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Cheese from Spain

Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)Pecorino Romano

Whole ewe milk is set with rennet, often lamb rennet paste, and the fine curd is stirred and warmed, from about 28–40 °C for Manchego to 45–48 °C for Pecorino Romano. The curd is pressed in patterned moulds, salted in brine or dry, and aged from a month to two years.

Fully documentedCheese30 days – 3.3 months

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedFamily template, so the ingredients are the ones hard ewe cheeses share. The specifications read give no amounts.
Whole ewe milkManchego PDO: Manchega ewes, at least 6.5 % fat and 4.5 % protein; Pecorino Romano PDO: raw or thermised at no more than 68 °C for 15 s[manchego-pliego][romano-onaf]
Lactic starterPecorino Romano PDO: scotta-innesto, a natural culture grown daily on whey from ricotta making[romano-onaf][chessa2021]
RennetPecorino Romano PDO: lamb rennet paste from suckling lambs of the area; Manchego PDO: natural rennet or authorised enzymes[romano-onaf][manchego-pliego]
SaltDry, in brine, or both[manchego-pliego][romano-onaf]
Starternatural culture of autochthonous thermophilic lactic acid bacteria (scotta-innesto, in Pecorino Romano)

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days – 3.3 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countS. thermophilusL. delbrueckiiEnterococcus faeciumL. reuteri28–40 °CpH 6.5–7

What changes: Starter and rennet go into warm ewe milk and it sets to a firm gel

Step 1 of 6
Set the milk with rennet
Time
30 min – 1 h
Reported
Temperature
28–40 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH 6.5–7
Set
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
S. thermophilus
L. delbrueckii
Enterococcus faecium
L. reuteri

Output: curd.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
firm gel; ewe milk is rich in protein
Colour
white

Microbes at work in this step

the starter begins souring the milk

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Whole ewe milk is set with rennet, often lamb rennet paste, and the fine curd is stirred and warmed, from about 28–40 °C for Manchego to 45–48 °C for Pecorino Romano. The curd is pressed in patterned moulds, salted in brine or dry, and aged from a month to two years. Made in 6 steps over 30 days – 3.3 months. The longest step, salt, takes 3 h – 2.3 months (Consejo Regulador DOP Queso Manchego 2025). Salt is up to 2.3 % (Consejo Regulador DOP Queso Manchego 2025). Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis and Enterococcus faecium do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3 h – 2.3 monthsReported[manchego-pliego][romano-onaf]Salt
Temperature28–40 °CReported[manchego-pliego][romano-onaf]Set the milk with rennet
Saltup to 2.3 %Set[manchego-pliego]Salt
AciditypH 4.8–5.8Set[manchego-pliego]Age

What makes this one different

The milk is whole ewe milk, and Pecorino Romano is set with lamb rennet paste. Pecorino Romano is cooked hotter and salted for weeks; Manchego is set cooler and brined for hours.

Related ferments

Made the hard pressed ewe cheese family way

Other hard pressed ewe cheese family kinds

Made the same way, each with what its own sources record.

Abertamský sýr (Abertam)Abertamský sýr

Cheese from Czech Republic, Karlovy Vary

A firm sheep farm cheese of irregular round shape with a yellow to orange natural rind and a strong, acidic taste.

Milk
Sheep milk
Ripening
about 2 monthsReported
Shape and rind
Irregular spherical shape; natural rind, yellow to orange
Texture and taste
Firm; strong, acidic and tasty

Sources: United States Department of Agriculture 1953; Martín-del-Campo S.T.

Berkswell

Cheese from England, West Midlands, Ram Hall farm at Berkswell

Berkswell is moulded by hand in colanders, which give it its characteristic shape and patterning. It is a farmhouse cheese made from the farm's own raw ewe's milk with lamb's rennet.

Milk
Raw sheep milk from the farm's own flock
Ripening
3–5 monthsReported
Shape
Flying saucer, from moulding in colanders

Sources: The Fine Cheese Co. 2012. The Fine Cheese Co. visit Berkswell cheese-makers (blog; La Fromagerie. History; US Food and Drug Administration 2016

Caprino di malga (delle Alpi Marittime)Caprino della Valbrevenna

Cheese from Italy, Liguria

A summer pasture goat cheese of the Ligurian mountains near the sea; ONAF credits its taste to pasture plants touched by the Ligurian Sea air.

Size
del diametro di cm 10-14Reported
Rind
Fairly thin, soft, straw yellow

Sources: Regione Liguria; ONAF; ANSES 2022

Imokilly Regato PDOImokilly Regato

Cheese from Ireland, south-east Cork

Imokilly Regato is made from cow milk at one creamery, Dairygold Mogeely, from milk of the south-east Cork baronies. The milk is held 12–18 hours before cheesemaking, and the cheese is salted twice, in brine and then by hand.

Milk
Cow milk from pasture-fed herds in south-east Cork, grazing March to October
Milk treatment
32–34 °CReported
Ripening
9-12 monthsReported

Sources: Department of Agriculture; Culture magazine 2015; AnyCheese

Queso pata de muloqueso de encella

Cheese from Spain, Castile and León

Log-shaped sheep cheese with a blind, flaky paste.

Rind
Yellow to ochre
Size
Log ('mule's leg') shape

Sources: Wikipedia (es)

Queijo de Tomar

Cheese from Portugal, Ribatejo Norte

Each cheese is tiny. The cardoon is dipped into the milk in a cloth bundle rather than poured in as an infusion.

Sources: US Food and Drug Administration 2016

Queso de Mallorca (incl. Oveja Roja Mallorquina)formatge de Mallorca

Cheese from Spain, Balearic Islands

Queso de Mallorca is set with a cardoon-pistil coagulant and shaped in cloth, not in a hard mould, which gives its square fogasser loaf. The Oveja Roja version uses milk from a rare local breed of fewer than a thousand head.

Shape and size
Square with rounded edges, about 6 cm high and 15 cm across, 300–1,000 g
Season
Ewes milked from October to the end of June; no cheese in summer

Sources: Slow Food Illes Balears; Wikipedia (es); ANSES 2022

Queso Sardo (Argentina)Queso Sardo

Cheese from Argentina

An Argentine grating cheese modelled on Italian pecorino but defined by the food code by size and age, not by sheep milk; Sardo is the small, three-month version of Queso Romano.

Size classes
Chico - menos de 4 kg. Maduración mín. 3 mesesSet
Fat
Fat in dry matter at least 38.0 %

Sources: Código Alimentario Argentino

Tagliatizzo di Castelsaraceno

Cheese from Italy, Basilicata

Basket pecorino eaten as is or warmed over the fire. ONAF notes the region sent no documentation; most traits are inferred from a similar local cheese.

Rind
Thin, straw-yellow, basket marks, greasy

Sources: ONAF (national organisation of cheese tasters); ONAF

Safety

Hard ewe cheeses are pressed and aged, and the UK NHS lists hard cheeses as safe in pregnancy, unpasteurised or not. A young raw-milk ewe cheese that is still semi-hard is not on that list, because the NHS names semi-hard cheeses as safe only when pasteurised. Manchego PDO sets a limit of 100 cfu/g for coagulase-positive staphylococci in the cheese.

Hazards the sources name: Coagulase-positive staphylococci from milk or handling; Manchego PDO allows at most 100 cfu/g; Clostridium spores, found in 97 % of raw ewe milk samples; C. sporogenes made up 78.9 % of isolates from Manchego with late blowing.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

ONAF's sheet says Roman legions took Pecorino Romano as a staple travel ration, at 27 g per man per day, and that early in the 20th century emigrants to the Americas carried it, which made generous salting usual.

  1. [manchego-pliego] Consejo Regulador DOP Queso Manchego, Pliego de condiciones DOP Queso Manchego (text in force 2025), via Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Manchaspec
  2. [romano-onaf] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), Pecorino Romano DOP technical sheet, restating the PDO specificationweb
  3. [chessa2021] Chessa L., Paba A., Daga E., Dupré I., Comunian R. 2021, Biodiversity and safety assessment of half-century preserved natural starter cultures for Pecorino Romano PDO cheese, Microorganisms 9:1363paper
  4. [poveda2014] Poveda J.M., Nieto-Arribas P., Seseña S. et al. 2014, Volatile composition and improvement of the aroma of industrial Manchego cheese by using Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei as adjunct and other autochthonous strains as starters, European Food Research and Technology, doi:10.1007/s00217-013-2127-2paper
  5. [garde2011] Garde S., Arias Mendoza R., Gaya P., Núñez M. 2011, Occurrence of Clostridium spp. in ovine milk and Manchego cheese with late blowing defect, International Dairy Journal, doi:10.1016/j.idairyj.2010.11.003paper
  6. [nhs-preg] NHS (UK), Foods to avoid in pregnancy (cheese section)gov