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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Portugal, Algarve

Queijo de Cabra do AlgarveQueijo de cabra algarvio

Milk from Algarvia goats is strained, boiled or pasteurised, cooled to 40–50 °C, salted and set with an infusion of cardoon flowers in about an hour. The curd is cut, squeezed by hand and pressed in a hoop to make a small fresh cheese of about 200 g. Because the milk is boiled, the fresh cheese is set by cardoon enzymes rather than by fermentation; only the cured form, salted harder and dried on cane racks for 10 days to a month, ripens. Made in 6 steps over 10 days – 30 days. The longest step, salt and dry the cured cheese, takes 10–30 days (DGADR 2001). Salt is 1–1.8 % (DGADR 2001).

Key numbers
Main step10–30 daysReported[dgadr]Salt and dry the cured cheese
Temperature78–100 °CMeasured[dias2014]Strain and boil the milk
Salt1–1.8 %Reported[dgadr]Cool and salt the milk

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceFarm makers do not weigh the salt or cardoon. The amounts are from small Algarve dairies surveyed in 2014.
Goat milk · Mostly from Algarvia goats kept in flocks of 40 to 60[dgadr]
Salt · Not weighed by farm makers; 900 g per 100 l of milk in one dairy studied[dgadr][dias2014]
30–35 g per 100 l of milk (two dairies)Cardoon flowers (Cynara cardunculus) · Soaked in water the day before, pounded in a mortar and filtered[dgadr][dias2014]
Starternone; boiling or pasteurising the milk destroys its own lactic bacteria

Total time across the recorded steps: 10 days – 30 days

Start
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78–100 °C

What changes: The strained goat milk is boiled, killing its microbes

Step 1 of 6
Strain and boil the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
78–100 °C
Measured
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

On farms the milk is strained through a cloth and boiled. The heat kills pathogens such as Brucella melitensis but also the milk's own lactic 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

What makes this one different

The milk is boiled before setting, so the fresh cheese is set by cardoon enzymes with little or no microbial fermentation. Only the cured form, dried on cane racks, ripens.

Season
Made January to August, most in spring; making starts only after the Christmas kids are sold
Size
About 200 g; low cylinder
Fresh cheese in dairies
160–180 g, white, soft

Related ferments

Variants

  • FrescoEaten fresh; soft paste.
  • Curado (seco)More salt, dried 10 days to a month; hard paste.

Safety

The milk is boiled or pasteurised, which the 2014 survey notes is required for the fresh cheese and kills Brucella melitensis. Fresh cheeses were kept at 2–4 °C in the dairies studied.

History and sources

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

Goats are among the few animals that thrive on the poor hill land of the Algarve, and cheese was a way to keep their milk. Making starts only in January because the kid goats were sold for Christmas first.

  1. [dgadr] DGADR, Produtos Tradicionais Portugueses, 'Queijo de Cabra do Algarve' (from Produtos Tradicionais Portugueses, DGDR, 2001)gov
  2. [dias2014] Dias J.C.L. 2014, O contributo dos caprinos na sustentabilidade de sistemas agrários desfavorecidos no Algarve - o caso das queijarias artesanais, MSc thesis, Universidade do Algarvepaper