The Italian Alpine Blue Cheese That Doesn’t Turn Blue (Castelmagno d’Alpeggio) | Claudia Romeo

The Italian Alpine Blue Cheese That Doesn’t Turn Blue (Castelmagno d’Alpeggio) | Claudia Romeo

Today we’re in Valliera, Piedmont, Italy to see how Castelmagno cheese is made. This cheese is a very special blue cheese because, actually, unlike other blue cheeses, it’s not 100% guaranteed that it will turn blue. The reason for that is that, unlike other blue cheeses, it is not inoculated with the fungus, the Penicillium

That creates the blue veins, but rather, it is left to age in caves where the fungus is naturally present. The cheese is also not pierced, which is also something that also happens in other blue cheeses. And that means that the fungus has little space to actually penetrate the cheese.

And cheesemakers in the area actually have no say in whether or not the blue veins will actually form. There are some cheeses that never get them and some that get very little. Castelmagno can either be Di Montagna or D’Alpeggio. That means either from the mountain or actually from the Alps,

Which are much higher. And that means that the cows are grazing at a much higher altitude. In fact, today we’re at 1,500 meters above sea level. You can guess it from the fog that’s behind me. It’s very different from the landscape that I’m used to in the south of Italy.

Today we’re going to meet with Enzo, the cheesemaker at the Des Martin dairy. He’s going to show us how the Alps Castelmagno is made. I cannot wait to see it and then, who knows, maybe today we’re going to see some blue veins, maybe not.

It’s all part of the game for this cheese. Let’s go. The day begins with the arrival of this mornings’ milk, which Enzo uses in combination with the evening milk from the day before. With this amount of milk, Enzo will make 6 wheels of Castelmagno, each weighing around 5 kg.

Enzo is using only cow’s milk today, but Castelmagno cheese can also be made with goat’s milk. Because the morning and evening milks have very different temperatures, eaching the ideal temperature for the next step is a slow process. Making a wheel of Castelmagno cheese

Takes over 5 days in total from start to finish, But no making process is linear in cheesemaking. Usually, Enzo spends his days at the dairy juggling between different tasks. While he waits for the milk to reach the targeted 35 degrees, he’s busy cutting blocks of curd from the day before

Or milling curd that is four days old. But more on these steps later… When the milk is ready, Enzo adds rennet. It will take about 30 mins for the milk to split into curds and whey. After the curd is cut, Enzo will keep stirring to further separate the curd and whey.

When the curd is ready, Enzo connects the vat to another vat downstairs to drain the excess whey and transfer the curd. Some whey will be saved to be used at a later stage of the making process. The curd will rest here overnight until it drains more whey

And it’s a more solid block to work with. Tomorrow, Enzo will move it to this vat here, where it will stay from two to four days to ferment. Do you remember the excess whey from today’s production? Enzo just added it to yesterday’s curd, which is currently maturing in this vat here.

After fermentation, here they are: three-days old blocks of curd that are ready to be milled and salted. Now it’s time to transfer the curd into the six molds that will make six wheels of Castelmagno. Each wheel is marked with this, the symbol of Castelmagno cheese.

Although the cheeses will be pretty compact when they get out of the press, Enzo tells me that this method allows him to still leave some room for the blue mold to attack the cheeses later. They will stay in the press for two days.

They will then be transferred to a series of caves to age. At 10 days old, the wheels are transferred to another cave, where they will age for up to one year. And here is where Castelmagno will start its journey to becoming blue cheese. Maybe!

Both caves have a strong presence of penicillium roqueforti, the mold that gives blue cheeses blue veins. Yes, roqueforti like Roquefort, the iconic French blue cheese, But we’re in Italy for today. Maybe that’s material for another video. For most blue cheeses, the mold has been isolated

And is usually added in liquid form at the start of the cheesemaking process, and then it’s encouraged to grow through controlling the aging environment. You can see this happening in Stichelton, a wonderful blue cheese that I’ve covered before on my channel.

I’m going to link the video up here if you’re interested. But to make Castelmagno, Enzo hasn’t added anything. It’s up to the mold that is naturally present in the cave to make its way into the cheese. The only thing that Enzo can do is make the cave

As cozy as it can be for the fungus to really feel at home. The fungus likes humidity. And the floor is kept deliberately wet to keep the room humid all year long. But it’s not just penicillium, in the cave there are different molds,

like this one that looks like cotton balls called geotrichum that helps with the cheese ripening. Although some mold growth is encouraged, this doesn’t mean that Enzo can just abandon the cheeses in the cave for one year. He needs to constantly attend the cave to turn the wheels

to ensure they keep an even shape. He also needs to wash away any unwanted molds with water and salt, like this one he colloquially calls “cat hair” Because we’re in the Alps, getting to the dairy gets trickier and trickier as the weather gets colder.

Because of the remote location, Castelmagno is only made in the summer months. Castelmagno has a minimum aging of 60 days, but Enzo likes to age his cheeses from eight months up to one year. He told me he even tried a four-year-old Castelmagno, which according to him tastes amazing.

Perks of the job, right? So what is the best way to eat Castelmagno? Well, if you’ve made it this far, chances are that, like me, you like to eat cheese on its own, as a snack, as if it was chips. But actually a very traditional dish here in Piedmont is gnocchi al Castelmagno,

Which is homemade gnocchi and a lot of melted Castelmagno cheese. The staff at the dairy prepared some for me and it was absolutely dreamy. And if you get your hands on Castelmagno, I 100% recommend this dish. Thank you so much for watching this video and for showing support to the channel.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, please do so. It helps my channel a lot. Thank you again! I’ll see you in the next video.

Castelmagno cheese is a very special blue cheese because, unlike other blue cheeses, it’s not 100% guaranteed that it will turn blue. The reason for that is that, unlike other blue cheeses, it is not inoculated with the fungus, Penicillium Roqueforti, that creates the blue veins, but rather, it is left to age in caves where the fungus is naturally present. So cheesemakers in the area have no say in whether or not the blue veins will actually form. There are some cheeses that never get them and some that get very little. I met Enzo from the Des Martin dairy in Valliera, Piedmont, Italy to see how Castelmagno cheese is made.

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I’m Claudia, a journalist and producer reporting on food. I was born and raised in Bari, Italy, and I have been living in London, UK since 2012. I am the host and producer of Regional Eats on Insider Food and So Expensive Food on Business Insider. I enjoy learning what goes behind the scenes in the food industry, how traditional dishes are made and why certain foods are so important to countries and cultures around the world. Follow me for more food videos!

The Italian Alpine Blue Cheese That Doesn’t Turn Blue (Castelmagno d’Alpeggio) | Claudia Romeo
#castelmagno #italianfood #cheese

Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:23 Raw milk arrives at the dairy
03:24 Adding rennet
04:51 Splitting the milk into curds
08:02 Draining the whey
09:30 Enzo’s story
12:22 Castelmagno D’Alpeggio
13:02 Milling and salting the curd
14:29 Marking each wheel with the symbol of Castelmagno
16:28 Aging and developing the blue veins
23:25 Tasting
28:01 Gnocchi al Castelmagno