This Forgotten Italian Cheese Has a Shock Inside

It’s simple for a single chew of latest 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 a whole bunch of hundreds of viewers on Instagram: burrino pepato.

Content material creator Suzy (@sooziethefoodie) shared a clip of this Italian cheese in early June, and the weird 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 shade — 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 actually thrilling. Contained in the bigger half of burrino pepato is a pocket of soppy, salted, and gloriously scrumptious butter.

What’s burrino?

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

Burrino is a teardrop-shaped cheese full of 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 perhaps weeks as an alternative 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 world wide, along with creating its personal merchandise, like this burrino pepato, by means of its cave growing older program. 

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

How is burrino made?

When making burrino, the 2 parts of the cheese — butter and mozzarella — are first made individually. (Mozzarella is produced by means of a course of known 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 will probably 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. Nonetheless, Windsor notes that “Makers may 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 a bit of murky. Some imagine it was a solution to protect butter longer earlier than the appearance of refrigeration. One story that I usually inform is that it happened as a method for Italians to keep away from excessive taxes on butter when bringing items to household in the USA.”

Sadly, burrino may be fairly onerous to seek out within the U.S. at present, however some artisanal cheese retailers would possibly carry it sometimes. (For instance, Ploughgate Creamery and Maplebrook Farm in Vermont, which helped Murray’s develop its burrino pepato, have beforehand bought 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 think about importing some. 

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