🧀 Pecorino Crotonese

Pecorino Crotonese is an Italian hard, semi-cooked cheese with a protected designation of origin (PDO), made exclusively from whole sheep's milk. It is produced in Calabria, in municipalities of the provinces of Crotone, Catanzaro and Cosenza.

The milk comes from sheep reared in the area in a semi-wild system: the flocks graze and return to the fold in the evening. The basic ration is fodder from the area, and GMO-free concentrates from outside may not exceed 40 % of the total over the year. The whole milk may be used raw or heat-treated (thermised or pasteurised); additives and preservatives are not allowed. The milk is curdled with kid rennet paste and salted with rock salt. According to the specification, the curd is broken with a local tool called miscu to the size of rice grains and pressed by hand in basket moulds, so basket marks are visible on the wheels.

There are three types: fresco, with a white or light straw rind and a soft, creamy paste; semiduro, with a thick light brown rind and a firm paste; and stagionato, ripened for more than six months, with a hard brown rind that may be coated with olive oil or olive dregs and a slightly piquant aftertaste. The cheese is cylindrical; weights range from 0.5 kg for small fresh cheeses to 5 to 15 kg for large semi-hard and ripened ones. Fat in dry matter is at least 40 %, protein at least 25 % and moisture at least 30 %. The aroma is a light scent of sheep's milk with hay, wild grasses, hazelnut and smoke.

Rearing, milk production, cheesemaking and ripening all take place in the production area. Cheeses under 1 kg are sold whole; larger ones whole or in portions. The label shows the logo and the words Denominazione di Origine Protetta or DOP.