Stelvio

What is Stelvio Cheese?

Stelvio, or Stilfser, is an Italian cow's milk cheese with protected designation of origin status. The zone of origin covers 84 municipalities across the district communities of Vinschgau, Burggrafenamt, Salten-Schlern, Pustertal and Eisacktal, plus the municipality of Bolzano, all in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano within the region of Trentino-South Tyrol. The setting is alpine, shaped by the mountain area of the Stelvio Pass and the South Tyrolean Alps, where mountain farms between 500 and 2,000 meters (1,600 to 6,600 feet) have kept livestock for generations.

On summer pasture the cows eat mostly fresh grass. In the barn they get hay and grass silage. Grass and roughage from the zone of origin must account for at least half of the dry matter fed, and feed brought in from outside cannot exceed the other half, since grain and oil crops grow poorly at that altitude. Every step happens inside the zone: rearing the cows, milking, collecting and processing the milk, making the cheese and ripening it.

The milk has a protein content above 3.10 percent and may be lightly skimmed to bring fat to between 3.45 and 3.80 percent. Ripening runs a minimum of sixty days.

The rind is yellow to orange-brown. Inside, the paste is compact and supple with an elastic bite, pale yellow to straw yellow, carrying small and medium holes scattered unevenly through it. The taste is aromatic and pronounced, at times sharp. Fat is at least 50 percent in dry matter and moisture stays at or below 44 percent.

The cheese reaches buyers as whole wheels or in portions, always carrying the origin mark. Wheels destined to be sliced, cubed or grated may be made in a shape other than cylindrical to cut processing waste, provided the weight and height rules still hold. Cutting into portions happens only after the wheel has been marked, and the portions can be packed outside the zone of origin. Each wheel also carries its lot, production date and producer code.