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Cheese from Brazil, Minas Gerais

Queijo Cabacinha

Raw cow milk is seeded with pingo and set with rennet. The curd is cut, warmed to 40 °C while stirred, drained and left 12–24 hours to ferment, then stretched and shaped by hand into a gourd. The cheeses are salted in brine and sold after about 7 days.

Fully documentedCheese7.5 days – 8 daysMinas Gerais cultural heritage (state law, July 2023); region recognised by IMA in 2014Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedFamily production with no fixed recipe; amounts vary by farm. The model dairy in one study makes 25 cheeses of 400 g a day.
Freshly milked raw cow milk, filtered through clean synthetic cloth[souza2020]
Pingo (fermented whey used as natural starter)[souza2020][medes2026]
Rennet[souza2020]
Salt, as a brine of 20% salt in water[souza2020]
Starterpingo, whey from the previous batch

Total time across the recorded steps: 7.5 days – 8 days

Start
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What changes: Fresh raw milk is filtered through synthetic cloth

Step 1 of 7
Filter the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
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

At a glance

Raw cow milk is seeded with pingo and set with rennet. The curd is cut, warmed to 40 °C while stirred, drained and left 12–24 hours to ferment, then stretched and shaped by hand into a gourd. The cheeses are salted in brine and sold after about 7 days. Made in 7 steps over 7.5 days – 8 days. The longest step, ripen, takes 7 days (Souza B.R 2020). Salt is 20 % (Souza B.R 2020). Lactic acid bacteria of the fermented whey (pingo), higher in the rainy season does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step7 daysReported[souza2020]Ripen
Temperature40 °CReported[souza2020]Cut and warm the curd
Salt20 %Reported[souza2020]Brine

What makes this one different

Unlike the pressed Minas raw-milk cheeses, Cabacinha is a stretched-curd cheese. Its curd sours for up to a day before it is stretched and shaped into a gourd.

Shape
A gourd (cabaça), about 400 g in the model dairy
Class
Medium-moisture, fatty cheese
Producers
About 160 families make it, by an Emater-MG survey

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is raw, and the curd is warmed and stretched. A 2026 study of 30 producers found high Staphylococcus counts in whey starter, brine and cheese and E. coli in the whey starter, and called for good milking and manufacturing practice.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus spp., found in high counts in fermented whey, brine and cheese; Escherichia coli in the fermented whey, higher in the rainy season, and coliforms after stretching in one cheese.

History and sources

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

The state recognised the Vale do Jequitinhonha as a Cabacinha region in 2014. Production there dates from the mid-20th century, and a 2023 state law made the cheese part of Minas Gerais cultural heritage.

  1. [souza2020] Souza B.R., Pires C.V., Ubaldo J.C.S.R., Reis G.B., Trombete F.M. 2020, Estudo de viabilidade econômica e financeira para produção artesanal de queijo Cabacinha na região do Vale do Jequitinhonha – MG, Revista do Instituto de Laticínios Cândido Tostes 75(1):45-58paper
  2. [medes2026] Medes P.H.O. et al. 2026, Microbiological and physicochemical quality of raw materials and Cabacinha artisanal cheese, a traditional stretched-curd cheese from Vale do Jequitinhonha, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Journal of Dairy Science 109(8):7941-7955 (abstract)paper
  3. [mg] Agência Minas (Minas Gerais state news agency), 'Queijo Cabacinha passa a ser patrimônio cultural e imaterial de Minas', 24 July 2023gov