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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Spain, Castilla-La Mancha

Queso Manchego PDOQueso Manchego

Manchego is a pressed cheese made only from the milk of Manchega sheep. The milk is set with rennet at 28–32 °C, the curd is cut, stirred and reheated, then pressed in moulds that print a flower on the faces and a plaited esparto band on the sides. It is salted and ripened 30 days to 2 years. Made in 7 steps over 30 days – 2 years. The longest step, ripen, turning and cleaning, takes 30 days – 2 years (Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha 2025) and runs at 3–16 °C (Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha 2025). Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis (dominant) and subsp. cremoris, wild strains in artisanal cheese does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 2 yearsSet[pliego-manchego]Ripen, turning and cleaning
Temperature3–16 °CSet[pliego-manchego]Ripen, turning and cleaning
AciditypH 4.8–5.8Set[pliego-manchego]Ripen, turning and cleaning
Fully documentedCheese30 days – 2 yearsPDO (EU, 1996); provisionally recognised in Spain in 1982Family: Hard pressed ewe cheese family (Manchego and Pecorino Romano as templates)More hard sheep and goat cheesesMore from Spain

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification fixes limits, not a recipe. A cheese weighs 0.4–4.0 kg, is at most 12 cm high and 22 cm across, and its diameter is 1.5 to 2.2 times its height.
Manchega ewe milk · In the vat at least 6.5% fat, 4.5% protein and 11% useful dry extract, pH 6.5–7; no milk of other species[pliego-manchego]
Natural rennet or other authorised coagulating enzymes[pliego-manchego]
Common salt · As brine, dry salt or both[pliego-manchego]
Starter: The specification names no starter. Wild Lactococcus lactis from the milk takes part in raw-milk artisanal cheese.

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days – 2 years

Start
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up to 8 °CpH 6.5–7

What changes: Starting material: Manchega ewe milk, chilled soon after milking

Step 1 of 7
Chill the ewe milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
up to 8 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH 6.5–7
Set
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus lactis
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

Manchego is made only from Manchega sheep milk, and its moulds copy the old esparto-grass pleita band and wooden flower boards. It is set at a cooler 28–32 °C and reheated to no more than 40 °C, lower than the cooked Italian pecorino Romano.

Milk
Manchega ewe milk with at least 6.5% fat and 4.5% protein, chilled to 8 °C or less
Setting
Natural rennet or authorised enzymes at 28–32 °C for 30–60 min
Ripening
At least 30 days (up to 1.5 kg) or 60 days (larger), up to 2 years, at 3–16 °C and 65–90% RH
Size
0.4–4.0 kg, at most 22 cm across and 12 cm high; pH 4.8–5.8; fat in dry matter at least 50%; salt at most 2.3%

Related ferments

Variants

  • Queso Manchego ArtesanoMade from raw milk
  • Queso de granjaArtisanal cheese made by the farm that owns the flock, from its own milk only
  • Bars for slicing and gratingA block 20–45 cm long, at most 4 kg

Safety

The specification sets limits for the finished cheese, including no Salmonella or Listeria monocytogenes in 25 g. Raw-milk cheese may be labelled "Artesano". 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; Manchego is not cooked.

Hazards the sources name: Limits set for the cheese: Escherichia coli (beta-glucuronidase positive) at most 1000 cfu/g, coagulase-positive Staphylococcus at most 100 cfu/g, Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes absent in 25 g.

History and sources

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

Cervantes ties cheese to La Mancha in Don Quixote, and cookery and dairy books from 1878 on name queso manchego among Spanish cheeses. The flower and pleita marks come from the old esparto moulds, now copied in plastic. The name was provisionally recognised in Spain in 1982.

  1. [pliego-manchego] Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, Pliego de condiciones de la Denominación de Origen Protegida «Queso Manchego» (text in force 2025)spec
  2. [nieto2009] Nieto-Arribas P. et al. 2009, Genotypic and technological characterization of Lactococcus lactis isolates involved in processing of artisanal Manchego cheese, Journal of Applied Microbiology 107(5), 1505–1517 (abstract)paper
  3. [nieto2011] Nieto-Arribas P. et al. 2011, Enterococcus populations in artisanal Manchego cheese, biodiversity, technological and safety aspects, Food Microbiology 28(5), 891–899 (abstract)paper
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov