from hundreds to a thousand or more. It all depends on exactly how you define things. In any case, what’s for sure is that many different varieties exist, with many differences between them. Pecorino del Sannio is one of them.

Not Just Another Brick in the Pecorino Wall

If we sit down and think about it, cheese is essentially something very simple and basic. It is little more than processed milk. In the same way that fruits are turned into jams, dried or put in pies, so is milk made into cheese in order to preserve it, not to mention to diversify its taste and uses.

One such category of persevered milk is the Pecorino family. These are cheeses made in Italy from sheep’s milk. They are otherwise known as Ewe’s milk cheeses, logically really as ewe is the name for a female sheep, and milk or course comes from the female!

The beauty of cheese is that diversity comes upon diversity. Pecorino is one of many types of cheeses, but even within the Pecorino family that are many subcategories, that is to say, different ways of processing milk, using milk from different areas, which results in many different types of Pecorino cheese.

Whilst the various different Pecorino cheeses undoubtedly have similarities, that also have subtle, or not so subtle differences, which gives them their own character and uniqueness.

What’s so Special about del Sannio

There are a number of aspects that make Pecorino del Sannio somewhat different to other Pecorino cheeses.

Firstly, as in the case of many varieties of cheese, the milk used is important. In the case of Pecorino del Sannio, the milk is specifically from Comisana ewes. Comisana sheep are a breed indigenous to Italy, originating in Sicily, but now found also in other Italian provinces. It is a breed of sheep for which the Italian national association of sheep breeders keeps a record (otherwise known as a herdbook). In 2013, there were only 28,428 sheep recorded. In other words, this is a select breed of sheep and so the specifics and peculiar qualities of their milk go into making Pecorino del Sannio.

Next, and probably most significantly, the actual procedure for producing Pecorino del Sannio differs significantly from the traditional method used for making most Pecorino cheeses.

To begin with, raw milk is used. This is not so different from many other small-scale, artisanal cheeses, but is a big difference to most mass-produced cheeses. Raw milk has a very different bacterial makeup to pasteurised milk as the aim of the pasteurisation process is just that, to destroy bacteria so that milk, and indeed anything made from it, lasts longer. However, these bacteria are a key component in the process of making cheese and the final product that results, so it is often thought that it is best to use raw milk to help and enhance the making of certain cheeses. In America and elsewhere the use of raw milk for cheesemaking is generally not allowed nevertheless as it is seen risky for the quality and health-giving, or otherwise, properties of the resulting cheeses.

This raw milk is filtered to remove impurities and heated to 30 degrees Celsius, another deviation from standard Pecorino technique, which usually heats the milk to a slightly higher temperature. Next the main part, and arguably biggest difference, of the cheesemaking, begins.

The Nitty Gritty

Cheesemaking can be thought of as having two key steps. Firstly, extracting the solid cheese protein from milk, and then secondly, the process of maturing this solid to produce the final product.

Once the milk has been warmed, a tiny amount of lamb’s rennet in the form of a paste is added. This stimulates the process of the solid protein separating out from the liquid part of the milk. However, using just a small quantity of rennet and only gently heating the milk causes the process to go slowly. For other Pecorino cheeses, this process can be done in less than an hour, in some cases even in 20 minutes. But not Pecorino del Sannio, which can take up to six hours to coagulate.

The separating out of solid and liquid in milk is caused by an increase of acidity of the solution. A component called rennet is added to make this happen faster, so most cheeses can be called rennet coagulated cheeses, but Pecorino del Sannio is more of a rennet-assisted lactic acid coagulation cheese.

The slow coagulation process influences the properties of the milk that are retained in the solid cheese curd that is precipitated from it, and so has a knock-on effect for the final cheese made.

The Not so Unexpected Ending

Once the curd has been obtained, the rest of the process is specific for Pecorino del Sannio, but fairly standard in nature.

The solid is cut up into rice sized pieces to aid the loss of moisture. These pieces are then hand pressed in moulds and turned over several times. This all helps the drying process. When dried out sufficiently, salt is rubbed into the embryonic cheeses. Finally, they are placed in damp, bur well-aired caves for between 50 and 90 days, in order to mature and take on their final appearance.

Once extra little nuance is that whilst maturing the cheeses are regularly oiled. This protects them from the formation of unwanted fungus on the outside, and seals inside moisture and other properties.

A Special Cheese Among Special Cheeses

As we have seen, there are a few aspects in its production, that make Pecorino del Sannio different, and thus special, when compared to other Pecorino cheeses.

The main differences are the milk used and the procedure for extracting solid casein protein from the milk. There are also some more minor variations such as oiling the rind as the cheese matures and indeed the specifics of the region where it is made (the Molise side of Sannio in east-central Italy).

All in all, this is what cheese is all about. Many different variations in production method are used to produce a great variety of different cheeses. From one point of view, Pecorino del Sannio is just another one of them, but on the other hand, its particular way of being made makes it special in its own right!