Formatge Garrotxa

Appearance & taste

Formatge Garrotxa is an even cylinder with rounded edges, which may not be taller than it is wide. It comes in two sizes: 0.5 kg (± 50 g) and 10.5 cm in diameter, or 1 kg (± 100 g) and 14.5 cm in diameter (each ± 1 cm). The rind bears a bluish-grey surface mould that makes it look ash-coloured and velvety. According to the specification, it is the only goat’s cheese with mixed coagulation on whose surface fungi are allowed to grow during production and ripening; the mould protects it until it is eaten.

The paste is off-white and firm. The smell is of medium intensity: in the paste, fresh goat’s milk and butter predominate, at the rind notes reminiscent of the damp freshness of the cheese cellar. On the palate, milky notes prevail. The cheese contains at least 45 % fat and at least 30 % protein in dry matter; the dry matter is at most 70 %.

Production

The ingredients are goat’s milk, lactic acid cultures, rennet, salt and, optionally, calcium chloride. The milk is received, stored, pasteurised and pre-ripened, then curdled; the curd is cut, moulded, pressed, salted and dried. All these steps and the ripening take place in the area.

During ripening of at least 21 days the cheese is turned several times until the mould forms an even grey rind; it may not be produced artificially. Mechanical processes and aids that could damage the fungal layer are prohibited. The cheesemaker brushes the rind by hand without removing the fungus; this encourages even growth on the cheese and its spread in the ripening room. The cheesemaker must package the cheese in the area themselves, in paper or cardboard boxes; vacuum packaging and similar methods that do not preserve the mould rind are not permitted.

Origin & history

According to the specification, goat’s milk and cheese have always been produced in the area, and many kinds of goat’s cheese are still made there today. Between 1973 and 1983 goat’s milk production rose from 156,000 to 1,300,000 litres. Farmers from the Garrotxa region then commissioned cheese experts to develop a ripened cheese for the surplus milk. They drew on the recipe of a ripened goat’s cheese formerly made in the region and adapted it to the technology of the 1980s; the cheese was given the name of the region.

In the 1980s young people moved from the cities to the countryside, above all to the mountains. Some learned the artisanal making of this cheese at the Torre Marimon agricultural school and applied it in their own dairies throughout Catalonia. First sold at local fairs, the cheese was shown at the Fira de Barcelona in 1985. In 1996 the European Commission named “Queso Garrotxa” as a traditional dairy product in its Decision 96/536/EC, and the regional government lists it in its register of traditional Catalan foods.