Callu de Cabrettu
The easiest and likely oldest way to make cheese.
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Callu de cabrettu is one of the traditional food techniques Schindler learned about from the residents of Ogliastra Region in Sardinia, Italy
“This is the most rudimentary form of cheesemaking I’ve ever heard about, read about, or experienced in the world,” Dr. Bill Schindler says. Schindler earned his PhD in Archaeology and Anthropology. He founded Eat Like a Human, whose mission is to empower people to feed themselves and their families the most nutritious foods ever created. Recently, Schindler visited the Ogliastra Region in Sardinia, Italy, to learn about traditional food preparation. Interestingly, this region was the first of five “blue zones” around the world where researchers noticed people’s lifespans and health spans far exceeded the average. In blue zones, there are many centenarians with low incidences of chronic diseases.
Callu de cabrettu is one of the traditional food techniques Schindler learned about from the residents of this Mediterranean island. Schindler imagines this method could be the advent of cheese, with different cultures adjusting for temperature and humidity control and playing with the length of ferment.
“I’ve started to tell the story about this cheese to many people, and their first reaction is often repulsion, like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’ve killed something.’ And I reminded them every single part of this goat was eaten, and it was relished, and it was delicious.” On Schindler’s website, EatLikeAHuman.com, he writes, “Here in the United States, approximately 50% by weight of a beef cow and 55% of a pig make it to the grocery store shelves,” and that food waste should repulse us.
Cheese Fermenting Fundamentals
Schindler has been a cheesemaker for a long time. One of the questions people often ask is, “How did somebody first figure out how to make cheese?” When mammals drink milk, it ferments in the gut and basically turns into cheese. The caveat is the milk has to be raw and natural.
“Raw milk is teeming with live bacteria. It’s already in the process of fermenting,” Schindler explains. “The first thing you need to do to make cheese is to get milk to body temperature because the bacteria responsible for fermenting operates best at body temperature.”
Infant mammals have the enzymes to digest milk properly, and several things happen. Lipase breaks down fats. Lactase breaks down the sugar lactose. Depending on the animal, a protease enzyme that works on the proteins coagulates the milk. If this didn’t occur, the liquid milk would be expelled too quickly, and the infant wouldn’t absorb the nutrients properly. The protease enzyme denatures the proteins and turns them semisolid, which stay in the digestive tract longer. The curdled milk found inside an unweaned animal is known as rennet.
“Callu de cabrettu highlights what occurs naturally. It requires almost no human intervention,” Schindler says. “The only thing they do is take the baby goat who’s had a drink from its mother, so its stomach is filled with milk.”
Nutritional and Digestive Benefits of Callu de Cabrettu
Schindler’s research focuses on the technologies our ancestors used to transform a raw ingredient into the safest and most nourishing form possible for our bodies.
“Dairy, in my mind, is the only food that humans are perfectly designed to consume, and we’re only perfectly designed to consume it when we’re infants,” Schindler says. “When we start to get weaned, a lot of the things that our body is doing to safely and efficiently digest that milk goes away.” He adds that around 60% of modern adult humans are lactose intolerant. He says that’s due to the way we prepare it.
“The difference between raw milk and that coagulated, fermented, broken down, completely transformed cheese in that stomach 10 days later to a modern adult human is incredible,” Schindler says.
“That difference means a ton. There’s no lactose left in that final product because the food for the Lactobacillus bacteria for that fermentation is the lactose.”
A fully fermented dairy product is lactose-free. If you are lactose intolerant, you can eat the finished product. The other added benefit is that it’s been partially digested already. So, our bodies work less to get the nutrients from the finished cheese.
Callu de cabrettu Recipe and Instructions
The steps to make callu de cabrettu, after the goat is butchered, are quite simple. The baby goat already produces the enzymes needed to transform milk into cheese. The stomach is removed from the animal and is hung for 10 to 14 days. And that’s it.
The goat kid can’t be weaned. As an animal starts to wean, the production of some of the enzymes slows down. Also, if the animal has started foraging, you will get some undigested grass and sticks in the cheese.
“We didn’t do this, but in some cases, people would strain the stomach contents at the beginning and then put it back in to remove the grass,” Schindler says. He adds that some families purposefully leave it in and eat around it for extra flavor.
When I asked him how to remove the stomach intact, he replied, “Carefully.”
The shepherds skinned the animal, removed the intestines, and then the stomach. The stomach was tied with an overhand knot on both ends and immediately hung. It was kept out of rain and a lot of wind. There was no air conditioning and no heat. The temperature was in the 70s.
“They told me 10 days to two weeks is perfect,” Schindler recalls.
During that time, the enzymes are working, and moisture is lost through the stomach’s skin, creating a spreadable cheese. Yields will vary, but Schindler estimates two cups of cheese were produced.
Callu de cabrettu Taste
“It was sharp, in a sharp provolone kind of way,” Schindler describes the callu de cabrettu flavor. “I equate this to the lipase, which breaks down the fats and creates that flavor.”
He describes the aroma and the flavor as picante strong but not off-putting by any means. “It’s definitely a contextual thing. Eating it in that context with those amazing people in the mountains of Sardinia, I’m sure, is a different experience.”
KENNY COOGAN earned a master’s degree in Global Sustainability and has published over 400 articles on pets, livestock, and gardening. He lives on a 1-acre homestead with a flock of Pekin ducks, managing a permaculture-style landscape. Coogan also runs a successful carnivorous plant nursery in Tampa. Listen to Coogan co-host podcasts by visiting Mother Earth News and Friends Podcast.
Originally published in the 2024 Fall issue of Goat Journal and regularly vetted for accuracy.
