Stracchino all’Antica delle Valli Orobiche (Old-Style Stracchino from Orobiche Valleys)

For centuries the stracchino produced in Taleggio Valley was considered the best, as pointed out in the first edition (1931) of the Italian Touring Club’s Gastronomic Guide. Consequently, all the cheeses of this type began to be called “Taleggio”, even if they were produced in different areas and/or with different techniques. To this day, stracchino all’antica (old-style stracchino) is produced using freshly milked milk, which in the past used to be immediately poured into square molds to be transported. The Slow Food Presidium regulations demand that the production area be narrowed down to the place(s) of origin: the Brembana Valley, and the Serina, Taleggio and Imagna side valleys.When you taste it, old-style stracchino is initially sweet and then salty and bitter, with a slightly spicy kick in some instances. It has a complex, highly persistent aroma that reminds one of cooked milk, melted butter, hay, fresh mushrooms, citrus fruit, stable, leather, meat broth, white pepper and other spices. It melts in your mouth and it is not very adhesive, nor wet.

Lasagna and juicy meat recipes are just a few examples of the many dishes that you can prepare with this top quality ingredient. You can also serve it with steamed vegetables or polenta bergamasca, an all-time favourite recipe in the local cuisine.

Do you know where the name “stracchino” comes from? In the Bergamo dialect, the word “stracch” means “tired”. Thus, the name “stracchino” apparently encapsulates the exhaustion experienced by both cows and shepherds at the end of the day during the transhumance period. Moving from one mountain pasture to another (an activity described as “cargà ‘l mut”) on a daily basis was indeed exhausting. In the evening, as men and cattle reached a stop along their routes, the shepherds set out to prepare the stracchino. The cheese had to be prepared quickly, since the cattle had to be moved to another pasture the very next day. It was then immediately placed in rectangular wooden boxes, designed specifically to optimize the transportation process on mules’ flanks. This is why this cheese was also called “strachì da viaz” (travelling stracchino) in the 18th century.It is the father of the large stracchini family, which includes many delicious cheeses, ranging from “stracchinelli teneri” (very soft stracchini) to taleggio, quartirolo, salva, strachitunt and gorgonzola PDO cheeses from the Bergamo area.