Menu
Caprino al lattice di Fico is an Italian cheese made from goat's milk and produced in Marche
Ingredients: goat's milk and fig branches.
Process technology: the milk is coagulated at room temperature by immersing a branch of the fig tree in the milk, which is rotated until a specified time. This takes experience as if it is done for longer than necessary, the wood of the fig tree gives a bitter taste to the milk and cheese. After adequate rest, the curd is broken (about the size of a small grain) and left at the bottom of the container. After completing the previous step, the dough is extracted and put into molds and then pressed by hand. It is salted dry for up to two days, after which the forms begin to mature and finally mature in a cool, dry place.
Specific materials and equipment used for preparation and packaging: Tradition requires the use of copper containers and tin plates (in accordance with regulations), which allow a more uniform and gradual diffusion of heat, and wood (processing and shelves for ripening), to promote the development of the microbial flora responsible for the originality of the product. Nowadays, more modern materials and equipment are also used, complying of course with the standards.
Storage, local processing and maturation: The processing facilities must guarantee hygiene and wholesomeness, and at the same time guarantee sufficient activity of the microbial processes responsible for the transformation of milk.
Ripening rooms must provide sufficient sanitary and hygienic conditions together with the correct conditions of temperature, humidity and ventilation.
Maturation: from a month to a year.
Characteristics of the finished product: it is cylindrical in shape, with flat faces. The rind is soft when fresh and tougher when ripe. The paste is greyish-white in color and compact with scant, irregular holes. This cheese is tasty and slightly spicy.
Production area: Province of Pesaro and Urbino, in particular, in the territory of Montefeltro.
Production time: It occurs in spring - autumn.
Notes: goats feed during extensive grazing, forage, cereal mixes and legumes.
Peaks Graziella, "The map of taste - Montefeltro II: people, places, food" by Montefeltro Travel Agency, Vadesi graphics, Sant'Angelo in Vado (PU), 2001.
Source: Official Gazette of the Marche Region. Year XXXIII, n.