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Cheese from Honduras and El Salvador

Queso duro blandito / queso secoQueso duro blando

A pressed, salty rennet cheese of Honduras and El Salvador. In a Honduran dairy-school version, milk is set with rennet at 32 °C, the curd is heated to 45 °C, drained, milled with about 3% salt and pressed hard. Its pH stays near 6.6–7.0, so it is a boundary case with little acid.

Fully documentedCheese19 h – 25 hSalvadoran standard NSO 67.01.04:06 names queso duro and the duro blando gradeFamily: Fresh lactic (acid-set) cheese family

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceA dairy-school recipe from a thesis at Zamorano, Honduras, given per 100 kg of milk. The thesis says most queso seco is made artisanally; the amounts of those makers are not given.
Milk standardised to 2% or 2.5% fat, pasteurised[mejia2009]
Calcium chloride, 40% solution20 cc per 100 kg of milk[mejia2009]
Liquid rennet14 cc per 100 kg of milk[mejia2009]
Refined salt2.8% or 3.5% (the best-liked cheese had 3.5%)[mejia2009]

Total time across the recorded steps: 19 h – 25 h

Start
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32 °C

What changes: The milk is pasteurised and cooled to 32 °C for setting

Step 1 of 7
Pasteurise and cool the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
32 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

A pressed, salty rennet cheese of Honduras and El Salvador. In a Honduran dairy-school version, milk is set with rennet at 32 °C, the curd is heated to 45 °C, drained, milled with about 3% salt and pressed hard. Its pH stays near 6.6–7.0, so it is a boundary case with little acid. Made in 7 steps over 19 h – 25 h. The longest step, press, takes 18–24 h (Mejía Aguilar A.L. 2009). Salt is 2.8–3.5 % (Mejía Aguilar A.L. 2009).

Key numbers
Main step18–24 hReported[mejia2009]Press
Temperature32 °CReported[mejia2009]Pasteurise and cool the milk
Salt2.8–3.5 %Reported[mejia2009]Mill and salt
AciditypH 6.6–7Measured[mejia2009]Pack and store

What makes this one different

Salted heavily and pressed hard rather than soured, it keeps a near-neutral pH; the softer duro blando grade is set apart by its higher moisture.

Milk
Milk standardised to 2–2.5% fat and pasteurised in the Zamorano study
Ripening
The Zamorano thesis calls queso seco a ripened cheese with under 40% moisture; the Salvadoran standard lists queso duro among unripened cheeses
Composition
Salvadoran standard, queso duro at most 39% moisture and at least 17% fat; a cheese sold as duro blando must have 40–49% moisture

Related ferments

Safety

Its pH stays near neutral, so acid gives little protection. In the Zamorano study the pasteurised cheese averaged 6 cfu/ml total coliforms at day 30, under the Honduran limit of 10; the long room-temperature pressing was the weak point. Coliforms show hygiene and are not a test for pathogens. A 2005 thesis on the artisanal queso seco of Olancho found that cheeses made from unpasteurised milk did not meet the United States and Canada microbiological standards after 30 or 60 days of ripening, and that Staphylococcus aureus was little affected by any storage it tested. Counts reached zero at 30 days in cling film but had risen again by 60 days.

Hazards the sources name: Total coliforms, a hygiene indicator; in the Zamorano study they were at most 5-7 cfu/ml at day 30, under the Honduran limit of 10; Staphylococcus aureus in artisanal queso seco from Olancho, little affected by any storage tested over 30 and 60 days; a zero count at 30 days in cling film did not last to 60 days.

History and sources

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

A 2005 thesis describes the farm dairying of Olancho in the 1960s as traditional, with a canoe for setting the curd, a hoop band (cincho) for moulding the cheese and a sack for draining butter, and says Olancho cheese was in strong demand in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. In 2001 four artisanal plants in the Guayape valley and one in Choluteca were certified to export queso seco to the United States and Canada. From 2004 the United States restricted entry of Honduran dairy products, which the thesis blames on poor milking and manufacturing practice and on cheese exported before it had ripened enough.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [rod2005] Rodríguez Molina B.E. 2005, Determinación del queso seco artesanal olanchano con los mejores índices de preferencia y estándares de calidad microbiológica para el mercado local, thesis, Universidad Nacional de Agricultura, Catacamas, Hondurasarchive
  2. [mejia2009] Mejía Aguilar A.L. 2009, Evaluación de dos porcentajes de grasa y sal en las propiedades físicas, químicas y sensoriales del queso seco, graduation project, Escuela Agrícola Panamericana Zamorano, Hondurasarchive
  3. [nso-noma] CONACYT El Salvador, NSO 67.01.04:06 Productos lácteos. Quesos no madurados. Especificaciones (primera actualización), approved by Acuerdo 1271, Diario Oficial 23 January 2008 (FAOLEX copy)spec