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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Mexico, especially the north and the Huasteca of San Luis Potosí

Queso asaderoqueso asadero

Queso asadero is a fresh Mexican stretched-curd (pasta filata) cheese. The curd is cooked twice and kneaded until it stretches, then shaped into balls or flat rounds. Small dairies often use raw milk, and the fresh cheese keeps only days. Made in 5 steps over 9 days. The longest step, keep cool and sell, takes 9 days (Carrillo-Inungaray ML 2011) and runs at 10 °C (Carrillo-Inungaray ML 2011). Lactic starter bacteria does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step9 daysMeasured[carrillo2011]Keep cool and sell
Temperature10 °CMeasured[carrillo2011]Keep cool and sell
AciditypH 5.6Measured[carrillo2011]Shape

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo tested recipe with amounts was found; the extension slides show the steps only.
Cow milk · Raw milk is the general rule in small-scale making[carrillo2011]
Starter culture · Used in the extension teaching method[nmsu-cheese]
Rennet and calcium chloride[nmsu-cheese]
Starter: starter culture and rennet in the extension method

Total time across the recorded steps: 9 days

Start
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What changes: Starter and rennet go into warm milk, which sets into curd

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

In the extension method the milk is warmed, starter culture is added and the pH checked, then rennet and calcium chloride go in and the curd is tested and cut.

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

Like Oaxaca cheese, asadero is a Mexican stretched curd, but it is shaped into balls or flat rounds rather than wound into a ball of strips. It is cooked in two stages and kneaded, and it is eaten fresh rather than ripened.

Milk
Cow milk, often raw in small dairies
Ripening
None; a fresh cheese with a shelf life of days

Related ferments

Safety

Asadero is a moist fresh cheese (water activity 0.91, pH 5.6 in one study) and small makers often use raw milk. In that study faecal coliforms passed the limit of the Mexican standard NOM-121-SSA1-1994 after 5 days at 30 °C and 7 days at 20 °C, while cheese kept at 10 °C stayed within it; the authors set shelf lives of 9, 5 and 3 days at 10, 20 and 30 °C.

Hazards the sources name: Faecal coliforms, above the Mexican limit after 5 to 7 days without cooling; Salmonella spp. and Staphylococcus aureus tested for and not found.

History and sources

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

Asadero is an important part of the farm economy of the Huasteca in north-east Mexico, where much of it is still made from raw milk and sold unpackaged.

  1. [carrillo2011] Carrillo-Inungaray ML, Mondragón-Hernández FM. 2011. Estudio de vida útil del queso asadero. Revista Salud Pública y Nutrición 12(3)paper
  2. [nmsu-cheese] New Mexico State University, Food Technology, Artisan cheese presentation (steps for feta, asadero, farmhouse cheddar and mozzarella)gov