1 January 2000
(Excerpt from Lonely Planet’s World Food Guide to Italy, 2000, authored by Matthew Evans)
Luigi spends much of his day up to his armpits in warm milk, slaving over a culture or two. It’s the only way to produce the firm, yet sweet latteria, the cow’s milk cheese that the locals love.
Latteria cheesemakers are the traditional artisans of the curd in Friuli, and Luigi Vanone is considered on of the best. He’s a young, lean, yet obviously strong man, no more than 30, and a living link to the cheesemakers of the past.
There used to be a cheesemaker in every village, now there are only about 100 left in the whole region. Latteria is an unpasteurised cheese, hand-made in copper-lined vats twice a day, every day. The vats were designed to be fired by wood, but these days a diesel flame keeps the milk warm. Ten local farmers bring in the milk between 7.30 and 8.20am, as well as between 8.15 and 8.45pm each evening. If the milk isn’t’ there then, it isn’t used, so they make sure it’s delivered on time. With unpasteurised cheese the rules regarding the milk are very strict.
We arrive at 10am to find the curds already being cultured. The room smells fresh and sweet. A little of last night’s milk has been kept warm in a water bath for 10 hours to create a light yoghurt to add to the cheese. Rennet has been stirred into the morning’s milk an hour tor two before, and Luigi takes some of the mixture and tests it with a series of different chemicals.
“That’s the new way,” he grins. “But the real way is to feel the grain like this.” Luigi reaches deep into the vat and pulls up some of the curd which has separated out from the whey and lies near the bottom. He presses it in his hand and feels the texture, how it presses together, how granular it is, how the remaining whey runs through his fingers.
“Nearly there,” he says. If he used the chemical analysis alone, it would have him making the cheese already but, fortunately for us, Luigi’s instinct knows better.
A few minutes after showing us the grain, the amiable atmosphere of the room becomes controlled tension as the first vat of curd is ready to drain. Luigi uses a flexible metal rod that is used to run around the base of each vat, loosening the curd which has started to settle. He is bent double, literally, the full length of his arms often under the liquid. Working with another person, Luigi lays the cheesecloth out along the metal rod, and collecting in it enough curd to make one cheese. In 20 minutes the first 19 cheeses are made. They’re gathered in cheesecloth, drained, plopped into metal rings, stacked and pressed.
In the middle of the cheese-making a customer comes in to buy a slab of butter. It’s Luigi who serves him, taking extraordinary care to wash his hands before and after the transaction. He doesn’t look hassled, and doesn’t miss a beat serving a second customer who comes in wanting cheese a few minutes later.
Nearly 200 litres of milk are brought in today, and that will make 320 wheels of cheese, each weighing about 7kg. Luigi doesn’t get paid in cash for making cheese for the farmers, but takes a percentage of the finished product. It’s in his interests to maximise the amount made, as well as the quality.
His storeroom, smelling like warm hay, is stocked with the farmers’ cheeses, all marked with the date made and the “Latteria Sociale Ravosa” stamp. They will be turned and wiped by hand every two days until sold, anything up to a year later. The wheels used to be stored in the cellar of the same building, a place best suited to maturing cheese, but a new coolroom ahs saved Luigi lugging the wheels up and down stairs. His own cheeses, however, are still stored in the cellar.
As we leave Luigi’s, we see cheeses stacked up in the back of a small van, ready for delivery. Most villagers know roughly what time to come by so as not to interrupt Luigi, and soon many more people arrive. They pop the cheese on the front seat of their Fiats or can be seen bustling up the street with whole wheels clutched under their arms.
Note: Latteria is a generic Italian term for a place that works with milk (think pizzeria, gelateria), but in this case is used, uniquely, to refer to the artisan cheese made in Friuli.