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Cheese from Colombia, Bolívar

Queso de capas (Mompox)Queso de capa

Raw cow milk is soured to pH 5.2 with very acid whey, then set with rennet from a calf's stomach. The curd is stretched in its own whey at 50–60 °C, rolled out 4 mm thin, salted and cut into strips that are rolled over each other crosswise into layered rolls of about 80 g. It is made by hand in home patios and keeps only a short time.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHome production with no fixed amounts; the improved method in the same study adds 2% salt. Each roll weighs about 80 g.
Raw cow milk[granados2010]
Acid whey, about pH 3 and 1.3% lactic acid[granados2010]
Rennet from calf stomach (cuajar); the improved method uses dissolved powdered rennet[granados2010]
Salt[granados2010]
Starteracid whey added to the raw milk

Total time across the recorded steps: 10 min

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteriapH 6.5 → 5.2Milk sugarLactic acid

What changes: Very sour whey drops the milk from pH 6.5 to 5.2 before it is set

Step 1 of 5
Sour the milk with acid whey
Time
10 min
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH 6.5 → 5.2
Reported
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

The milk is first filtered through cloth.

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 is soured to pH 5.2 with very acid whey, then set with rennet from a calf's stomach. The curd is stretched in its own whey at 50–60 °C, rolled out 4 mm thin, salted and cut into strips that are rolled over each other crosswise into layered rolls of about 80 g. It is made by hand in home patios and keeps only a short time. Made in 5 steps over 10 min. The longest step, sour the milk with acid whey, takes 10 min (Granados C 2010). Lactic acid bacteria, which the study says make up part of the high mesophilic count and act as the starter; it names no species does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step10 minReported[granados2010]Sour the milk with acid whey
Temperature50–60 °CReported[granados2010]Stretch in hot whey
AciditypH 6.5 → 5.2Reported[granados2010]Sour the milk with acid whey

What makes this one different

A stretched-curd cheese whose raw milk is brought to pH 5.2 at once with very acid whey, then stretched in its own whey, rolled thin and wound crosswise into layered rolls.

Milk
Raw cow milk; a 2014 study also made it from buffalo milk from Carmen de Bolívar (abstract)
Ripening
No ripening step in the described make; the artisanal cheese has a short shelf life
Size
Rolls of about 80 g

Related ferments

Variants

  • Improved (tecnificado) methodMilk standardised to 4% fat, pasteurised at 65 °C for 30 minutes, cooled to 35 °C and set at pH 5.2; stretched in whey heated to 60 °C with 2% salt and vacuum-packed.

Safety

The milk is raw and the cheese is made by hand in home patios, where the raw material is exposed to contamination and there are no sanitary controls (Vargas 2021, abstract). A 2010 study of three replicate samples found a mould count of 2500 cfu/g in the artisanal cheese, against an acceptable range of 100–500, and reported no faecal contamination from handlers in those samples. An improved method pasteurises the milk at 65 °C for 30 minutes and stretches at 60 °C. The CDC says people at higher risk, including pregnant women, people 65 or older and people with weak immunity, should avoid raw-milk cheese unless it is heated to 165 °F (74 °C) or until steaming hot.

History and sources

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

A 2010 study at Mompox described the artisanal make and an improved, pasteurised method for the cheese (Granados 2010). In 2014 another study made it from buffalo milk from Carmen de Bolívar. A 2021 study of Mompox producers named it one of the town's native products and judged it able to qualify for a denomination of origin. No source read here dates the start of production.

  1. [granados2010] Granados C., Urbina G., Acevedo D. 2010, Tecnificación, caracterización fisicoquímica y microbiológica del queso de capa de Mompox Colombia, Biotecnología en el Sector Agropecuario y Agroindustrial 8(2):41paper
  2. [granados2014] Granados C., Meza L.A., Paba R.S., Acevedo D. 2014, Elaboración de queso de capa a partir de leche de búfala del municipio Carmen de Bolívar (Colombia), Información Tecnológica 25(6):39-44 (abstract)paper
  3. [vargas2021] Vargas Prieto A. et al. 2021, La denominación de origen como estrategia de posicionamiento de marca del queso de capa del municipio de Mompox, Cuadernos Latinoamericanos de Administración 17(32) (abstract)paper
  4. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov