FermenteaWhere food goes to change
Built structures · Pits and cavities
A sandstone pit near Sogliano al Rubicone finishes the ripening of already-made cheese. Sources describe flask-like forms, straw lining and sealed wooden lids, but no universal excavation plan.
A fossa is an underground pit cut into sandstone and used in a local method of finishing the ripening of cheese. The Sogliano al Rubicone municipality describes old pits there as flask-shaped and about three metres deep. The regional PDO guide also describes truncated-cone or flask-shaped pits, noting that individual pits can differ in width and depth. Those descriptions support a generalized cutaway profile, but not a measured reconstruction of one named pit.
The pit is excavated in place and depends on its sandstone setting. Cheese is made and ripened before it enters the pit; the pit is the fixed structure, while cloth sacks and the wooden closure are separate parts of its documented use. This page concentrates on the site and its aging arrangement.
The local descriptions associate the pit with Sogliano al Rubicone, in Emilia-Romagna. The current PDO area extends more widely, but a broader area of cheese production does not mean every pit has the same shape or lies in the town. This account focuses on the Sogliano form because the candidate and its photographed reference name that locality.
The municipality gives a rough depth of about three metres. The regional guide says flask-shaped or truncated-cone pits may be up to about three metres in width and depth. These are broad descriptions, not standardized measurements for construction. The current product specification says pits are manually excavated into the local sandstone and left rough. It does not publish a common cross-section, support design, drainage plan or geological assessment for a new site.
The pit is prepared with materials described by the local municipality and the PDO specification. During a rest period it is kept closed with a wooden cover and stone or sand. Before reuse, the specification describes opening and airing the pit, burning a small amount of straw to dry it, then cleaning away residue. It describes a raised floor made of untreated wooden boards, with straw lining the walls and vertical canes supporting that lining. The municipality also describes horizontal ties or hoops around the canes.
The specification sets a minimum straw lining thickness of 10 cm. That figure belongs to the Sogliano product standard; it is not a generic lining rule. The linked Commons photograph looks down into an empty fossa and shows a particular stone opening and interior support arrangement. It anchors the physical site without showing a complete underground cross-section or a universal pit interior.
The pit does not make fresh curd into cheese. The Sogliano specification says cheese is first made and matured, then cleaned, placed in suitable cloth bags and lowered into the pit. The sacks are stacked to the mouth, covered with suitable cloth or straw, and closed with a wooden lid sealed using plaster or sandstone mortar. Once closed, the pit creates the local conditions for the final aging stage.
The current PDO specification gives an 80–100-day period for infossatura. That rule applies to this protected product, not to every cheese matured underground. Local sources describe seasonal spring and summer placements, with traditional autumn emptying. The fossa is therefore part of a specific Sogliano cheese practice, not a general cold store or a generic cellar.
Local sources describe the practice as medieval. The PDO specification says the first documentation of pits and infossatura techniques comes from fourteenth-century Malatesta family archives; it also describes pits used for foods and grain in periods of siege, epidemic or shortage. This dates the documented practice, not the excavation of any individual pit that survives today.
The generated cutaway is editorial art based on the documented flask-like form, sandstone setting, straw lining, bagged cheese and wooden closure. Its proportions are deliberately general, not a scale drawing. The available references do not support a DIY excavation plan or structural advice. The current specification requires the pit to be aired before emptying and describes risks from stagnant gases; readers should treat it as a description of a regulated working practice, not an instruction to enter an underground pit.
Local and PDO sources describe a medieval tradition of using sandstone pits for cheese preservation. The PDO specification cites the first documentation of pits and the infossatura technique in fourteenth-century Malatesta family archives; that evidence dates the practice, not the excavation of any particular surviving pit.
A build is made where it stands: moving it means building it again.
A documented local fossa form. The wider PDO area does not imply all pits share this location or geometry.
Jars, barrels, skins, leaves, pits and whole rooms decide much of what happens to fermented and cured food. This is how a container works on its contents, and how people in different places chose theirs.
A metato is a small chestnut-drying building found in parts of Italy, with a slow fire below and an open timber floor above where chestnuts dry.
Protected Italian vinegar made only from cooked grape must, fermented and aged in a battery of wooden barrels for at least 12 years: sweet, sharp and syrupy.
Airag is Mongolia’s fermented mare’s-milk drink, traditionally churned with saved starter in a reusable cowhide khokhuur.
Appam, or hoppers, are South Indian and Sri Lankan rice pancakes made from a fermented coconut-and-rice batter and cooked in a curved pan to a crisp lacy rim and a soft, spongy centre.
Auricularia tremellosa is a wood ear fungus of the genus that supplies most dried wood ear sold in China; its own food record is thin, and the culinary practice described here comes from the closely related wood ear species.
Ayran is Turkey’s cold, savoury yogurt drink: plain yogurt is loosened with water and lightly salted, then whisked smooth or aerated into a soft cap of foam.
A thin stone griddle used over an open hearth. Norwegian archaeology documents the established tradition from the early Middle Ages; a Viking-period origin is only a cautious suggestion linked to Shetland.
Crushed or milled barley cooked in water until the starch softens and the mixture thickens, the plainest way a northern household turned stored grain into a meal, here with apple and hazelnut.
Black carrot is the anthocyanin-pigmented Eastern carrot (Daucus carota var. atrorubens), the purple root that preceded orange types and still colours kanji and şalgam.
No community contributions have been published for this entry yet.
Sign in to contribute. Published comments and photos are free to read.
Comune di Sogliano al RubiconeSite · Geography · Pit shape · Materials · Method · History
Il Formaggio di Fossa di Sogliano DOPThe municipality describes local fossa pits as flask-shaped sandstone excavations about three metres deep and recounts a medieval tradition of storing cheese in them.
It describes straw burning and cleaning, straw lining supported by a vertical-cane framework with horizontal wooden ties, raised wood boards at the bottom, cloth cheese sacks, a fabric cover and a wooden lid sealed with plaster and sand.
The municipality describes filling pits in August and emptying them in November, with maturation for about three months; it also identifies a spring use period.
Cited in: A place-bound pit for cheese aging; Sandstone form and place; Lining and closure; Cheese enters only after earlier ripening; History and limits of the evidence
Regione Emilia-Romagna, Agriculture DirectoratePit shape · Geography · Ripening method
The PDO and PGI products of Emilia-Romagna: Formaggio di Fossa di Sogliano DOPThe regional PDO guide describes pits as truncated-conical or flask-shaped, no more than about three metres wide and deep, filled with bagged cheese and sealed with straw and plaster or sandstone mortar.
It describes pit maturation as a distinct stage after the cheese has already ripened.
Cited in: A place-bound pit for cheese aging; Sandstone form and place; Cheese enters only after earlier ripening
Consorzio di tutela del Formaggio di Fossa di Sogliano al Rubicone e TalamelloOfficial specification · Materials · Method · History · Geography · Safety
Disciplinare di produzione: Formaggio di Fossa di Sogliano al Rubicone e Talamello DOPThe PDO specification describes pits excavated manually in sandstone and left rough; straw wall lining must be at least 10 cm and is supported by vertical canes, with a raised untreated wooden-board floor.
It describes ripe clean cheeses in suitable cloth bags, a covered and sealed wooden lid, and a closed 80–100-day pit-aging period.
The specification describes airing and cleaning before preparation, and a required airing period before emptying; it says the first records concerning pits and infossatura techniques date to fourteenth-century Malatesta archives.
Cited in: A place-bound pit for cheese aging; Sandstone form and place; Lining and closure; Cheese enters only after earlier ripening; History and limits of the evidence
Official Journal of the European UnionPDO geography · Geology
Publication of an approved standard amendment to the product specification for Formaggio di Fossa di SoglianoThe 2025 Official Journal notice describes the PDO area and relates the fossa sites to local sandstone formations; the listed territory is broader than the Sogliano site described on this page.
Cited in: Sandstone form and place
Wikimedia CommonsImage reference · Site form
La Fossa.jpgThe inspected photograph is captioned as a pit for burying formaggio di fossa in Sogliano al Rubicone; it shows an actual empty pit opening and interior, not the complete below-ground profile.
The file is the photographer's own work and is licensed CC BY-SA 3.0; the photo attribution and license are retained on the linked gallery image.
Cited in: Lining and closure