🧀 Formai de Mut dell'Alta Valle Brembana

Formai de Mut dell'Alta Valle Brembana is an Italian cheese with a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), made exclusively from raw whole cow's milk with low natural acidity. The specification describes it as a fatty semi-cooked cheese. The milk is produced, and the cheese made and ripened, in 21 municipalities of the Upper Brembana Valley in the province of Bergamo, Lombardy.

How it is made. The milk is coagulated at 35–37 °C with bovine rennet in about 30 minutes; natural whey starter or selected yeast may be added. The curd is broken, semi-cooked at 43–50 °C, taken off the heat and stirred, then put into moulds called fassere and pressed to drain the whey. Salting may be dry or in brine. The cheese is made all year.

Cows and feed. The cows eat green and/or hay fodder from meadows and pastures, at least 50 % of it from the area; silage is not allowed. Cereals, concentrates and protein cake may be added.

Look and taste. A straight or slightly convex cylinder 30–40 cm across, with a heel 8–10 cm high, weighing 8–12 kg. The rind is thin, firm and natural, straw yellow. The paste is ivory to slightly straw-coloured (ivory with winter hay, straw with summer grass), compact and elastic, with scattered eyes up to the size of a ‘partridge eye’; small cracks are allowed. The taste is delicate, fragrant, not very salty and mild. Fat in dry matter is at least 42 %.

Ripening and labels. Ripening lasts at least 45 days; cheese ripened for more than 6 months may be labelled ‘Riserva’. The paper conformity label shows a bell with 22 small bells around it. It is red for cheese made on the valley floor and blue (‘d'alpeggio’) for cheese made on mountain pastures between 20 May and 20 October.

Why it matters to you. The name Formai de Mut dell'Alta Valle Brembana has been protected in the EU since 21 June 1996. The cheese may be sold whole or in portions, and portioning may take place outside the production area.