Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Spain, Balearic Islands

Mahón-Menorca PDOQueso de Mahón

Whole cow milk, with up to 5 % Menorcan sheep milk allowed, is set with rennet at 30–34 °C for at least 30–40 minutes and cut to about 1 cm grains. Farm cheeses are gathered in a square cotton cloth, the fogasser, and pressed about 10 hours into a square cushion shape. The cheese is brined up to 48 hours, aired 3–4 days and ripened; raw-milk Artesano cheeses get at least 60 days and are rubbed with butter, olive oil or oil and paprika.

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe specification gives no doses. Cheeses weigh 0.6–4 kg and are 5–9 cm high.
Whole cow milk of Friesian, Menorquina, Parda or Jersey cows and their crossesRaw for Mahón-Menorca Artesano; may be treated for the industrial Mahón-Menorca[mahon-pliego]
Milk of Menorcan sheepup to 5 %[mahon-pliego]
Rennet, at the dose needed to set in at least 30–40 minutes[mahon-pliego]
Saturated salt brine[mahon-pliego]
Cow butter, olive oil, or olive oil with paprika, for the Artesano rind[mahon-pliego]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.2 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
30–34 °C

What changes: Rennet sets the cow milk at 30–34 °C

Step 1 of 6
Set with rennet
Time
30–40 min
Set
Temperature
30–34 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

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 cow milk, with up to 5 % Menorcan sheep milk allowed, is set with rennet at 30–34 °C for at least 30–40 minutes and cut to about 1 cm grains. Farm cheeses are gathered in a square cotton cloth, the fogasser, and pressed about 10 hours into a square cushion shape. The cheese is brined up to 48 hours, aired 3–4 days and ripened; raw-milk Artesano cheeses get at least 60 days and are rubbed with butter, olive oil or oil and paprika. Made in 6 steps over 2.2 months. The longest step, ripen and rub the rind, takes at least 2 months (Govern de les Illes Balears).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 2 monthsSet[mahon-pliego]Ripen and rub the rind
Temperature30–34 °CSet[mahon-pliego][mahon-eu1996]Set with rennet

What makes this one different

Shaped by pressing the curd in a square cotton cloth whose four corners are drawn together with a twisted cord, without knots; the wrinkles leave the mamella mark on the top face. Artesano rinds are rubbed with butter, olive oil or oil with paprika as they ripen.

Milk
Cow milk with up to 5 % Menorcan sheep milk; raw for Artesano
Ripening
Semicurado under 150 days, curado over 150 days; Artesano at least 60 days
Size
Square-based block with rounded edges, 5–9 cm high, 0.6–4 kg; fat at least 38 % of dry matter

Related ferments

Safety

Raw-milk Artesano cheeses must ripen at least 60 days before sale. That does not guarantee safety. In tests that added the bacteria on purpose, E. coli O157:H7 and Listeria survived well beyond 60 days in Cheddar. ANSES, the French food-safety agency, advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheese, except cooked pressed kinds such as Gruyère, which Artesano is not.

History and sources

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

The specification cites an encyclical letter of Bishop Severus of 417 as documentary proof that cheese was made on Menorca in the 5th century, and a trade in it with the Mediterranean from the Middle Ages. From the 15th century the Datini company of Lucca sent merchants to buy wool and cheese on the island. Under the first British rule (1713-1756) governor Kane imported cows and favoured cheese production and export, and military officers added "Mahón", the port of shipment, to the name. A ministerial order of 12 November 1980 recognised the denomination "Mahón" provisionally, and an order of 24 June 1985 ratified it, and the Regulatory Council says it was constituted that year. The EU registered it as a PDO by Regulation (EC) 1107/96, and the specification says Regulation 913/2001 changed the name to "Mahón-Menorca"; the Council dates that extension of the name to 1997. The Council also cites ceramic cheese-making utensils from about 2000 BC.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [mahon-pliego] Govern de les Illes Balears, Pliego de condiciones de la Denominación de Origen Protegida 'Mahón-Menorca'spec
  2. [mahon-eu1996] Application for registration, Denominación de Origen 'Mahón', Regulation (EEC) 2081/92 (EU register summary sheet)spec
  3. [mahon-council] Consell Regulador D.O.P. Mahón Menorca, 'Our cheeses' (types, elaboration process, history and tradition)web
  4. [damico2008] D'Amico D.J. 2008, Incidence, ecology, and fate of target foodborne pathogens in the cheesemaking continuum, PhD dissertation, University of Vermontpaper
  5. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov