Furmàcc del féen - Extra curing

Furmàcc, furmai, formai are three ways of saying cheese used from the valleys to the Alps, in Lombardy and beyond. Furmàcc del féen is not just a name, but a declaration: cheese of/from hay. An inseparable pairing to underline how the goodness of milk and cheese is determined mostly by which and how much hay and grass feed the herds.
Throughout Valtellina and the neighboring valleys, from Val Chiavenna up to Val di Lei to the west (going up the Adda), and to the east to Stelvio and Livigno, it is traditional to distinguish summer cheeses, obtained in the rotating pastures of the mountain pastures, from winter cheeses, produced in the valley floor. A distinction that is not only temporal, but substantial.
In the hundred days in the mountains, a full-fat alpine cheese is produced, that is, obtained from whole milk, which takes on various local names, the Storico Ribelle del Presidio above all. In the valley bottom, however, skimmed milk is used, resulting in a semi-fat or low-fat “latteria”. The manufacturing process is not very different: we are in the category of semi-cooked pasta. Summer production is often associated with that of mascherpa, a sort of ricotta, while winter production is with butter, resulting from the skimming of the milk. Furmàcc del féen is produced primarily by the cheesemakers of Storico Ribelle, but also in the rest of the province of Sondrio.