I first heard of Crescenza cheese many years ago, when I read "The Cheese Book" by Vivienne Marquis and Patricia Haskell, a classic volume first published in 1964. The name stuck because of their description:
"Ten minutes out of the icebox and crescenza is literally beside itself," they write. "Glistening, supercreamy, mildly tart, it is often used instead of butter … if you come away from Italy having tried just one new cheese, this should be it."
Crescenza is one of the family of stracchino cheeses made in Lombardy. When the Italian dairy herds were being moved from the mountains of northern Lombardy into the pastures of the south for winter foraging, they made certain planned stops along the way for milking. One of these stops was the town of Gorgonzola.
The large quantity of milk that flooded the local dairies was used for cheesemaking — for which it was perfect, because the tired cows produced milk with a higher butterfat content than at any other time of the year. Many varieties of cheese were produced only in the autumn, and only with this milk. Among them was Crescenza, the curds left full of whey, quickly ripened for a week or less in the cool fall temperatures and eaten while fresh, tangy and silky.
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