Gorgonzola Cheese P.D.O.

Product Description Gorgonzola cheese D.O.P.

Gorgonzola DOP is a soft cheese with presence of bluverdastre veins, due to the marbling process, produced with pasteurized whole cow's milk from the production area. It stands out in Spicy types (in small and medium-forms) and Dolce (great shape).

Production Method Gorgonzola cheese D.O.P.

The milk used is pasteurized by inoculating lactic acid bacteria of the species L. bulgaricus and S. thermophilus, spores of Penicillium roqueforti, selected yeasts of the Saccharomyces species, used to ensure a correct opening of the dough, and finally adding calf rennet to a temperature of 28- 36 ° C. After the breaking of the curd, which is left to drain the whey, the mass is put into shape for 24 hours in perforated molds of steel, said fasceruoli, and subjected to salting dry for a few days at a temperature of 18-24 ° C. During maturation, the varieties and strains of Penicillium characteristic that determine the blue-green color of the cheese. The minimum duration of maturing is 50 days for the large form of Gorgonzola DOP, 60 days for the small form, of 80 to the average shape. The curing is carried out in environments with 2-7 ° C and a relative humidity of 85-99% temperature.

 

Look and taste Gorgonzola cheese D.O.P.

Gorgonzola DOP is cylindrical in shape with flat sides, gray crust and / or pink, not edible; raw dough of white and yellow color, mottled with mold (erborinature) with veins bluverdastre characteristics. The flavor varies from sweet to slightly spicy to very spicy depending on age.

Gastronomy Gorgonzola cheese D.O.P.

To best preserve the Gorgonzola DOP is necessary to wrap the cheese with aluminum foil or aluminum and place in closed containers in less cold compartment of the refrigerator. Great table cheese, is also used as an ingredient in many foods. There are many recipes that the protagonist, from starters, the first and second and even desserts. The use of the Gorgonzola DOP is also valuable for the production of sauces and creams. Gorgonzola Dolce DOP goes well with red or white wines, especially soft. Gorgonzola DOP Spicy prefers well-structured red wines and aged.

Gorgonzola Cheese D.O.P. marketing

The product is marketed throughout the year in the following categories: Gorgonzola Dolce DOP (great shape), Spicy Gorgonzola DOP (medium and small forms). It is marketed as whole cheeses, in slices, portioned and pre-packaged. Shall bear on the faces of the number of the dairy identification, marks the Consortium for the Protection and must be wrapped in embossed foil bearing the name and the product logo printed on the entire surface.

A distinguishing Gorgonzola cheese D.O.P.

During maturation Gorgonzola DOP is laundry using needles to develop the characteristics of veins blue-greenish color, known as "marbling".

Gorgonzola DOP is a cheese that few know how to do

Everyone knows that it is good, but the Gorgonzola can reveal the truly amazing aspects.
For example, you know that only 427 people in the world can do the real Gorgonzola? Not many right?
And we know them all by name, one by one. Are the cheesemakers who every day keep alive the extraordinary Italian dairy tradition and handed down with passion, through ancient gestures, remained the same over the centuries.

It is the culture that knows how to create the miracle of unmistakable flavor that you know well. And to think that all you eat only because it is good.

 

History Gorgonzola cheese D.O.P.

There are many legends that are told about the origin of Gorgonzola DOP and most agree it back around the X-XII centuries in the province of Milan and precisely near the town of Gorgonzola. Until the early twentieth century this cheese was simply called soft cheese or, more often, green soft cheese or soft cheese Gorgonzola and it was only the need to differentiate and enhance the cheese produced in the typical area of ​​origin to give him the final name of Gorgonzola.

Gorgonzola is a very old cheese, some claim that the gorgonzola would be done for the first time, in the eponymous town near Milan, in the year of grace 879.
According to other birth it took place in Pasturo in Valsassina, large dairy center for centuries, thanks to the presence of those excellent natural caves whose average temperature is constant between 6 ° C and 12 ° C and allows, therefore, the perfect success of blue cheese, as well as various other cheeses.

The Gorgonzola town, in any case, remains the center of most famous, if not most of the production or trade for many centuries; in fact the first real name of gorgonzola was to "stracchino di Gorgonzola", then best defined by its synonymous with "green stracchino." In this context, there is no doubt that its production happen with the autumn milkings return from transhumance pastures or mountain pastures.

The spread of the blue cheese, as slow when compared to the success of other cheeses, however, was constant at least as regards the area between Lombardy and Piedmont: the Pavese much as the Novarese are added in a massive way in Milan and to Comasco in the production of gorgonzola.

Is looming, so what the decrees of 1955 and 1977 as delimit the production area and the maturing of this cheese now risen to the denomination of protected origin.

Since the beginning of the '900 onwards gorgonzola relishes its growing success, especially abroad, setting a record in exports more than 100,000 tons annually of cheese destined for England, France and Germany; while the first country prefers gorgonzola white mild and slightly spicy flavor, French and German require expressly that the veined pasta and strong taste, the so-called blue cheese "two-paste."

Immediately after the war is developed a new technique, that is, working with gorgonzola "a paste." Gradually replaces the previous production, very empirical, significantly more expensive, hygienically and qualitatively uneven. The dairies and the many dairies scattered across the Po valley, collect milk from all the farms and produce cheese that is then transported to the great centers of seasoning. In the seventies the more than 100 dairies must necessarily modernize production plants and several small producers, unable to bear the costs, they must leave. They remain so until today about thirty well-structured companies that in addition to working milk, blue cheese seasoned in the modern values ​​systems; They are divided into large and average complexes.

The production of recent years confirms the productive axis shift. Among the three major producing provinces, Novara collects more than 45%, 22% Pavia and Milan 15%. The rest is divided among other typical of the provinces of production and aging indicated by the rules of naming protection.

Production area Gorgonzola cheese D.O.P.

The production area of ​​Gorgonzola DOP falls in the entire territory of the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Cremona, Lecco, Lodi, Milan, Pavia, Varese, Monza in the Lombardy region; Biella, Cuneo, Vercelli, Novara, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and in 31 municipalities within the province of Alessandria, in the Piedmont region.

Product specification - Gorgonzola DOP

Article 1.
D.O.P. 'Gorgonzola' is reserved for the soft, fat, raw paste, made exclusively from whole cows' milk.

Article 2.
The area of ​​production and maturation of D.O.P. "Gorgonzola" includes the entire territory of the provinces of Bergamo, Biella, Brescia, Como, Cremona, Cuneo, Lecco, Lodi, Milan, Novara, Pavia, Vercelli, Varese, as well as the following municipalities within the province of Alessandria Casale Monferrato, Villanova Monferrato, Balzola, Morano Po, Coniolo, Pontestura, Serralunga di Crea, Cereseto, Treville, Ozzano Monferrato, San Giorgio Monferrato Sala Monferrato, Cellamonte, Rosignano Monferrato, Terruggia, Ottiglio, Frassinello Monferrato, Olivola, Vignale, Camagna, Conzano, Occimiano, Mirabello Monferrato, Giarole, Valenza, Pomaro Monferrato, Bozzole, Valmacca, Ticineto, Borgo San Martino and Frassineto Po.

Article 3.
The production of cheese D.O.P. 'Gorgonzola' takes place according to the following operating sequence:
The whole cow's milk coming from the production area is pasteurized, curdled at a temperature of 28-36 ° C, inoculated with milk enzymes and with a suspension of spores of pennicillium and selected yeasts and added with calf rennet;
After a few days we proceed to dry salting which continued for several days in an environment with a temperature of 18-24 ° C.
During maturation the cheese is most often perforated to facilitate the development of the varieties and strains of Penicillium that are characteristic of "Gorgonzola" and determining the green / blue color (marbling).
The seasoning can last for 2 or 3 months, and in any case the minimum duration of ripening can be quantified in fifty days, it is carried out in an environment of 7.2 ° C, humidity 85/95% temperature.
The D.O.P. "Gorgonzola" must have the following characteristics:
cylindrical shape with rind tall and straight, flat surfaces;
The minimum duration of the maturing is fifty days: this operation is carried out in environments with 2 - 7 ° C and a relative humidity of 85-99% temperature.

Article 4.
The D.O.P. 'Gorgonzola' must have the following characteristics:
cylindrical shape with flat sides;
straight sides with a minimum height of 13 cm;
diameter of shape between 20 cm and 32 cm;
gray crust and / or pink, not edible;
pasta: homogeneous, white or pale yellow, mottled with mold (marbling) with veins blue-green features;
Dry matter fat content: minimum 48%.
The cheese D.O.P. 'Gorgonzola' may be marketed in the following types whose taste depends on the further aging:
1. the form "great": weighing between 10 kg and 13 kg, with sweet or slightly tangy taste;
2. form "media": weighing between 9 kg and 12 kg, with a pronounced tangy taste, and with a minimum of eighty days of ripening;
3. form "small": weighing between 6 kg and 8 kg, with a pronounced tangy taste, minimum maturation period of sixty days.
The cheese D.O.P. 'Gorgonzola' is used by the table.

Article 5.
The PDO 'Gorgonzola' is marked by two marks to be attached in the production area:
1) an origin (Annex 1) that is affixed on both flat ends displaying the identification number of the dairy, obtained by applying the tables distributed by the Consortium, commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry;
2) the other at the time when the product has reached the characteristics to be released for consumption and consisting of an embossed aluminum sheet that wraps the form, also bearing the identifying mark (Annex 2).
The form "great" having the characteristics to be called "sweet", and forms an 'average' and 'small' with the characteristics to be called "spicy", respectively, will bring these particulars on the label next to or below the designation ' Gorgonzola ', using graphic characters significantly smaller.