The Taleggio is a cheese of very old origins, perhaps anterior to the X century. Some documents dated up to XIII century refer to the commerce and the exchanges concerning our cheese, with other cheeses. Its origin area is the Val Taleggio, in the province in Bergamo, from which derives the name of the cheese. The inhabitants of this valley in order to preserve the exceeding milk, began to produce some cheese that, once seasoned in "caves" or in their valley farm, could be exchanged with other products or commercialized.
Because of the increasing of the Taleggio cheese use, its production is progressively extended in the Padana plan, for that reason many dairies started to operate, generally of small and average dimensions, which have succeeded in balancing traditional productive technology, substantially maintained the same one, with the technological innovations followed in almost thousand years of history.Nowadays the area of production and seasoning of the Taleggio cheese is Lombardy (in the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Cremona, Lecco, Lodi, Milan, Pavia), Piedmont (province of Novara) and Venetia (province of Treviso).In order to confirm its tradition, the Taleggio cheese has been recognized as a DO cheese (Denomination of Origin) in Italy in 1988 and DOP cheese (Denomination of Protected Origin) in the European Union in 1996.The Taleggio cheese is, therefore, one of the Italian cheeses whose peculiar characteristics are protected by the European Union, and it is for that reason that milk supplying, its production and its seasoning must be effectuated in the area indicated by the Italian and community legislation.

The Taleggio cheese characteristics

Each Taleggio cheese weight from 1,7 to 2,2 kgs., according to the technical conditions of production. Cheese is quadrangular parallelepiped, with sides of 18-20 cms. The rind is thin, of soft consistence and its colour is natural rose, with presence of characteristic grey and green light sage colour mould. The paste is uniformly compact, softer under the rind and at the end of seasoning, friable to its centre. The paste colour changes from white to pale yellow, with some small circles. The taste is sweet, with light acidulous vein, slightly aromatic, sometimes with truffle aftertaste; the odour is characteristic.

How to recognize its origin and its quality

The rind has to be natural rose: it means that the ripe has happened and none treatment has done on its surface except the normal cleaning with water and salt, that is the correct process of ripe.
The paste is normally softer under the rind, this because the ripe process happens from the outside toward the inside.Therefore what can seem a layer of very fat cheese under the rind, is in reality more ripe cheese.The odour has to be slightly aromatic and characteristic. It doesn't have to be an odour of fermentation.The surface of the whole Taleggio cheese brings a four circles mark, parts of the mark are well visible even if the Taleggio cheese is sold in portions.The mark on the rind is the guarantee that the cheese has been produced in full conformity to the technical and hygienic standards written by the Union Protection of the Taleggio cheese.