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Cheese from Santa Catarina, Brazil

Kochkäse

Skimmed milk sours and curdles on its own, is warmed to 40–45 °C and drained in cloth bags, and the crumbly salted curd ferments for 2 to 7 days until it turns yellowish and sticks together. The fermented curd is then cooked until it melts completely, at 80 °C for at least a minute, and butter, cream or caraway may be stirred in. It sets into a soft, smooth, spreadable cheese.

Fully documentedCheese2 days – 7 daysGerman law on the name 'Kochkäse' (Milchproduktqualitätsverordnung § 34 No. 3, in force since 14 June 2026; before it Käseverordnung § 13); Santa Catarina technical regulation (Portaria SAR No. 15/2020)Family: Ripened acid-curd cheese family (Harzer, Olomoucké tvarůžky, Gamalost)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe Santa Catarina rule gives no amounts; it says only that caraway must be used in smaller amounts than the main ingredients. German law allows rindless semi-hard cheese up to 80 g per kg of Kochkäse (8 %).
Skimmed cow milk, raw or pasteurised[sc-portaria]
Salt[sc-portaria]
Butter, cream, and caraway (Kümmel) in smaller amounts (optional)The Portaria lists butter, cream and caraway as optional; German law allows cream, butter and butterfat[sc-portaria][milchpqv]
Non-industrial rennet (optional)[sc-portaria]
Sodium bicarbonate, enough to help the drained curd ferment (optional)[sc-portaria]
Starterspontaneous; the skimmed milk curdles naturally

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days – 7 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countL. delbrueckiiS. thermophilusCandida tropicalisMilk proteinGel (curd)

What changes: Skimmed milk sours and sets on its own

Step 1 of 5
Let skimmed milk curdle naturally
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
L. delbrueckii
S. thermophilus
Candida tropicalis
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

the milk coagulates naturally

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

Skimmed milk sours and curdles on its own, is warmed to 40–45 °C and drained in cloth bags, and the crumbly salted curd ferments for 2 to 7 days until it turns yellowish and sticks together. The fermented curd is then cooked until it melts completely, at 80 °C for at least a minute, and butter, cream or caraway may be stirred in. It sets into a soft, smooth, spreadable cheese. Made in 5 steps over 2 days – 7 days. The longest step, salt and ferment the crumbly curd, takes 2–7 days (Secretaria de Estado da Agricultura e da Pesc…) and runs at 15 °C (Schlei K.P 2020). Lactobacillus delbrueckii (over 55 % of bacteria in raw-milk Kochkäse) and Streptococcus thermophilus (over 80 % in pasteurised-milk Kochkäse), by sequencing and Candida tropicalis, the main fungus, especially in raw-milk samples do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–7 daysSet[sc-portaria]Salt and ferment the crumbly curd
Temperature15 °CReported[schlei2020]Salt and ferment the crumbly curd

What makes this one different

Kochkäse is a ripened curd cheese that is cooked until it melts. The quark ferments for a few days, then is heated to 80 °C or more into a smooth spread, which also cuts the microbial load built up during ripening. Handkäse and Harzer are the same kind of sour-milk curd ripened as small shaped cheeses and never melted.

Moisture
Not less than 55 %
Fat
Skimmed; less than 10.0 % fat in dry matter (Santa Catarina rule)
German name rule
Since 14 June 2026 German law defines Kochkäse as melted like Schmelzkäse from sour-milk quark, sour-milk cheese or rennet quark, with rindless semi-hard cheese up to 80 g per kg and cream, butter or butterfat as the only other additions. The earlier Käseverordnung § 13 said the same for sour-milk or rennet quark with up to 8 % semi-hard cheese.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Queijo Kochkäse (Santa Catarina)Regulated in Brazil since 2020; skimmed raw or pasteurised milk

Safety

The Santa Catarina rule requires raw milk from herds certified free of brucellosis and tuberculosis, cooking to 80 °C for at least a minute, and storage at 4–8 °C. Cooking lowered the microbial counts in cheeses made from both raw and pasteurised milk in two studies, one of which cooked at 90 °C and found this step crucial; the earlier study concluded that the cooking step can work like pasteurisation when good manufacturing practice is followed. That earlier study counted lactic bacteria, aerobic mesophiles, yeasts and moulds, and neither abstract names a pathogen test. Cooking also does not undo everything that happens before it. The curd ferments for days first, and the FDA says heat does not destroy staphylococcal enterotoxins that have already formed.

History and sources

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

A 2022 review says Kochkäse has been a traditional product of the Itajaí Valley in Santa Catarina since the 19th century, when European immigrants settled there. Santa Catarina law of 2018 (Lei 17.486) covered artisanal raw-milk cheeses, and Portaria SAR No. 15 of 27 May 2020 approved the technical regulation for Kochkäse, which applies to the municipalities that grew from the colonies of Blumenau and Dona Francisca. In Germany the name Kochkäse was set by § 13 of the Käseverordnung and has been set since 14 June 2026 by § 34 of the Milchproduktqualitätsverordnung.

  1. [sc-portaria] Secretaria de Estado da Agricultura e da Pesca de Santa Catarina 2020, Portaria SAR No. 15 de 27/05/2020, technical regulation of identity and quality of Queijo Kochkäse (copy on LegisWeb)gov
  2. [kasev] Federal Republic of Germany, Käseverordnung (KäseV) § 13 Kochkäse, consolidated text as it stood until 14 June 2026 (copy on buzer.de)gov
  3. [milchpqv] Federal Republic of Germany, Verordnung über Qualitätsanforderungen an Milchprodukte (Milchproduktqualitätsverordnung, MilchPQV), Artikel 1 of the Verordnung of 24 November 2025, BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 280, § 34 Erzeugnisse aus Käse, in force from 14 June 2026 (copy on buzer.de)gov
  4. [schlei2020] Schlei K.P., Angioletti B.L., Fernandes de Carvalho L., Bertoli S.L., Ratto Reiter M.G., Krebs de Souza C. 2020, Influence of temperature on microbial growth during processing of kochkäse cheese made from raw and pasteurised milk, International Dairy Journal 109:104786 (abstract)paper
  5. [dasilva2026] da Silva D.S.H., de Souza C.K., Prudêncio E.S., Meisen M.N., Acordi Menezes L.A., de Dea Lindner J., de Carvalho L.F. 2026, Metagenomic and physicochemical analysis of the artisanal production stages of Kochkäse cheese from raw and pasteurised milk, International Journal of Dairy Technology 79(2):70110 (abstract)paper
  6. [desouza2022] de Souza C.K., Angioletti B.L., Hoffmann T.G., Bertoli S.L., Ratto Reiter M.G. 2022, Promoting the appreciation and marketability of artisanal Kochkäse (traditional German cheese) - A review, International Dairy Journal 126 (abstract)paper
  7. [fda-bbb] US FDA 2012, Bad Bug Book, Foodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms and Natural Toxins, 2nd ed., Staphylococcus aureusgov