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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Spain, central Galicia

Arzúa-Ulloa PDOArzúa-Ulloa

Raw or pasteurised cow milk is set with rennet at 30–35 °C, cut to maize-sized grains and washed with water to lower the acidity, then moulded, pressed and salted. The soft, buttery cheese ripens for at least six days; the curado type ripens at least six months. Made in 6 steps over 7 days – 7.1 days. The longest step, ripen, takes at least 6 days (Consello Regulador / Xunta de Galicia 2009) and runs at up to 15 °C (Consello Regulador / Xunta de Galicia 2009). Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis and the citrate-using diacetylactis type and Mesophilic homofermentative Lactobacillus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 6 daysSet[pliego-arzua2009]Ripen
Temperatureup to 15 °CSet[pliego-arzua2009]Ripen
AciditypH 5–5.5Set[pliego-arzua2009]Ripen

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification fixes limits, not a recipe. Each cheese weighs 0.5–3.5 kg, 100–260 mm across and 50–120 mm high.
Cow milk, raw or pasteurised · Whole, not standardised; kept at 4 °C or below[pliego-arzua2009]
Animal rennet or other permitted coagulating enzymes[pliego-arzua2009]
Lactic cultures · The specification favours native strains[pliego-arzua2009]
Drinking water · To wash the curd[pliego-arzua2009]
Salt · On the curd in the vat and/or as chilled brine[pliego-arzua2009]
Starter: rennet, with lactic cultures (native strains preferred)

Total time across the recorded steps: 7 days – 7.1 days

Start
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up to 4 °C

What changes: Starting material: whole cow milk from Galician farms, kept cold

Step 1 of 6
Collect and chill the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
up to 4 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus lactis
Lactobacillus isolated

The milk must be free of colostrum, preservatives and drug residues; any standardisation is banned.

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

What makes this one different

Washing the curd with water lowers its acidity, which keeps the paste soft, mild and buttery. The same name covers a young cheese ripened for days and a hard curado aged for months.

Milk
Cow milk, raw or pasteurised, not standardised
Curd
Rennet curd, washed with water
Ripening
At least 6 days; curado at least 6 months
Size
0.5–3.5 kg; 100–260 mm across, 50–120 mm high

Related ferments

Variants

  • Arzúa-Ulloa de granja (farmhouse)Made only from the milk of the farm's own cows.
  • Arzúa-Ulloa curadoRipened at least 6 months; 0.5–2 kg, hard and deep yellow, pH 5.1–5.4, sharp and buttery. Also called "de la nabiza" or "de año".

Safety

The cheese may be made from raw milk and ripens only days. ANSES advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheeses other than hard cooked ones, because of Listeria, Salmonella and Shiga-toxin E. coli. The specification asks that brine be kept chilled to stop unwanted microbes.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and Shiga-toxin-producing E. coli (risks named for raw-milk cheeses).

History and sources

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

The specification calls it one of the archetypal Galician cheeses, once made from surplus milk on small farms in Sobrado, Curtis, Arzúa, Melide, Palas de Rei and the Deza. Vicente Risco described the cheeses of Terra de Melide in 1933 as cured in the air, washed and wrapped in cloth. Monthly fairs at A Illana in Curtis were noted around 1900, and Carlos Compairé studied the cheeses in 1966. It was registered as an EU PDO in 2010.

  1. [pliego-arzua2009] Consello Regulador / Xunta de Galicia, Pliego de condiciones de la Denominación de Origen Protegida «Arzúa-Ulloa», January 2009 (AGACAL copy, read via the Internet Archive)spec
  2. [menendez2000] Menéndez S., Centeno J.A., Godínez R., Rodríguez-Otero J.L. 2000, Effects of Lactobacillus strains on the ripening and organoleptic characteristics of Arzúa-Ulloa cheese, International Journal of Food Microbiology 59:37–46 (abstract)paper
  3. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov