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Cheese from Mexico

Queso adoberaadobera

Raw cow milk is set with rennet, and the curd is cut, stirred and drained. The curd mass is then left at room temperature for 18–24 hours while the milk's own lactic bacteria sour it to about pH 5.0, and it is ground, salted, moulded and pressed into a rectangular block. It is a fresh cheese that melts when heated.

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe study gives the rennet and salt ratios but no batch size. The artisanal make uses no other additives.
Raw cow milkSometimes standardised to 3 % fat[ruvalcaba2020]
Rennet1 part per 10,000 parts of milk[ruvalcaba2020]
Salt1–2 %Mixed into the ground curd[ruvalcaba2020]
Starterthe curd is soured by the native bacteria of the raw milk

Total time across the recorded steps: 18 h – 24 h

Start
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What changes: Starting material: raw cow milk, sometimes adjusted to 3 % fat

Step 1 of 6
Collect the raw milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Streptococcus
Lactococcus
Lactobacillus
Leuconostoc
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: raw cow milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
white

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 cow milk is set with rennet, and the curd is cut, stirred and drained. The curd mass is then left at room temperature for 18–24 hours while the milk's own lactic bacteria sour it to about pH 5.0, and it is ground, salted, moulded and pressed into a rectangular block. It is a fresh cheese that melts when heated. Made in 6 steps over 18 h – 24 h. The longest step, let the curd mass sour, takes 18–24 h (Ruvalcaba-Gómez J.M 2020). Salt is 1–2 % (Ruvalcaba-Gómez J.M 2020). Streptococcus, Lactococcus and Lactobacillus, the core genera through the make and Leuconostoc and Enterococcus, secondary core genera that rise towards the end do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step18–24 hReported[ruvalcaba2020]Let the curd mass sour
Salt1–2 %Reported[ruvalcaba2020]Grind and salt
AciditypH 5Reported[ruvalcaba2020]Let the curd mass sour

What makes this one different

The drained curd is left to sour for a day before it is ground, salted and pressed. So although it is sold fresh, it has a low pH, about 5.1, and it melts when heated.

Milk
Raw cow milk in the artisanal make; Mexican rules call for pasteurised milk, yet a CIATEJ poster says nearly all adobera in Jalisco is made without heat treatment
Ripening
None; sold fresh
Composition
In commercial samples, 42.5 % moisture, water activity 0.953 and pH 5.14
Size
The commercial format in the CIATEJ poster was a rectangular prism of 10.5 cm × 7 cm × 7 cm

Related ferments

Variants

  • Artisanal Los Altos adoberaRaw milk with no additives.
  • Pasteurised-milk adobera (experimental)Made in a CIATEJ test from milk heated to 63 °C for 30 min or 73 °C for 10 min; the cheeses were moister and had a higher pH than commercial raw-milk adobera.

Safety

The artisanal make uses raw milk. In a study of six Michoacán dairies, all 30 adobera samples failed the Mexican microbiological guideline; all held S. aureus, 28 held E. coli and one held Salmonella. The authors note that Mexican law forbids cheese made from unpasteurised milk. The curd also sits at room temperature for up to a day. France's food safety agency ANSES advises pregnant women, people over 65, people with weak immunity and young children to avoid raw-milk cheeses, apart from pressed cooked ones.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus, found in all 30 adobera samples from six Michoacán dairies; Escherichia coli, isolated from 28 of 30 adobera samples; Salmonella, isolated from one adobera sample and a wooden shovel in the same dairy.

History and sources

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

Adobera is described as an unripened fresh raw-milk cheese from the Los Altos region of Jalisco, one of Mexico's main dairy basins. A CIATEJ poster (2014) says Mexican rules call for pasteurised milk in cheese, but nearly all adobera in Jalisco is made without heat treatment, because makers say heating changes the way the fresh cheese crumbles.

  1. [ruvalcaba2020] Ruvalcaba-Gómez J.M., Delgado-Macuil R.J., Zelaya-Molina L.X. et al. 2020, Bacterial succession through the artisanal process and seasonal effects defining bacterial communities of raw-milk Adobera cheese revealed by high throughput DNA sequencing, Microorganisms 9(1):24paper
  2. [ruvalcaba2020b] Ruvalcaba-Gómez J.M., Ruiz-Espinosa H., Arteaga-Garibay R.I. et al. 2020, Texture, physicochemical and sensory properties of artisanal Adobera cheese from Los Altos de Jalisco, a genuine Mexican cheese, International Journal of Dairy Technology 73(2):411–420, doi:10.1111/1471-0307.12676 (abstract)paper
  3. [soria2021] Soria-Herrera R.J., Dominguez-Gonzalez K.G., Rumbo-Pino R. et al. 2021, Occurrence of nontuberculous mycobacteria, Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, and Staphylococcus aureus in artisanal unpasteurized cheeses in the State of Michoacan, Mexico, Journal of Food Protection 84(5):760–766, doi:10.4315/jfp-20-286 (abstract)paper
  4. [rosales-poster] Rosales González G.L., Chombo Morales M.P., Comparación de los atributos de textura entre quesos adobera comerciales elaborados con leche pasteurizada y sin pasteurizar, poster, CIATEJ, Guadalajara (Repositorio CIATEJ, 2014)other
  5. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov