The Production of Pecorino Cheese in the Roman Countryside from the End of the Nineteenth Century until the 1930s

Pecorino cheese has been made for centuries in the Agro Romano, and was the result of a complex production chain that began with the requirement of winter pasture lands for sheep flocks from the Central Apennine mountains and ended up in the city, where urban groceries seasoned the cheese before selling it. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Pecorino romano rose to become one of the most exported Italian cheeses thanks to a combination of factors occurring beyond the local context, such as the increase in demand represented by Italian emigrants abroad and the abilities of wholesalers and exporters. At the same time as Pecorino was cementing its position in the international market, its production base was extended to Sardinia thanks to the arrival on the island of dairy experts from Latium. While production in Sardinia left behind its pastoral origins to take on industrial characteristics, sheep farmers in Latium continued to produce Pecorino using traditional techniques; the decline of cheese production in Latium only began after the transformation of the Agro to arable land and the consequent disappearance of the migratory system