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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Spain, Galicia

Queso do Cebreiro (Cebreiro PDO)queixo do Cebreiro

Pasteurised whole cow milk is set with rennet and lactic cultures at around 26–30 °C for at least an hour. The curd is drained in the vat, then hung in cloth sacks, kneaded with salt into a clay-like paste and pressed in cloth-lined moulds that give it a mushroom or chef's-hat shape. It is sold fresh after chilling, or cured for at least 45 days. Made in 9 steps over 45 days. The longest step, cure (optional), takes at least 45 days (Consejo Regulador DOP Cebreiro 2021) and runs at up to 15 °C (Consejo Regulador DOP Cebreiro 2021). Lactic cultures added with the rennet, a usual practice the 2021 amendment wrote into the specification does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 45 daysSet[am2021]Cure (optional)
Temperatureup to 15 °CSet[am2021]Cure (optional)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification fixes the method and limits, not batch amounts. Each cheese weighs at least 0.3 kg.
Whole cow milk · From Rubia Gallega, Brown Swiss and Friesian cows or their crosses; no standardisation; pasteurised before use[pliego2006][am2021]
Animal rennet and lactic cultures · Or other coagulant enzymes allowed by law and named in the quality manual; local strains are encouraged[pliego2006][am2021]
Salt · Sodium chloride only, kneaded into the curd[pliego2006]
Starter: lactic cultures with animal rennet

Total time across the recorded steps: 45 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: whole milk from Galician mountain cows

Step 1 of 9
Collect whole cow milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Milk with colostrum, preservatives or drug residues is excluded, and standardising the milk 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

Cebreiro is drained in hanging sacks and kneaded with salt like a dough before it is moulded, so the fresh paste is grainy and clay-like rather than smooth. Its moulds give it a cap 1–2 cm wider than its base, like a mushroom or a chef's hat.

Rind
None (fresh); thin, poorly differentiated, yellow (cured)
Size
At least 0.3 kg (the 2 kg ceiling was removed in 2021); mushroom or chef's-hat shape
Composition
Fat in dry matter 45–60%; moisture under 50% in cured cheese

Related ferments

Variants

  • Cebreiro frescoSold after at least an hour of chilling; no rind, white and grainy
  • Cebreiro curadoCured at least 45 days; yellow, firmer and sharper

Safety

The milk must be pasteurised under current law before the make starts, and fresh cheese is held at 2–6 °C before sale.

History and sources

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

The specification links the cheese to the monks who ran the pilgrims' hospital at O Cebreiro, on the French Way to Santiago. Under Carlos III, two dozen Cebreiro cheeses were sent each winter as a gift to the queen of Portugal; a 1770 letter records one delivery. Market prices in A Coruña in 1762 put it close to cheeses imported from Holland and England.

  1. [pliego2006] Consejo Regulador, Pliego de condiciones de la Denominación de Origen Protegida «Cebreiro» (November 2006), eAmbrosia attachment 64772spec
  2. [am2021] Consejo Regulador DOP Cebreiro, Solicitud de aprobación de una modificación menor, PDO-ES-0443- AM01 (16 February 2021), approved by the European Commission, Ares(2021)4913079spec