Once upon a time there was cave cheese. The latest trend is now cheese in the mine, and not just any mine, but the Dossena mine in the province of Bergamo, even mentioned by the Latin historian and naturalist Pliny the Elder in his work Naturalis Historia (Book XXXIV): "The vein of metal is extracted in this way and purified with fire. It is also produced from a mineral containing copper, called cadmium, known in the lands beyond the Mediterranean Sea and once in Campania, now also in the territory of Bergamo, the extreme area of Italy”. The word cadmium indicates calamine, a mineral extracted right in the ancient Roman mines on Mount Vaccareggio.
The experimental project “CheeseMine. Experimental process of cheese maturing in the Dossena mines”, sees the scientific coordination of the Institute of Food Production Sciences of the National Research Council (ISPA-CNR) in collaboration with the University of Milan.
The objective of the project, which sees the GAL Valle Brembana 2020 in the role of Innovation Broker and 6 local farms as partners (Az. Agricola Bonzi Fabio, Azienda Agricola Cavagna Maurizio, Società Agricola Gamba Farm di Giuseppe and Elda SS, Azienda Agricola Gamba Ovidio, La Paloma Blanca Agricultural Company, Trionfini Ivan Agricultural Company, I Rais Cooperative Society), is to experiment with a new solution for cheese maturing to be implemented in Dossena mines, recently reopened to the public for tourism purposes, and to give uniqueness and added value to local dairy products, giving gastronomic excellence and companies the recognition they deserve.
From the start of the project to today they have been identified three types of cheese whose sensory characteristics are enhanced by the aging in the mine and defined by the related production regulations. Two cheeses are made from cow's milk, one semi-cooked (Ol Minadur) and one with raw pasta (Ol Galet), the third, The Taessina, is a goat's cheese with rennet coagulation.
Known and appreciated by the Romans, as has been said, the Dossena mines had another moment of fortune between the 1500th and XNUMXth centuries. during the rule of the Republic of Venice when extraction was restored from some ancient deposits still active, also initiating the search for other veins. Some studies by Leonardo da Vinci date back to the beginning of the XNUMXs, precisely on some particular techniques used in the mines of Dossena, as well as mapping works of the area; there are, in fact, two of his drawings of maps concerning Dossena and the Val del riso, kept in London, in the royal library of Winsor.
The industrial exploitation of the mines began in 1801 in Gorno, especially for ferrous materials. In the second half of the 1869th century, mining began in Val Parina and Val del Riso. From 1909 to XNUMX there was a strong extraction of calamine with the consequent production of zinc. Fluorite mining was started by the Austro-Belgian Company during the First World War. Subsequently, the Società Anonima Mineraria Prealpina took over and concentrated the works in the Sandri Level area.
From 1929 to 1981 there was a great extraction of fluorite: Fluorite.jpg a mineral widely used in metallurgy as a flux (from the Latin fluere or to melt); for the production of hydrofluoric acid, a very corrosive acid for glass processing and for the production of rust inhibitors; for the production of fluorine, through the electrolysis of hydrofluoric acid; in addition to detergents to make garments shine (especially white ones) and to combat chromatic aberration in camera lenses.
The mine ceased operations definitively in 1981.
Now it returns to a new life but for many other tasty and tasty goals.
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