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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Portugal, Setúbal peninsula

Queijo de Azeitão PDOQueijo de Azeitão

Raw ewe milk is salted, warmed to 30–32 °C and set with a cardoon-flower (thistle) extract in 45–60 minutes. The soft curd is worked and pressed by hand into small moulds. The cheeses then ripen at least 16 days in two rooms, where they first sweat a sticky "reima" that is scraped off, then dry slowly into a soft, buttery cheese. Made in 5 steps over 17 days – 25 days. The longest step, sweat in the sangria room, takes 8–12 days (DGADR 2021) and runs at 8–14 °C (DGADR 2021). Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Lactococcus lactis (dominant), with Lacticaseibacillus zeae, Lentilactobacillus kefiri, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Latilactobacillus sakei does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step8–12 daysSet[azeitao-ce-2021]Sweat in the sangria room
Temperature8–14 °CSet[azeitao-ce-2021]Sweat in the sangria room

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe specification caps salt at 25 g per litre of milk and leaves the cardoon dose to each cheesemaker. A normal cheese weighs about 250 g; a small one about 100 g.
Raw ewe milk · Kept below 4 °C for no more than 48 hours; no heat treatment beyond warming to 30–32 °C[azeitao-ce-2021]
Cardoon flower extract (Cynara cardunculus) · The only coagulant; made a few hours ahead, amount set by each cheesemaker[azeitao-ce-2021]
25 g per litre at mostSalt · Added to the milk before setting[azeitao-ce-2021]
Starternone; raw-milk flora

Total time across the recorded steps: 17 days – 25 days

Start
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30–32 °C

What changes: Raw ewe milk is salted and warmed to 30–32 °C

Step 1 of 5
Salt and warm the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
30–32 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
L. mesenteroides
Lactococcus lactis
Lacticaseibacillus zeae
L. kefiri

Output: warm salted milk.

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

Azeitão descends from Serra da Estrela and is also set with cardoon, but it is far smaller (100–250 g) and ripens at least 16 days instead of 40–60. Ripening runs in two rooms, one where the cheese sweats and is scraped and one where it dries.

Milk
Raw ewe milk from the delimited area; nothing added but salt and cardoon
Ripening
At least 16 days, in two phases of 8–12 days each
Composition
Moisture 63–69 % of fat-free cheese; fat 45 to under 60 % of dry matter
Size
Normal about 250 g, 6–11 cm across; small about 100 g, 5–7 cm across

Related ferments

Variants

  • Tamanho normalAbout 250 g, 6–11 cm across, 3–5 cm high.
  • Tamanho pequenoAbout 100 g, 5–7 cm across, 2–4 cm high.

Safety

Made only from raw ewe milk, kept below 4 °C for at most 48 hours and from brucellosis-free flocks. One study found that keeping the cheese at 25 °C raised tyramine and putrescine, so it should stay cold after ripening.

History and sources

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

Around 1830 Gaspar Henriques de Paiva, from Belmonte in the Beiras, had a cheesemaker from Castelo Branco come each year to make Serra-style cheeses in Azeitão; one local shepherd learned the method. His son made the cheeses smaller, and they won medals at Lisbon shows in 1888 and 1905.

  1. [azeitao-ce-2021] DGADR 2021, Caderno de especificações do Queijo de Azeitão, Denominação de Origem Protegida (May 2021)spec
  2. [cardinali2021] Cardinali F. et al. 2021, Microbial communities and volatile profile of Queijo de Azeitão PDO cheese, a traditional Mediterranean thistle-curdled cheese from Portugal, Food Research International 147:110537 (abstract)paper
  3. [pereira2026] Pereira C.D. et al. 2026, Role of cardoon (Cynara spp.) and raw milk microbiota in Iberian PDO and PGI small ruminants' milk cheeses, Foods 15(13):2359 (review)paper