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Cheese from Villaluenga del Rosario and the Sierra de Grazalema, Cádiz, Spain

Payoyoqueso Payoyo

Payoyo is a pressed raw-milk cheese from the Sierra de Grazalema made from the milk of local Payoya goats, alone or mixed with Merina de Grazalema sheep milk. It is usually set with animal rennet and no starter culture. In a study make of this traditional goat cheese, the milk was renneted at 32 °C, pressed, brined for 30 minutes and ripened 60 days at 10–12 °C.

Recipe

Payoyo, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Mumumío, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceAmounts are per litre of milk from a study make of raw Payoya goat cheese at an artisanal dairy, following the traditional method; the commercial Payoyo brands publish no recipe, and the sheep and mixed-milk makes are not described in the studies.
Raw Payoya goat milkNo starter culture added[guzman2020]
Animal rennet, or thistle (Cynara cardunculus) rennetAbout 0.25 mL per litre of milk[guzman2020]
Brine of 15–18 °Baumé[guzman2020]
Starternone

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 months

Start
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32 °C

What changes: Rennet goes into raw goat milk at 32 °C and it sets in an hour

Step 1 of 6
Rennet the raw milk
Time
1 h
Reported
Temperature
32 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: curd.

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

Payoyo is a pressed raw-milk cheese from the Sierra de Grazalema made from the milk of local Payoya goats, alone or mixed with Merina de Grazalema sheep milk. It is usually set with animal rennet and no starter culture. In a study make of this traditional goat cheese, the milk was renneted at 32 °C, pressed, brined for 30 minutes and ripened 60 days at 10–12 °C. Made in 6 steps over 2 months. The longest step, ripen, takes 2 months (Guzmán J.L. et al. 2020) and runs at 10–12 °C (Guzmán J.L. et al. 2020).

Key numbers
Main step2 monthsReported[guzman2020]Ripen
Temperature10–12 °CReported[guzman2020]Ripen
AciditypH 5.2–5.2Reported[guzman2020]Brine

What makes this one different

Payoyo is made from the milk of the local Payoya goat, which Wikipedia says is sometimes mixed with Merina de Grazalema sheep milk. The study make followed the traditional method of raw milk and no added starter culture.

Milk
Raw Payoya goat milk; mixed goat and Merina de Grazalema sheep milk in some cheeses
Ripening
60 days in the study make; ripening varies by product

Related ferments

Variants

  • Goat-milk PayoyoPayoya goat milk only.
  • Mixed-milk PayoyoPayoya goat and Merina de Grazalema sheep milk.

Safety

Payoyo is made from unpasteurised goat milk with no starter, and the studies report no pathogen tests. ANSES, the French food safety agency, names Salmonella, enterohaemorrhagic E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes among the bacteria that can be found in raw-milk cheeses in general. It says Listeria and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli can kill, and advises pregnant women, people with weak immunity, people over 65 and young children to avoid these cheeses unless well cooked. In the study make the cheeses ripened 60 days at 10–12 °C after a 30-minute brine at 15–18 °Baumé.

History and sources

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

Production under the Payoyo name began in 1997 in Villaluenga del Rosario, whose people are called payoyos; the same type was made in El Bosque from 1986.

  1. [guzman2020] Guzmán J.L. et al. 2020, Effect of citrus by-product on physicochemical parameters, sensory analysis and volatile composition of different kinds of cheese from raw goat milk, Foods 9(10):1420paper
  2. [guzman2024] Guzmán J.L. et al. 2024, Feeding dairy goats dehydrated orange pulp improves cheese antioxidant content, Veterinary Sciences 11(4):171, doi:10.3390/vetsci11040171paper
  3. [herrera2025] Herrera T., Pérez-Baltar A., Ortiz L., Letón P., Miguel E. 2025, Physico-Chemical, Microbiological and Sensory Characteristics of Cabra del Guadarrama Cheese and Other Cheeses from Different Spanish Autochthonous Goat Breeds, Foods 14(13):2368 (read through PMC)paper
  4. [wp] Wikipedia, Payoyo cheese (outline only)wiki
  5. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov