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Cheese from Portugal, Alto Alentejo

Queijo de Nisa PDO

Raw milk of Merino Branca ewes is curdled with an infusion of cardoon flowers. The curd is drained slowly, moulded, pressed and salted on the surface, then ripened in two phases, cool and humid and then a little warmer, for 45–60 days in all.

Fully documentedCheese45 days – 2 monthsPDO (EU, 1996)Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceNo source gives fixed doses. The amounts are those of a study that made Nisa cheese with four cardoon extracts. Cheeses weigh 800–1300 g, or 200–400 g in the small merendeira size.
Raw ewe milk, unmixed, from the Merino Branca breed[nisa-sum][pereira2026]
Infusion of cardoon flowers (Cynara cardunculus L.)15 g of dried flower in 500 mL of water for the infusion, in one studyThe coagulant named in the registration[nisa-sum][dias2021]
Salt14 g per litre of milk, in one study[dias2021]
Starternone; no starter culture is used

Total time across the recorded steps: 45 days – 2 months

Start
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28 °C

What changes: An infusion of cardoon flowers curdles the raw ewe milk in the vat

Step 1 of 6
Curdle with cardoon
Time
1 h
Reported
Temperature
28 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Lactococcus lactis
L. mesenteroides
L. plantarum
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

Raw milk of Merino Branca ewes is curdled with an infusion of cardoon flowers. The curd is drained slowly, moulded, pressed and salted on the surface, then ripened in two phases, cool and humid and then a little warmer, for 45–60 days in all. Made in 6 steps over 45 days – 2 months. The longest step, second ripening, takes 30–40 days (Pereira C.D 2026) and runs at 10–14 °C (Pereira C.D 2026). Lactic acid bacteria native to the raw ewe milk; no starter culture or pasteurisation is used and Lactococcus lactis and Leuconostoc mesenteroides, the most common bacteria by sequencing, with Lactiplantibacillus plantarum do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30–40 daysReported[pereira2026]Second ripening
Temperature10–14 °CReported[pereira2026]Second ripening
AciditypH 4.8–5.7Reported[pereira2026]Second ripening

What makes this one different

Curdled only with cardoon and made from the milk of one breed, Merino Branca, unmixed with other milk; ripened in two humid phases for 45–60 days.

Milk
Raw ewe milk of the Merino Branca breed, unmixed; curdled with cardoon
Ripening
45–60 days, in two phases
Size
13–16 cm across and 800–1300 g, or merendeira 10–12 cm and 200–400 g

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is raw and no starter culture is used. In PDO cheeses, lactococci and lactobacilli reached 9.01 log CFU/g, the pH was 4.84–5.74 and the water activity 0.942–0.960. These figures do not show it is safe. The same review names possible survival of Listeria monocytogenes as a leading safety issue in raw-milk cheeses. It says growth is generally inhibited in semi-hard cheeses, which is how it describes Nisa. It also reports two multidrug-resistant isolates among 145 enterococci from Azeitão and Nisa cheeses, notes that no infections have been reported from PDO cheese, and passes on a call for resistance surveillance. 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 Nisa is not.

History and sources

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

The PDO application, made under Portuguese rules of 1993 (Decreto Regulamentar 6/93 of 16 March), says the cheese is established by the use and know-how of the local people, who kept the traditional way of making it. It was entered in the EU register of protected designations of origin by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1107/96 of 12 June 1996.

  1. [nisa-sum] Pedido de registo, Queijo de Nisa DOP (Regulamento (CEE) n.º 2081/92, artigo 17.º), summary sheet PT_0017_0210_SUM_PT_O, European Commission eAmbrosia register (PDO-PT-0210)spec
  2. [reg1107-1996] Commission Regulation (EC) No 1107/96 of 12 June 1996 on the registration of geographical indications and designations of origin under Article 17 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92, Official Journal L 148, 21.6.1996, pp. 1-10spec
  3. [pereira2026] Pereira C.D., Campos L., Veiga A., Pereira-Dias S., Henriques M. 2026, Role of cardoon (Cynara spp.) and raw milk microbiota in Iberian PDO and PGI small ruminants' milk cheeses, Foods 15(13):2359 (review)paper
  4. [dias2021] Dias J, Lage P, Garrido A, Machado E, Conceição C, Gomes S, Martins A, Paulino A, Duarte MF, Alvarenga N 2021, Evaluation of gas holes in 'Queijo de Nisa' PDO cheese using computer vision, Journal of Food Science and Technology 58(3):1072-1080, doi:10.1007/s13197-020-04621-0paper
  5. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov