Bross

Production zone

The province of Cuneo particularly Murazzano (Langhe), Castelmagno and Frabosa.

Characteristics

Soft and spreadable dough, fat or half-fat, from ovine and cow’s milk, if necessary also with oat’s milk.

Shape and Dimensions

It is contained in glass or pot holders; the weight is not fixed.

Looks of the dough

The dough can be ivory white to dark straw-colored; it is creamy.

History

It has always been considered poor people’s cheese, as said Pantaleone da Confienza. Its name appears in some medieval statutes (Cuneo, Mondovì), with its variants: brocius, broxíus, brozius, brozus, brucíus. It was made of ovine cheese and brandy.

Productione technique

Bross, or Bruz or Bruzzu, isn’t a cheese, but a domestic product made of other cheeses, such as Robiola, Castelmagno, Raschera, Toma or ricotta.

The cheese (or cheeses) is cut in chips and put in glass or pot holders. Some milk cream or ricotta (seirass) is added, the mixture is left some days in a fresh place, and regularly mixed with a wooden spoon. This way it ferments. It is covered with a canvas. Once the Bross has become creamy and has gotten its characteristic sharp smell, the fermentation is stopped by adding alcohol or grappa or rhum.

Once it’s left seasoning for still twenty or thirty days, the Bross is ready. In the Langhe seasonated robiole are tipically used; one production technique uses grappa and white wine instead of milk cream to mix the Robiola, week after week, for seven week, regularly adding cheese and alcohol.

Taste and smell

Its intense and sharp smell, which comes from the seasoning, goes along with a sapid, hot, strong and sharp taste.

How to eat it

On ground slices of home-baked bread (in the Langhe people prepare the Carbonà).

Recommended wines

Barbera d’Alba giovane, Dolcetto delle Langhe Monregalesi.