Slow Food home | About us | Foundation | Editore | Sloweb | Press Office | Store     Sloweb     Home | Sloweek | Voices from the Slow world | Slow Talk | News | Watch & Listen             New Presidia at Cheese 18 Sep 09 - News da Terra Madre The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity has created 8 new cheese Presidia. The cheese Presidia are one of the most important groups of Slow Food Foundation projects both in numbers and in social, environmental and cultural value. At Cheese they will occupy an entire street in the historic town center (Via Principi). In addition they will be the focus of a number of Taste Workshops and seminars, to be held in the deconsecrated Church of San Rocco. These projects promote a range of valuable activities: they defend mountain pastures and native breeds, maintain traditional production methods and locations, and support the production of raw milk cheeses. Italy has the largest number of cheese Presidia (43) but new projects will also be present, in particular from other European countries (France, Spain, Norway and Bulgaria). A special section is reserved for Italian and French cross-border Presidia (organized as part of the European project Promo Terroir). Here is a brief description of new Presidia featured at Cheese: Bulgaria – Karakachan Sheep At one time the Karakachan sheep breed (which takes its name from an ancient Balkan ethnic group) was common throughout Bulgaria: at the beginning of the 20th century there were 500,000 animals but by the end of the 1950s their numbers had fallen to 150,000 and now only 400 survive. The sheep is small in size with a thick long coat, its color changing with age, from black to brown and finally almost grey. Its excellent high-fat milk is used to produce white sirene, a cheese in brine similar to feta, and an extraordinary yogurt. Production Area: Vlahi, Pirin Mountains, Blagoevgrad Province, South West Bulgaria Bulgaria – Tcherni Vit Blue Cheese The traditional sheep’s milk sirene, a white cheese similar to feta, is common throughout the Balkans. In this area it is processed using a distinctive method. Some of the cheese made by shepherds near the village of Tcherni Vit is aged in small wooden barrels in cellars. The contact with wood and slow evaporation of the brine, but particularly the microclimate in the narrow valley of Tcherni Vit, enable a mold to develop which transforms this sheep’s cheese into a very strong blue cheese (or “green”, as it is called locally). Production Area: Village of Tcherni Vit, municipality of Teteven, Lovech District, Balkan range France - Rove Brousse Goat Cheese Traditionally prepared using milk from the Rove goat, a rustic breed well suited to the dry hills of the Provencal interior, Rove Brousse is a fresh unsalted cheese with a soft, crumbly paste. It is made by heating milk to 90°, letting it cool (not beyond 70°) and adding a little vinegar so it coagulates. For some years industrial versions of Brousse have been available in supermarkets, but they are often made with cheaper cow\'s milk. Around Rove a small movement has sprung up to defend the original Brousse, made only from the raw milk of Rove goats left out to pasture. Production Area: Bouches-du-Rhône, south Vaucluse and west Var Departments, Provence-Alpes-Côte d\'Azur Region France - Béarn Mountain Pasture Cheeses Every year in June, around eighty shepherds from the three valleys of Béarn (Ossau, Aspe and Barétous) lead their flocks of Basque-Bearn sheep to the mountain pastures on the French side of the Western Pyrenees, between 900 and 2000 meters above sea level. For three months they live in small isolated stone huts and make traditional tommes: pressed raw milk cheeses which can weigh over five kilograms. Some shepherds also bring a few cows to the pastures and continue to produce a \"mixed\" cheese of older style—it is more delicate, but still soft and intense. After aging at least four months in a humid place, the tommes assume an attractive beige-orange color, becoming soft with delicate aroma of milk, nuts, mushrooms, vegetables, and persistent flavor. Production Area: Valleys of Ossau, Aspe and Barétous situated between 900 and 2000 meters, Pyrénées-Atlantiques Department, Aquitaine Region Norway – Pultost from Hedmark and Oppland Counties For hundreds of years pultost was produced throughout Norway, particularly in Hedmark and Oppland counties in the southeast of the country. It has ancient origins and is typically made in a saeter, a Norwegian mountain farm, where it is then kept for the entire winter. It is made from skimmed, unpasteurized cow’s milk using acid fermentation without the addition of rennet, one of the most ancient cheesemaking techniques. The milk is soured and heated to a temperature between 45° and 65°C. The curd is then hung in a cloth to drain before being crumbled and left to ferment. Finally caraway seeds are added for flavoring and to stop the fermentation. Pultost can be eaten fresh or aged for up to a year. Production Area: Hedmark and Oppland Counties, southeast Norway Spain - Carranzana Cara Negra Sheep Cheese The Carranzana Cara Negra is a black-headed Basque sheep currently subject to a breed recovery program. It is a very rustic breed, adapted to life in the green, remote mountain pastures in the province of Bilbao. Its raw milk is used to make a traditional semi-aged cheese of small size. The curd, made using lamb\'s rennet from the same breed, is put into molds by hand and seasoned with salt from the Salinas de Añana, a Basque Ark of Taste product. The product is aged for a minimum of two months, but the flavor becomes more distinctive after aging 4 months. Production Area: Las Encartaciones, Bizkaia Province, Basque Country Switzerland - Raw Milk Butter This Presidium was set up to protect and promote a very rare product: raw-milk butter made from soured cream and lactic acid bacteria cultures produced in the dairy. One of the last remaining producers in Switzerland is Marco Eicher, who makes just over 60 kilograms of butter once or twice a week in his small dairy in Wernetshausen in the Zürcher Oberland. He only uses organic milk and when the cream has reached the right acidity – which generally takes two to four days – he places it in the butter churn to obtain a solid mass which is then washed, kneaded and modeled into classic pats. Production Area: Wernetshausen, Zürcher Oberland, Zürich Canton Switzerland - Traditional Emmentaler Emmentaler is still produced in the traditional way in the Emme Valley. An ancient cheese, probably dating back to the 13th century, it is known around the world. Traditional Presidium Emmentaler is made using local raw milk from cows fed a silage-free diet and involves the use of a whey starter culture which requires great skill from the cheesemaker. However its most important characteristic is long aging: the cheese matures for at least 12 months in damp cellars, where continuous care ensures it will develop a dark crust and a strong but balanced flavor. Production Area: Emme Valley, Berne Canton Switzerland - Raw Milk Vacherin Fribourgeois Vacherin Fribourgeois is a semi-hard, semi-cooked cow\'s milk cheese, originally from the French-speaking canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. Around 2,500 tonnes are produced annually, but only 2% are made with raw milk. The Presidium was created to promote the raw-milk Vacherin (particularly the cheese produced during summer in the mountains) aged for at least three months. After 90 days the cheese begins to express its unique characteristics, especially the sweet softness in the mouth that comes from the technique of délactosage, curd washing. 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