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I Bitto cheese has remote origins which are rooted in the Alpine area of Valli del Bitto di Albaredo and Gerola, right in the heart of the Parco delle Orobie Valtellinesi. In year 2000 it was awarded the certificate of Appéllation d'Origin Protégée by the European Community.
It is fat, middle-hard, middle-ripe, Alp cheese. Its cylindrical cheeses are 40-50 cm in diameter, 9-12 cm high and weigh from 9 to 20 kg. Its colour varies from white to straw-yellow according to ripe.
The producing process covers a period of 4 months - from the 1st June to the 30th September - and fully respects the tradition and the environment.
Cow's milk is immediately added to goat's (10-20 % compulsory; Orobic breed risking extinction) and then poured into the traditional coppers whose form is that of an overturned bell. Here it warms up by wood fire till a temperature of 35-37°C. Calf's curd is added to it and the mixture obtained is then broken up thinly. Within two hours it is warmed to its final temperature of 50-52°C. Once removed from the copper, this mixture is placed into wooden containers, which give it its typical concave shape. The Producers of "Valli del Bitto" chooses containers in wood, as the porosity and transpirability of this material allow the cheese to breathe and dry during the stage of resting and dry-salting.
Moreover these traditional wooden tools are essential to preserve the typical features of this cheese, which change according only to the different pastures in which it is produced. The micro flora characterizing each pasture creates a barrier against micro-organisms which might damage the product. Cheese starts to ripen in the so called Alpine "casera", a rural small hut not far from the pasture, and finishes in the factories down in the valley. This process lasts for at least 70 days but this cheese can ripen for several years without organoleptic and structural features being altered. After one year the product can be grated and served as condiment.

->See also: Il calècc , , itinerant hut where the cheese is produced <