EFFECT OF REDUCED DRY SALTING ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF PDO PECORINO ROMANO CHEESE

Pecorino Romano protected designation of origin (PDO) cheese was subjected to traditional (TS) and reduced (RS) dry salting methods. TS cheese was analyzed from 2 to 581 d of ripening and RS cheese was analyzed from 2 to 258 d of ripening. RS cheese had a significantly lower salt to moisture (S/M) ratio than TS cheese (4.48 vs 7.20%; 9.04 vs 12.09% in the inner and outer sections, respectively). A significant difference in S/M was obtained between the inner and outer sections of TS cheese. RS cheese had higher moisture content than TS cheese (41.02 vs 38.91%; 39.80 vs 37.29% in the inner and outer sections, respectively). RS cheese had higher pH 4.6 soluble N/total N ratios and total and individual amino acid contents. However, proteolysis was not significantly different between RS and TS. In TS and RS, total amino acid content was significantly higher in the inner than in the outer sections. Total free fatty acid content was higher in RS than in TS. Lipolysis was not significantly different between RS and TS.