Formatgera (cheese mould)

What is

Mold where the curd is placed, squeezed, drained and the cheese takes shape (DCVB). In Spanish, encella. The word encella has no entry in the DCVB: the Mallorcan name of the mould, so check with cheesemakers (formatgera is the documented form).

How is

• Made of wood, clay, tin or wicker; the most common are made of clay, such as deep plates with holes for draining (DCVB).
• Formatgera is also the glass bell that covers the started cheese (Cat., Val., Bal.).
• In Llucmajor, bowl to drink the strained milk and fill the molds (DCVB, to verify exact meaning).

How is fa

• Clay molds from the ollers ( ceramics and gerreria ); of wood, fuster or turner.

Com s'usa

• The Mallorcan sheep were milked twice a day for about six months after breeding; milk went to cheese and brossat (1922 study).
• It is curdled with quall (rennet) or fig latex, "used in Mallorca since time immemorial" (Pons).
• The formatgera is filled, squeezed, turned, salted.

Vocabulary

• formatgera: cheese mold; glass cheese bowl
• quall: rennet.
• brossat / brossot: cottage cheese.
• formatge nial / pollat / malalt: neither tender nor cured (Mall.).
• formatge lloca: swollen due to improperly extracted serum (Mall.).
• formatge brescat: with many holes inside, like a honeycomb (Mall.).
• formatge clos: compact, without holes (Mall.).
• formatge coent: spicy, due to excess of grass in the milk (Mall.).

History

• 1388: «quatuor formatgeras» (DCVB).
• 1407: “cent formatges de Mallorques” sent to a convent (DCVB): Mallorcan cheese is now exported.
• 1427: "a cana formatgera" (Aguiló, DCVB).
• 1922: study of the Mallorcan sheep: milk for cheese and brossat.

On veure'n

• Artisan sheep cheese factories in Mallorca (please verify names).

Why is it design

• The mold gives name and shape: the cheese is the shape of the formatgera.
• Quality vocabulary: brescat, clos, lloca, nial. The shepherd classifies by texture.
• Vegetable rennet: the farm's fig tree acts as a laboratory.

For the project

• Recover clay formatgers with a Pòrtol oller.
• Cheese sensory glossary for a graphic piece.

Sources

• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=formatgera
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=formatge
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=quall
• ddd.uab.cat/pub/artpub/1922/62608/agricultura_a1922v6n10p257.pdf

Working text from the Disseny Indígena knowledge base, machine-translated from Spanish.

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