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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Spain, eastern Asturias

Gamonéu PDOGamonéu

Raw cow, sheep or goat milk, alone or mixed, is curdled at 22–30 °C, cut small, moulded and dry-salted. The fresh cheeses are smoked over native hardwood until the rind turns burnt sienna, then ripen in limestone caves, where Penicillium from the cave may creep in from the rind as faint blue-green streaks. Made in 6 steps over 2 months. The longest step, ripen in limestone caves, takes at least 2 months (European Commission 2024) and runs at up to 12 °C (European Commission 2024). Lactic acid bacteria of the raw milk and Penicillium from the caves, which may bloom blue-green in the paste near the rind do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 2 monthsSet[gamoneu-spec2024]Ripen in limestone caves
Temperatureup to 12 °CSet[gamoneu-spec2024]Ripen in limestone caves
Fully documentedCheese2 monthsPDO (EU, 2008; specification amended 2024)Family: Blue-veined cheese family (Roquefort as template)More blue cheesesMore from Spain

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification fixes limits, not a recipe. Wheels weigh 0.5–10 kg.
Raw milk of cow, sheep or goat, alone or mixed · From registered herds fed mainly by grazing; del Puerto cheese must mix two or three kinds[gamoneu-spec2024]
Animal rennet or another authorised milk-clotting enzyme[gamoneu-spec2024]
Salt (sodium chloride) · Rubbed on the top and bottom faces[gamoneu-spec2024]
Ash, heath, beech or other native hardwood · For smoking[gamoneu-spec2024]
No added moulds · Fungi and yeasts must come from the ripening caves, never added to the milk[gamoneu-spec2024]
Starter: the raw-milk flora sours the milk; Penicillium and yeasts come from the caves

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 months

Start
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What changes: Starting material: raw milk of cows, sheep and goats from mountain pastures

Step 1 of 6
Collect raw milk from grazing herds
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Penicillium
Penicillium enters
Moulds

Bought-in feed may not exceed 50 % of dry matter in a year.

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

Gamonéu is smoked before it goes into the cave, and no mould is ever added. Any blue comes only from cave Penicillium working in from the rind, so it stays a faint edge instead of the full veining of Cabrales.

Milk
Raw cow, sheep or goat milk, alone or mixed
Paste
Hard or semi-hard, crumbly; at least 45 % fat and 25 % protein in dry matter, at least 55 % dry matter, pH 4.5–6.5
Ripening
At least 2 months from curdling (3 months over 7 kg), with at least 30 days in a cave
Size
Wheel 6–18 cm high, 10–35 cm across, 0.5–10 kg

Related ferments

Variants

  • Gamonéu del PuertoMade in summer in small mountain-pass dairies of Cangas de Onís and Onís, from a mix of two or three milks of herds grazing listed high pastures.
  • Valley GamonéuCheese made outside the del Puerto rules. The earlier specification labelled it del Valle; the 2024 amendment keeps only the del Puerto term.

Safety

This is a raw-milk cheese. ANSES advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheeses other than cooked pressed ones such as Comté; Gamonéu is uncooked. Cooking the cheese removes the risk.

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

History and sources

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

A letter to King Philip IV in 1641 about grazing land says the cheese fed the poor of the district, and Madoz's geographical dictionary mentions it as a staple. Herders far from markets turned their mixed-flock milk into cheese and ripened it in the mountain caves. The area became Spain's first national park, Montaña de Covadonga, in 1918.

  1. [gamoneu-spec2024] European Commission 2024, Publication of an application for approval of a non-minor amendment to the product specification, 'Gamonéu' PDO-ES-0308-AM01, Official Journal C, C/2024/674 (approved by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1227)spec
  2. [sabater2026] Sabater C. et al. 2026, Metagenomics to assess authenticity and traceability of Asturian Gamonéu PDO cheese, International Journal of Food Microbiology 460:111939 (abstract)paper
  3. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov