Vastedda Palermo
Product included in the national list of traditional agri-food products (PAT)
PAT type: Cheeses
Production area:
Technical data sheet of the traditional agri-food product (PAT)
Historical equipment: Wooden vat, wooden "patella" stick, wooden container for pressing "cisca", "cannara" cane trellis, "appizzatuma" wooden stick, "vacillatuma" wooden stick, "piddiaturi" wooden container, boiler tinned copper. Tables and wooden container "boards". Direct wood-gas fire.
Brief historical notes: Its origins date back to the production of Palermo's caciocavallo. The vastedda, in fact, is obtained from a process very similar to that of the Palermo caciocavallo whose difference becomes tangible when the pasta is spinning where the expert hands give the mass a more or less thick ovoid shape, called Vastedda.
Type: Fresh stretched curd cheese.
Production: The province of Palermo and some municipalities in the province of Trapani.
Main production technology lines:
- species / breed: Cow;
- raw material: Whole milk, raw;
- microflora: Natural;
- rennet: Lamb or kid pasta;
prevailing power supply system: Natural and cultivated pasture with integration of fodder and concentrates in the stable in variable quantities with respect to the forage season;
processing techniques: The vastedda from Palermo produced with traditional techniques involves the coagulation of the milk in a wooden vat at 35 ° C with lamb rennet in paste. The curd is drained with the help of a particular wooden container, "cisca", is then cooked under the scald for about 4 hours, after which it is placed on a "cannara" reed trellis to be able to press it; the paste obtained is hung on a wooden stick "appizzatuma" to facilitate the purging of the whey. The next day it is cut, placed in the "piddiaturi", container for spinning, and spun with the help of a wooden "vacillatuma" stick. The vastedda modeled by hand to acquire the ovoid shape is then left to dry on the wooden board. The next day it is salted;
salting: In saturated brine for about 2-4 hours. Placed to dry after 48 hours, it is ready to be consumed;
Technical data: More or less thick ovoid shape with an ivory-colored paste. The taste is sour and fresh. It weighs about 1 Kg.
Historical references:
Municipal Archive of Palermo, vol. 23 n. 2; Calmiere imposed by the jurors and arbitrators for retail sale in the markets - March 21, 1412.
Antonino Bird "Cattle, pecorari and curatuli". Dairy culture in Sicily, Stass, Palermo, 1980.
ARAS “The typical cheeses of Sicily” Palermo, 1986.
National Institute of Rural Sociology: "Atlas of typical products: cheeses", Franco Angeli, Milan, 1990.
CNR: The dairy products of the South, 1992.
Source Pat Cards: Sicily Region
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Information contributions: Web, Region of Sicily
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