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Cheese from Northeast Brazil

Queijo de manteigaQueijo do sertão

Cow milk is soured, either naturally or, in the federal standard, with food-grade lactic, citric or acetic acid. The curd is heated, drained, washed with hot water or milk, then melted with clarified bottle butter (manteiga de garrafa) and salt at 85 °C or more for at least 15 minutes and poured into moulds. It is a boundary case, an acid-heat cheese, and is eaten fresh.

Fully documentedCheese24 h – 7 daysFederal identity standard (MAPA IN 30/2001, Annex III); Paraíba artisanal cheese law (Lei 11.346/2019)Family: Acid-heat set cheese family (FERMENTATION BOUNDARY)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe standard sets ingredients and limits, not amounts. Blocks weigh 2–10 kg.
Cow milk, whole, standardised, part-skimmed or skimmed[in30-2001]
Food-grade organic acid (lactic, citric or acetic), or natural souring of the milkThe federal standard names acids; the Paraíba law also allows natural acidification and natural dairy cultures[in30-2001][pb-lei2019]
Manteiga da terra, manteiga de garrafa or manteiga do sertão (clarified butter)[in30-2001][pb-lei2019]
Salt (optional); sodium bicarbonate as a processing aid[in30-2001]
Starternatural souring of the milk, or direct acidification

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h – 7 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLeuconostoc spp.Milk sugarLactic acid

What changes: The milk sours, by its own bacteria or with added acid, until it curdles

Step 1 of 5
Sour the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Leuconostoc spp.

The milk sets by spontaneous souring or by adding food-grade acid. The Paraíba law lists filtering, skimming and optional addition of whey before the curd is drained.

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

Cow milk is soured, either naturally or, in the federal standard, with food-grade lactic, citric or acetic acid. The curd is heated, drained, washed with hot water or milk, then melted with clarified bottle butter (manteiga de garrafa) and salt at 85 °C or more for at least 15 minutes and poured into moulds. It is a boundary case, an acid-heat cheese, and is eaten fresh. Made in 5 steps over 24 h – 7 days. The longest step, mould, cool and keep cold, takes 24 h – 7 days (Penna A.L.B 2021) and runs at up to 10 °C (Ministério da Agricultura e do Abastecimento…). Leuconostoc spp., the prevailing genus in Manteiga cheese in a large survey of artisanal Brazilian cheeses does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 7 daysReported[penna2021]Mould, cool and keep cold
Temperatureup to 10 °CSet[in30-2001]Mould, cool and keep cold
AciditypH 5.5–6.2Measured[emb2007]Mould, cool and keep cold

What makes this one different

The curd is washed and then melted with clarified butter and salt. The federal standard sets the milk with food-grade acid, and the Paraíba law also allows natural acidification.

Milk
Cow milk; whole, standardised, part-skimmed or skimmed
Ripening
Ripening period of 1 to 7 days; eaten fresh
Composition
Fat in total solids 25–55%; moisture at most 54.9%
Size
Brick-shaped, less often cylindrical, 2–10 kg

Related ferments

Safety

The federal standard requires cooking at no less than 85 °C for at least 15 minutes during melting, and storage at no more than 10 °C.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus spp., found mainly in Coalho, Manteiga and Caipira cheeses in a large survey of Brazilian artisanal cheeses.

History and sources

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

A 2009 study of the Seridó says the region has made dairy products by hand for more than a century. One queijeira in a survey of 60 units was founded in 1878 and was run by three generations of the same family, and 69% of the surveyed dairies made queijo de manteiga. The federal identity standard (Instrução Normativa 30) was published on 16 July 2001, and Paraíba regulated artisanal cheeses and butters by Lei 11.346 of 6 June 2019.

  1. [in30-2001] Ministério da Agricultura e do Abastecimento (Brazil), Instrução Normativa nº 30 of 26 June 2001, Annex III, Regulamento Técnico de Identidade e Qualidade de Queijo de Manteiga (DOU 16/07/2001)spec
  2. [pb-lei2019] Estado da Paraíba, Lei nº 11.346 of 6 June 2019, Sistema de Produção e Comercialização de Queijos e Manteigas Artesanais, Art. 7 (text as reproduced by LegisWeb)spec
  3. [penna2021] Penna A.L.B., Gigante M.L., Todorov S.D. 2021, Artisanal Brazilian Cheeses, History, Marketing, Technological and Microbiological Aspects, Foods 10(7):1562paper
  4. [azevedo2009] Azevedo F.F., Locatel C.D. 2009, A reprodução camponesa no semiárido potiguar, importância do setor artesanal de laticínios para as famílias rurais seridoenses, Okara, Geografia em debate 3(1):142–167paper
  5. [emb2007] Pompeu E.C.F.F., Lima J.R., Nassu R.T. 2007, Caracterização físico-química de queijos de manteiga produzidos no estado do Rio Grande do Norte, Embrapa Agroindústria Tropical scientific initiation meeting, Fortaleza, June 2007 (abstract)paper