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Cheese from Portugal, Serra da Estrela uplands

Queijo Serra da Estrela PDO

Raw milk of Bordaleira Serra da Estrela or Churra Mondegueira ewes is salted, warmed to 28–32 °C and clotted with cardoon flowers in 45–60 minutes. The curd is cut, squeezed in cloth in adjustable moulds, pressed and turned, then wrapped in a cloth band and ripened in two stages for at least 30 days into a soft, buttery cheese; after 120 days it may be sold as Velho.

Fully documentedCheese45 days – 50 daysPDO (EU), registered 21 June 1996 (Reg. (EC) No 1107/96); later texts published in OJ L 59 of 4 March 2008 and OJ L 167 of 19 June 2013; amendment published in OJ C/2025/2033Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sources give no doses. Cheeses weigh 0.4–1.7 kg (Velho 0.3–1.2 kg).
Raw ewe milk of Bordaleira Serra da Estrela or Churra Mondegueira ewes[estrela-oj2007][estrela-oj2025]
Dried cardoon flowers (Cynara cardunculus L.) as the only coagulant[estrela-oj2007][estrela-oj2025]
Salt, added to the milk; some makers also salt the outside of the cheese[estrela-oj2007][rampanti2022]
Starternone added; the four producers sampled in a 2022 study used no starter cultures

Total time across the recorded steps: 45 days – 50 days

Start
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28–32 °C

What changes: Salt and cardoon flowers go into warm raw ewe milk and clot it

Step 1 of 5
Salt the milk and clot with cardoon
Time
45 min – 1 h
Reported
Temperature
28–32 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
L. paracasei
Lactococcus lactis
Enterococcus durans
Enterococcus faecium

Salt and cardoon flower heads go into the raw milk, which is gently mixed.

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 milk of Bordaleira Serra da Estrela or Churra Mondegueira ewes is salted, warmed to 28–32 °C and clotted with cardoon flowers in 45–60 minutes. The curd is cut, squeezed in cloth in adjustable moulds, pressed and turned, then wrapped in a cloth band and ripened in two stages for at least 30 days into a soft, buttery cheese; after 120 days it may be sold as Velho. Made in 5 steps over 45 days – 50 days. The longest step, wash and finish ripening, takes at least 30 days (European Commission 2007) and runs at 6–14 °C (Rampanti G 2022). Lacticaseibacillus paracasei, Lactococcus lactis, Enterococcus durans, Enterococcus faecium and Leuconostoc mesenteroides, found in milk, curd and cheese across the manufacturing periods; lactic bacteria above 8.8 log CFU/g in the cheese does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 30 daysSet[estrela-oj2007][estrela-oj2025]Wash and finish ripening
Temperature6–14 °CReported[rampanti2022]Wash and finish ripening

What makes this one different

Clotted only with dried cardoon flowers and ripened in a cloth band, which gives a soft, buttery ewe-milk cheese rather than a hard one.

Ripening
At least 30 days; at least 120 days for Velho
Size
0.4–1.7 kg, 8–20 cm across, 4–6 cm high; Velho 0.3–1.2 kg (2025 amendment)

Related ferments

Safety

Made only from raw milk. A 2018/2019 survey found no Bacillus cereus, coagulase-positive staphylococci or Listeria monocytogenes counts, but Listeria spp. above the Portuguese guideline in three cheeses.

Hazards the sources name: Enterobacteriaceae at 3.8–5.4 log CFU/g in all cheeses; Listeria spp. up to 1.94 log CFU/g, above the Portuguese guideline in three samples; no L. monocytogenes counted.

History and sources

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

The 2007 amendment notes the cheese was mentioned by Roman authors and eaten aboard ship in the Age of Discovery, and in sixteenth-century plays; it added the Velho class for cheeses ripened at least 120 days. The name was registered as a PDO on 21 June 1996.

  1. [estrela-oj2007] European Commission 2007, Publication of an amendment application and summary, 'Queijo Serra da Estrela' PDO PT/PDO/117/0213, OJ C 127, 8.6.2007, p. 10 (Publications Office cellar copy)spec
  2. [estrela-oj2025] European Commission 2025, Publication of an amendment application with single document, 'Queijo Serra da Estrela' PDO, OJ C, C/2025/2033, 14.4.2025 (Publications Office cellar copy)spec
  3. [rampanti2022] Rampanti G., Ferrocino I., Harasym J. et al. 2022, Queijo Serra da Estrela PDO Cheese - Investigation into Its Morpho-Textural Traits, Microbiota, and Volatilome, Foods 12(1):169paper
  4. [rocha2023] Rocha R., Couto N., Pinto R.P., Vaz-Velho M., Fernandes P., Santos J. 2023, Microbiological Characterization of Protected Designation of Origin Serra da Estrela Cheese, Foods 12(10):2008paper
  5. [eambrosia-reg] European Commission, eAmbrosia register record for 'Queijo Serra da Estrela' (PDO-PT-0213), EU protection date 1996-06-21, with its listed Official Journal publicationsspec