Queso Los Beyos

Appearance & taste

Queso Los Beyos is cylindrical with flat or slightly concave faces, 3 to 9 cm high, 7 to 11 cm in diameter and 250 to 500 g in weight; it is somewhat lower than it is wide. The rind is thin and rough, depending on the milk yellowish-creamy or pale yellow to light brown. The paste is semi-hard to hard, firm, hardly or not at all elastic and crumbly or sliceable, without fermentation holes and with few mechanical openings; from goat’s milk it is white, from sheep’s or cow’s milk ivory-coloured or pale yellow. The cheese contains at least 45 % fat in dry matter.

Smell and aroma are mild, more intense in sheep’s and goat’s cheese and slightly reminiscent of the animal species in question. The taste is mild, lightly salted and slightly sour; cow’s milk cheese has a fresh, milky finish, while sheep’s and goat’s cheese taste more intense and linger longer. According to the specification, the slight acidity is due mainly to the type of coagulation. The label states in capital letters which animal species the milk comes from.

Production

The cheese is made from raw or pasteurised cow’s, sheep’s or goat’s milk, in each case without mixing the milk. The ingredients are milk, milk ferments, calcium chloride, rennet and salt. The small size lets the whey drain faster and the cheese dry faster: the whey has always drained mainly by gravity during moulding, and the curd is pressed together by its own weight. This method determines the texture of the paste. The cheese ripens for at least 15 days, from raw milk for at least 60 days. Production and ripening take place in the area, and labelling is done in the dairy where the cheese was made and ripened.

Origin & history

The area is enclosed by mountains: the Cantabrian Mountains to the south, foothills of the western massif of the Picos de Europa to the east, the Fontecha range to the north and the Ponga range to the west. About a third of the area is pastureland that can be used for most of the year: high pastures between the rocks of the summits, woodland with scattered grassy areas and hay meadows in the valley. The inhabitants of the three municipalities lived together on the mountain pastures for part of the year. The herds were kept extensively, for milk and meat; cheese was made from the milk left over after suckling. Depending on the terrain, the herders kept cows, sheep or goats, rarely mixed herds, and so cheese was made from one kind of milk at a time.

The cheese is named after the Los Beyos gorge, which the river Sella has cut into the limestone; according to the specification, it got its name at the market of Cangas de Onís. It is mentioned in the cadastre of the Marqués de la Ensenada (1752), in municipal records from 1779 and in Miñano’s dictionary of 1827. At first it was made mainly for the household’s own use and to pay rent, later also as a gift, as a means of payment and exchange and for sale, first locally, then at markets in neighbouring municipalities.