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Cheese from Spain, Catalonia

Formatge serrat (queso serrat)formatge serrat d'ovella

A traditional Pyrenean cheese of raw sheep milk, revived by a few makers at the end of the 20th century. Catalonia's food portal describes it as made from spring to autumn and ripened about eight weeks in a cave into a low, firm, close-textured cheese with a thin, smooth, waxy yellow rind and an intense, slightly piquant taste. "Serrat" means closed, for its paste without holes.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedTraditional cheese with no fixed batch size or recipe in the sources found.
Raw sheep milk (pasteurised milk is also used)[gastroteca2009][gastroteca2020]
Animal rennet and milk ferments (ferments lactis)The 2020 text of the Catalan food portal names both. The 2009 text called the coagulation lactic and named no rennet.[gastroteca2020][gastroteca2009]
SaltThe cheese is salted after pressing[gastroteca2020]
Startermilk ferments (lactic cultures, species not named) added with animal rennet, according to the 2020 text of the Catalan food portal; its 2009 text described a lactic coagulation

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: raw sheep milk from Pyrenean flocks

Step 1 of 5
Collect the sheep milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Raw sheep milk, traditionally only from spring to autumn.

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

A traditional Pyrenean cheese of raw sheep milk, revived by a few makers at the end of the 20th century. Catalonia's food portal describes it as made from spring to autumn and ripened about eight weeks in a cave into a low, firm, close-textured cheese with a thin, smooth, waxy yellow rind and an intense, slightly piquant taste. "Serrat" means closed, for its paste without holes. Made in 5 steps over 30 days. The longest step, ripen in the cave, takes at least 30 days (Gastroteca.cat (Catalan food portal 2020).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 30 daysReported[gastroteca2020][gastroteca2009]Ripen in the cave
Temperature34–36 °CReported[gastroteca2020]Set the milk

What makes this one different

Serrat is a closed-textured Pyrenean ewe cheese. In the Pallars, serrat that spoiled or turned out badly was once made into llenguat, a strong, piquant fermented cheese (Wikipedia).

Shape
Low cylinder
Rind
Very thin and smooth, waxy-looking, yellow, with no cracks
Paste
Compact and closed, without holes

Related ferments

Safety

Serrat is traditionally made from raw milk and ripened at least two months; the portal gives one month for cheese made from pasteurised milk. 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, because of Listeria, Salmonella and Shiga-toxin E. coli.

History and sources

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

The Catalan food portal's 2009 text says a few makers recovered this traditional Pyrenean cheese at the end of the 20th century and that it is made from spring to autumn. Its 2020 text says it was once made from May to the end of June from the milk of native breeds such as the Ripollesa sheep, and that several producers now make it by hand for sale. Wikipedia adds that it is now made all year, commercially, in the Cerdanya, Alt Urgell and Pallars Sobirà.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [gastroteca2020] Gastroteca.cat (Catalan food portal, run by Promotora d'Exportacions Catalanes), «Formatge serrat d'ovella», page last modified 20 November 2020web
  2. [gastroteca2009] Generalitat de Catalunya, Comerç Catalunya, Gastroteca.cat, «Formatge serrat d'ovella» (2009; read via the Internet Archive)gov
  3. [wp-es] Wikipedia (es), «Queso serrat» (outline only)wiki
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov