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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Spain, León, municipality of Posada de Valdeón

Queso de Valdeón PGIQueso de Valdeón

Cow milk, alone or mixed with sheep or goat milk, is set by lactic acid and rennet with Penicillium added in the vat, cut to centimetre grains and moulded loose. The cheeses are dry-salted face by face, pierced, and ripen in cool damp rooms for at least two months from raw milk or one month from pasteurised milk into a strong, salty, spicy blue. Made in 6 steps over 31 days – 32 days. The longest step, pierce and ripen, takes at least 30 days (Ministerio de Agricultura (MAPA) 2020) and runs at 5–10 °C (Ministerio de Agricultura (MAPA) 2020). Lactic acid bacteria, mainly lactococci, dominant early in ripening and Penicillium mould, added in the vat, which makes the blue-green cavities do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 30 daysSet[pliego-valdeon2020]Pierce and ripen
Temperature5–10 °CSet[pliego-valdeon2020]Pierce and ripen
AciditypH 6.4–7.6Measured[diezhandino2015]Pierce and ripen
Fully documentedCheese31 days – 32 daysPGI (EU, since 2004; amended 2020)Family: Blue-veined cheese family (Roquefort as template)More blue cheesesMore from Spain

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification fixes limits, not a recipe. Whole cheeses weigh 0.2–3 kg, at most 15 cm high and 25 cm across.
Cow milk, or cow with sheep and/or goat milk · In the vat at least 3.5% fat, 3.1% protein and 12.0% dry matter[pliego-valdeon2020]
Rennet · Dosed so the milk sets in 60 to 120 minutes[pliego-valdeon2020]
Penicillium mould · Added in the vat[pliego-valdeon2020]
Dry salt[pliego-valdeon2020]
Starter: lactic acid set with rennet; Penicillium added to the milk

Total time across the recorded steps: 31 days – 32 days

Start
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4 °C

What changes: Starting material: cow milk, alone or with sheep or goat milk, kept cold

Step 1 of 6
Receive and chill the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
4 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Penicillium
Moulds
Yeasts
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

Valdeón comes from a single municipality on the León side of the Picos de Europa. The grains are moulded loose and unpressed and the cheese is pierced, so the Penicillium added in the vat spreads through many cavities. The PGI also covers a whipped spread made from the ripened cheese, and it bans colours, flavourings and coated rinds.

Milk
Cow milk, or cow mixed with sheep and/or goat milk; raw or pasteurised
Ripening
At least 2 months (raw milk) or 1 month (pasteurised milk)
Composition
At least 45% fat in dry matter, at least 30% moisture, under 3.5% salt
Size
0.2–3 kg; at most 15 cm high and 25 cm across

Related ferments

Variants

  • Queso de Valdeón batido (whipped)Ripened cheese with the rind removed, chopped and whipped into a smooth spread, in packs of 20 g to 6 kg.
  • Leaf-wrapped ValdeónThe most traditional cheeses are still wrapped in sycamore ("plageru") leaves; the PGI specification does not require it.

Safety

Raw-milk cheeses must ripen at least two months. Soft blue-veined cheeses can carry Listeria; ANSES advises vulnerable groups to avoid raw-milk cheeses other than hard cooked ones, and the NHS advises pregnant women to eat soft blue cheese only cooked until steaming hot.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes (risk named for raw-milk and soft blue-veined cheeses).

History and sources

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

The specification dates cheese-making in the valley to pre-Roman times, from goat milk. Pascual Madoz's dictionary (1845–1859) notes cheese and goat herds in Valdeón. In summer, women carried milk down from the high pastures in goatskin bags. A woman born in Caín in 1922 described setting goat and sheep milk with kid rennet, draining it two days, drying it in the huts and taking it to caves for a month to turn blue. The name was protected as a PGI in 2004.

  1. [pliego-valdeon2020] Ministerio de Agricultura (MAPA), Pliego de condiciones de la IGP «Queso de Valdeón», PGI-ES-0267 revision 1, 18 March 2020 (read via the Internet Archive)spec
  2. [diezhandino2015] Diezhandino I., Fernández D., González L., McSweeney P.L.H., Fresno J.M. 2015, Microbiological, physico-chemical and proteolytic changes in a Spanish blue cheese during ripening (Valdeón cheese), Food Chemistry 168:134–141 (abstract)paper
  3. [culture-valdeon] culture magazine, Cheese library « Valdeón » (leaf wrapping)web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov
  5. [nhs-preg] NHS, Foods to avoid in pregnancy (cheese section)gov