For centuries the stracchino produced in the Taleggio Valley was considered the best, as the first Touring Club Gastronomic Guide of 1931 points out, and so they began to call “Taleggio” all cheeses of that type, even if they were not produced locally or with different techniques. To this day, stracchino all’antica is made by “hot milking,” that is, with freshly milked milk, which used to be put immediately into square wheels ready to be transported.
The Slow Food Presidium regulations state that the production area must be restricted to the area of origin: the Brembana Valley and the confluent valleys of Serina, Taleggio and Imagna.
In the mouth you will feel stracchino all’antica initially sweet and then savory and bitterish, sometimes with sensations of spiciness. Smell and aroma are complex with medium-high persistence: lactic cooked-melted butter; vegetal-hay, fresh mushrooms; fruity-citrus; animal-stable, leather, meat broth and sometimes spicy-white pepper. It has good solubility, is not very sticky and moist.