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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Ecuador, Carchi province

Queso amasado (Carchi)queso amasado

Cow milk is heated, set with rennet at about 38 °C, cut twice and drained. The curd is milled to crumbs, kneaded by hand with salt for about ten minutes, moulded and firmed overnight in the cold. It is a fresh rennet cheese eaten within days; no starter is added and it is not ripened, so it is barely fermented at all. Made in 7 steps over 34 h – 10 days. The longest step, keep cold, takes 24 h – 10 days (Pozo Rosero P.M) and runs at 5 °C (Martínez Sotelo P.G. 2018).

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 10 daysMeasured[pozo2021]Keep cold
Temperature5 °CReported[martinez2018]Keep cold
AciditypH 6.8Measured[pozo2021]Keep cold

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe thesis gives temperatures and times but no batch size. Its flow chart writes the additive doses as amounts per 100 ml without saying of what, so they are left out here.
Cow milk · At least 3.20 % protein and 3.0–3.2 % fat at reception[martinez2018]
Calcium chloride[martinez2018]
Rennet[martinez2018]
Salt · Kneaded into the milled curd[martinez2018]
Potassium sorbate · Preservative added at reception in the dairy flow studied[martinez2018]
Starter: none

Total time across the recorded steps: 34 h – 10 days

Start
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66–70 °C

What changes: The milk is held hot for 45 minutes to kill most of its bacteria

Step 1 of 7
Heat the milk
Time
45 min
Reported
Temperature
66–70 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: heat-treated milk.

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

After draining, the curd is milled and kneaded by hand with salt before moulding, which gives it its grainy texture; longer kneading makes it softer. Unlike most cheeses here, it has no starter and no ripening, so little or no fermentation takes place.

Milk
Cow milk; heat-treated in the dairy flow studied
Ripening
None; fresh
Composition
In nine-plant samples, moisture up to 59.94 %, water activity up to 0.98 and pH up to 6.82

Related ferments

Safety

Studies of Carchi artisanal queso amasado found poor hygiene. In Tulcán every sample held more than 10² CFU/g of S. aureus and many held high E. coli counts; in nine plants, mesophilic aerobes and coliforms exceeded the limits and shelf life was as short as one day. Keep it at 5 °C and eat it within days.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus, above 10² CFU/g in every artisanal sample tested in Tulcán; Escherichia coli, at high counts in artisanal Tulcán samples (below 10 CFU/g in a later nine-plant study).

History and sources

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

Carchi is Ecuador's main area for queso amasado, made mostly by small artisanal dairies rather than the large companies of the area. Fresh cheeses, including queso amasado, make up about 81.5 % of Ecuador's cheese market.

  1. [martinez2018] Martínez Sotelo P.G. 2018, Impacto de tres alternativas de corte y moldeo del queso amasado, master's thesis, Universidad de las Américas (UDLA), Quitopaper
  2. [benavides2015] Benavides Caicedo E.G. 2015, Evaluación de la calidad sanitaria de quesos amasados elaborados artesanalmente en el cantón Tulcán, research article CI-06-2015, Universidad Politécnica Estatal del Carchi (UPEC)paper
  3. [pozo2021] Pozo Rosero P.M., Salcedo Viana M.J., Determinación de la vida útil de los quesos amasados de las PYMES del Carchi, mediante análisis fisicoquímicos y microbiológicos, engineering thesis, Universidad Politécnica Estatal del Carchi (UPEC)paper