🧀 Arzúa-Ulloa

Arzúa-Ulloa is a soft cow's milk cheese from the heart of Galicia in north-west Spain, smooth, melting and only lightly salted. It smells of fresh milk and yoghurt at first and of butter as it ripens. It comes in three types, including a farm one and an old aged one, and has been an EU PDO since 2010. ¹⁴⁵

A cheese made from spare milk. For centuries Galician farms lived largely on what they grew, and cheese was how a farmer used milk that was not drunk or sold. A 1933 account describes one or two cheeses a day, air-dried and washed for colour. That explains its many old names, such as Arzúa, Ulloa, Curtis or Chantada: it was a household habit across a whole area, not one town's recipe. ⁴

Fairs kept the name alive. Cheese was sold at local fairs in Arzúa, Melide, Lalín and Curtis, and in Lalín women cheesemakers sold beneath a great oak still remembered in a place name. Today the system looks very different: in 2024 there were 703 farmers and 16 dairies, with 4.79 million kg certified. Small farms have given way to specialised milk producers. ⁴⁵

Milk and making. Whole milk comes from Rubia Gallega, Parda Alpina and Friesian cows or their crosses, and it is not standardised. It sets at 30–35 °C, and the curd is cut to the size of a maize grain and washed in drinking water. The specification ties height to width, so a wheel may never be taller than its radius, which keeps the typical flattened shape. ³⁴

Why it tastes as it does. The smooth texture comes from protein breakdown during ripening. A study of this cheese found that breaking down one casein softens it, while breaking down another brings bitterness, so the choice of bacteria matters. Yeasts from raw-milk Galician cheeses can add rancid, cheesy notes, which helps explain why cheeses of one type can differ. ⁵⁶⁷

Three types. The basic cheese ripens at least 6 days and weighs 0.5–3.5 kg. “De granja” uses only milk from the farm's own cows and otherwise matches it. “Curado” ripens at least 6 months and is hard, deep yellow and sharp, with a smell of slightly rancid butter and a bitter finish. Its traditional names are “queixo da nabiza”, “of the turnip time” and “of the year”. ⁴⁵

Why it matters to you. Pick by type, because these are nearly two different cheeses: young for a mild, melting cheese, curado for a strong one. The label must say whether the milk was raw or pasteurised, and a numbered back label from the regulator shows it is genuine. If you avoid raw-milk cheese, that line on the label is the one to read. ³⁵