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Cheese from Mexico, Chiapas

Queso de bola de OcosingoQueso bola de Ocosingo

Raw cow milk enriched with cream is set slowly with calf rennet, and the curd is hung in muslin to drain, salted and left hanging for at least 21 days so native lactic bacteria sour it. The crumbled, ripened core, with butter if needed, is shaped into a ball and wrapped in two layers of freshly stretched skim-milk curd. The skin dries hard around the soft core.

Fully documentedCheese2.5 months – 5.5 monthsCollective mark (marca colectiva) granted by IMPIFamily: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceProportions from the producers' process as described in one study. Balls weigh 200–300 g in that study and are sold as 400 g and 1 kg pieces.
Raw cow milk[aldrete2018]
Cream skimmed from part of the milk4 kg per 100 L of milk[aldrete2018]
Commercial calf rennet (1:10,000)2.5 mL (the study does not give the batch volume)[aldrete2018]
Salt3–4% of the drained curd[aldrete2018]
Butter0.3–0.5 kg per 10 kg of ripened curd, only if needed[aldrete2018]
Skimmed milk soured with vinegar, for the stretched-curd skin[aldrete2018]
Starternative lactic bacteria present in the raw milk (traditional acidification)

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.5 months – 5.5 months

Start
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What changes: Cream skimmed from part of the milk is stirred back into the batch

Step 1 of 9
Enrich the milk with cream
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
S. thermophilus
Lactococcus lactis
Lactobacillus helveticus
L. delbrueckii
Lactic acid bacteria

Part of the raw milk is skimmed and the cream returned to the batch, 4 kg per 100 L of milk, to make the core softer.

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 cow milk enriched with cream is set slowly with calf rennet, and the curd is hung in muslin to drain, salted and left hanging for at least 21 days so native lactic bacteria sour it. The crumbled, ripened core, with butter if needed, is shaped into a ball and wrapped in two layers of freshly stretched skim-milk curd. The skin dries hard around the soft core. Made in 9 steps over 2.5 months – 5.5 months. The longest step, age and store, takes 50 days – 3.6 months (Aldrete-Tapia A 2018). Salt is 3–4 % (Aldrete-Tapia A 2018). Streptococcus thermophilus, dominant in cheese at 50 days (44.02–80.48%) and 110 days (32.37–94.67%) at most producers; Lactococcus lactis, Lactobacillus helveticus, L. delbrueckii and L. plantarum also predominated during processing does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step50 days – 3.6 monthsReported[aldrete2018]Age and store
Temperature13–27 °CReported[estrada2024]Sour hanging in cloth
Salt3–4 %Reported[aldrete2018]Hang in muslin and salt

What makes this one different

Two cheeses in one. A long-soured, cream-enriched rennet curd forms the core, and a quick vinegar-set, stretched skim-milk curd wraps it. The skin stiffens as it dries; a 2024 study calls it a sort of package that extends the core's shelf life, and gives no figure.

Milk
Raw cow milk enriched with cream for the core; skimmed milk for the skin
Ripening
Curd soured at least 21 days before wrapping; 45-day versions are also sold
Size
Balls of 200–300 g in one study; sold as 400 g and 1 kg pieces

Related ferments

Safety

Both parts start from raw milk. Studies stress hygienic milking, handling and the full curd souring time; curds soured 21 days or more reach a lower pH than the young versions sold today. ANSES advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheeses other than pressed cooked ones such as Gruyère, because of Listeria, Salmonella and Shiga-toxin E. coli.

Hazards the sources name: Low proportions of Escherichia coli/Shigella sequences in almost all processes, not recovered by culture; Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes and E. coli O157:H7, none of whose DNA was found by qPCR in 16 Bola de Ocosingo cheeses (Salmonella and S. aureus DNA was found only in the Cotija cheeses of the same study).

History and sources

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

A 2019 study counts ten artisanal cheesemakers making the cheese in Ocosingo. Competition from cheaper cheeses has pushed some to shorten the curd souring.

  1. [aldrete2018] Aldrete-Tapia A., Escobar-Ramírez C.M., Tamplin M.L., Hernández-Iturriaga M. 2018, Characterization of Bacterial Communities in Mexican Artisanal Raw Milk 'Bola de Ocosingo' Cheese by High-Throughput Sequencing, Frontiers in Microbiology 9:2598paper
  2. [estrada2024] Estrada-Hernández C.A. et al. 2024, Microbiological Evaluation of Two Mexican Artisanal Cheeses, Analysis of Foodborne Pathogenic Bacteria in Cotija Cheese and Bola de Ocosingo Cheese by qPCR, Foods 13(17):2824paper
  3. [agudelo2019] Agudelo-López M., Cesín-Vargas A., Espinoza-Ortega A., Ramírez-Valverde B. 2019, Evaluación y análisis sensorial del Queso Bola de Ocosingo (México) desde la perspectiva del consumidor, Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Pecuarias 10(1):104-119paper
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov