This Forgotten Italian Cheese Has a Shock Inside

It’s straightforward for a single chew of recent cheese to cease me in my tracks — making me mentally doc how scrumptious it’s — but it surely’s much less frequent for only one glimpse of a dairy product to offer me quick pause. 

There’s one cheese that didn’t only recently cease me from doomscrolling on social media with out even tasting it, but in addition caught the eye of lots of of 1000’s of viewers on Instagram: burrino pepato.

Content material creator Suzy (@sooziethefoodie) shared a clip of this Italian cheese in early June, and the bizarre teardrop form of burrino pepato is the primary visible cue that it’s one thing particular. The outside of the cheese has a mottled brown and grey coloration — coupled with its form, this leads a number of commenters to check it to a potato — but it surely’s what’s hidden inside that makes this cheese really thrilling. Contained in the bigger half of burrino pepato is a pocket of sentimental, salted, and gloriously scrumptious butter.

What’s burrino?

The phrase “pepato” in Italian means “peppery” or “peppered” so this product’s title describes a burrino that’s coated in pepper. Though the phrase “burrino” roughly interprets to “butter” in English, additionally it is the title of an Outdated World-style Italian cheese. Extra merely put: burrino is a cheese, and burrino pepato is a model of that cheese coated in peppercorns. 

Burrino is a teardrop-shaped cheese crammed with butter, and it’s product of scamorza. Scamorza is an aged mozzarella, although it’s aged briefly in comparison with many different cheeses, sitting for days or even weeks as a substitute of months or years. Consequently, it has a fragile, creamy taste like mozzarella, however with a bit extra umami, tanginess, and a drier texture.

The peppered model of burrino proven in Suzy’s Instagram video was made by Murray’s Cheese. Murray’s is a cheese retailer — based in New York Metropolis in 1962 and bought by Kroger in 2017 — that sells artisanal cheeses from producers all over the world, along with creating its personal merchandise, like this burrino pepato, via its cave growing older program. 

Josh Windsor, the affiliate director of Murray’s cheese caves, explains that you may “Consider [burrino] as a bag crammed with a ball of butter. After wrapping the butter contained in the cheese, the pouch is tied off and hung to dry. This provides it its pouch-like form…”

How is burrino made?

When making burrino, the 2 elements of the cheese — butter and mozzarella — are first made individually. (Mozzarella is produced via a course of referred to as “pasta filata,” which entails stretching and kneading curds to develop its signature, barely stringy texture. Burrino doesn’t should be wrapped particularly in mozzarella particularly, however it will likely be wrapped in one thing from the pasta filata household.)

From there, Windsor particulars that “The butter is basically wrapped in a tacky pouch.” For Murray’s burrino pepato, “The 2 [then] age collectively in our caves. This stunning marriage ceremony of cheese and butter occurs at Maplebrook Farm in Vermont, the place the cheese ages for per week till it’s sturdy sufficient to journey to our caves in Lengthy Island Metropolis. 

“We then coat the burrino in additional butter and roll it in a mix of two single-origin black peppercorns chosen for his or her spiciness and fruity notes. The cheese then ages a further two weeks in our cave to additional develop the feel of the scamorza and set the rind.”

The place does burrino come from?

Burrino hails from Southern Italy and is usually related to the Basilicata area. Nevertheless, Windsor notes that “Makers could be present in Campania, Molise, and Calabria, primarily the identical areas the place contemporary mozzarella and fior di latte are made.

“Like many cheeses, its origins are slightly murky. Some imagine it was a option to protect butter longer earlier than the appearance of refrigeration. One story that I usually inform is that it took place as a manner for Italians to keep away from excessive taxes on butter when bringing items to household in the USA.”

Sadly, burrino could be fairly onerous to search out within the U.S. at present, however some artisanal cheese outlets would possibly carry it often. (For instance, Ploughgate Creamery and Maplebrook Farm in Vermont, which helped Murray’s develop its burrino pepato, have beforehand offered a restricted batch of their very own burrino.) If in case you have a small, native cheese store, discuss to its cheesemongers and ask in the event that they carry burrino or would contemplate importing some. 

Subscribe to newsletters from producers like Ploughate Creamery, Maplebrook Farm, and Murray’s Cheese to search out out once they have new or limited-edition cheeses obtainable. Though the burrino pepato from Murray’s is at the moment offered out, we do have some good news: Windsor confirms the model shall be bringing it again for a restricted run subsequent yr.