🧀 Mascarpone

Mascarpone is an Italian soft spreadable cheese made from milk cream. It is not aged: the cream is heated to 85–95 °C and coagulated with acid. Its mild flavour and creamy consistency have made this cheese the base of tiramisu and other desserts, both homemade and industrial.

Mascarpone was once made by farmers in some northern Italian regions and eaten immediately after production. Today artisanal mascarpone (mascarpone artigianale) appears on Lombardy's 2025 list of traditional agri-food products, with the Po Valley, especially the province of Lodi, as its territory. Growing demand also brought the cheese into industrial production. The name does not appear in eAmbrosia, the EU register of geographical indications.

The raw materials are cream, with about 80% lipids and 2.8–6% protein in dry weight, and an acidifying substance: acetic, citric, tartaric or lactic acid, vinegar or lemon juice. The acid goes in during heating, with constant stirring, and the final pH is 5.7–6.6. The mass is then drained for about 20 hours. Strong heat denatures the whey proteins, which stick to casein micelles and fat globule membranes, so some of them stay in the cheese. That gives mascarpone its typical texture and flavour.

Labels in the USDA FoodData Central database usually show 36–50 g of fat and 360–430 kcal per 100 g. This cheese is high in moisture and low in protein, and cold matters for it. In 1996, eight young people in Italy fell ill with botulism after eating mascarpone or tiramisu, in which the cheese is not cooked; one person died. Investigators named a break in the cold chain at retail as the likely cause. In an experiment at 28 °C, bacteria in mascarpone began to grow and form toxin within 3–4 days.

Mascarpone or cream cheese, ricotta, cream? Compare by what it is made from. Mascarpone is an unaged soft cheese made from milk cream that is heated to 85–95 °C, coagulated with an acid such as citric acid or lemon juice and drained for about 20 hours; the strong heat is why it has its typical texture. It is rich, with 36–50 g of fat per 100 g on labels, and mild and creamy rather than tangy. Because the name is not protected, check the ingredients and fat content.

There is no protected name or PDO symbol to look for; read the ingredients instead: cream and an acidifier such as citric acid, with the fat content shown. “Mascarpone artigianale” appears only on Lombardy's list of traditional products, which does not protect the name. Buy it from the chilled cabinet, keep it cold, and for pregnancy check that it is made from pasteurised cream. You will find tubs at a supermarket chilled section, a delicatessen or an Italian food shop.

Why it matters to you. Buy mascarpone from a chilled cabinet and keep it cold at home. Do not freeze it: in a study at −18 °C the cheese cracked and turned brittle, and tiramisu foam made from it held up less well, while at 4 °C these changes did not appear. Check the ingredients and fat content, because the name is not protected at EU level and says nothing about origin by itself. The NHS lists pasteurised mascarpone among cheeses that are safe to eat in pregnancy.