Queso Zamorano

Appearance & taste

Queso Zamorano is a flat, very regular cylinder up to 24 cm in diameter, up to 14 cm high and weighing up to 4 kg. The straight sides bear the imprint of the traditional esparto grass bands (“pleitas”). The rind is hard and pale yellow to dark grey. The paste is firm and compact, with a few small holes, white to yellowish ivory. As ripening progresses, the cut surface becomes a darker ivory and more matt; lighter granules of tyrosine crystals may appear.

Briefly ripened cheese smells and tastes of fresh sheep’s milk with notes of clarified butter and hay; with ripening, notes of ripe curdled milk, dried fruit and walnuts are added. Acidity and salt are distinct but balanced, and long-ripened cheese has a long finish. At medium ripeness the bite is tender, creamy, slightly sticky and moderately elastic; later the cheese becomes more brittle and finally floury or grainy. It contains at least 45 % fat in dry matter.

During moulding, each wheel receives on one face a numbered casein cheese mark with the name “Queso Zamorano”. It is also sold packaged in portions, slices or grated.

Production

The milk comes from the native Churra and Castellana sheep or from first-generation crosses of ewes of these breeds and rams of the Assaf Española breed; these crosses may not be used to breed the flock. The sheep graze in the area. Only in winter, when lambing and lactation fall in the period of sparse vegetation, or when fodder is scarce, are they also given cereals, legumes and green fodder.

Clean whole milk with at least 6.5 % fat and 5 % protein is used. Small artisan businesses as well as medium-sized and large cheese dairies make the cheese with traditional techniques. Wheels over 1.5 kg ripen for at least 100 days, smaller ones for at least 60 days. Milk production and cheesemaking take place in the area.

Origin & history

The province of Zamora lies in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula and belongs almost entirely to the Duero basin. In the south-east, gently undulating valleys shape the open landscape, in the north the valleys and plateaus of the northern Meseta, and in the south-west large differences in altitude with steep slopes. The climate is continental, with large temperature differences, long periods of frost and hot, dry summers; only 300 to 500 mm of rain falls a year.

The pastures carry mainly grasses, and almost every area serves the sheep as pasture, arable land after the harvest with straw, leftover ears and remains of legumes. According to the specification, Zamora is Spain’s largest producer of sheep’s milk, with 18 % of Spanish sheep’s milk and 30 % of that of Castile and León.