Gustav and I can’t wait to return to our beloved Piedmont and were super happy to find this gem at @Tutta Posto last week. – L’ ´Ottavio (alla birra scura) by Fattorie Fiandino from Villafalletto about one hour south of Turin.
Raw milk obtained from cows of the Bruna breed is enriched with a shot (1%) of craft beer and curdled with the help of vegetal rennet extracted from Cardoon, a wild artichoke thistle that can be found in the area of L’ Ottavio’s home.

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Barley Malt covered L’Ottavio ripens for at least 45 days, delivers flavors of smoky, dried fruit within a lactic, sweet &bouncy paste and loves an artisanal beer as his table companion.

Gustav rates L’ Ottavio 11/10and says that his flavors unfold best when crust and core are enjoyed together. He also says he can’t wait to return to the Piedmontese valleys and hunt for cheeses himself. 🐾🥰🐺

WHO KNEW! – Side Dish Facts

As we all know to make cheese you need the following ingredients:
Milk, starter culture, rennet & salt

For fresh cheeses you are fine just to go with the starter culture or even have enough lactic acid bacteria in your milk to finish the job.

This can be because you are a generational cheese maker who works with wooden tools that you clean with whey or because you mix your evening milk with the one from the next morning; I think I speak for most of us that unfortunately we are not these cheese makers.

But for anything but fresh you need a further coagulation helper;
This can be rennet extracted from calves- or lamb stomachs, meaning animal based or microbial derived rennet. Or it can be – like with L’ Ottavio – obtained from a vegetal source.
The enzymes that can be extracted from plants like cardoon and wild artichoke (Cyprosin and Cardosin) help in a similar way as animal based rennet and its Chymosin enzyme to coagulate the milk.
Using plant extracts as coagulants is not a modern lifestyle invention but has a history that dates back to the nursery of cheese making and although it is a less predictable choice regarding the outcome of the cheeses, many cheese makers go for it.
For a strictly kosher diet, in which meat and milk are not allowed to touch or for sworn-in vegetarians the use of plant based rennet is also an excellent way out of the plight.

[Source: The Oxford Companion to Cheese]