🧀 Gamonéu

Gamonéu (also written Gamonedo) is a fatty, matured Spanish cheese with a natural rind, made in Asturias from raw cow's, sheep's or goat's milk, or from a mixture of two or three of these. It is protected in the EU as a PDO.

Milk. According to the specification, the milk is raw and whole, from registered herds that graze the meadows all year and are fed fresh grass and hay from the farm. Feed from outside the zone may not exceed 50% of dry matter over a year.

Making. The milk is coagulated with animal rennet at 22–30 °C, the curd is cut into grains of 5–15 mm, moulded and salted on the top and bottom faces. The cheeses are then smoked over ash, heather, beech or other native non-resinous wood and ripened in limestone caves (average temperature up to 12 °C, humidity at least 85%) for at least 30 days. Total ripening is at least two months, and three months for cheeses over 7 kg.

Look and taste. A cylinder 10–35 cm across, 6–18 cm high and weighing 0.5–10 kg, with a thin rind from the smoking, toasted sienna with reddish, green and bluish tones. The paste is hard or semi-hard, firm and crumbly, white to yellowish-white, with small irregular holes; slight blue-green moulds may appear near the edge. Fat is at least 45% of dry matter. The flavour is mild smoke with a slightly piquant touch, buttery in the mouth, with a lasting nutty aftertaste.

Area and marking. The cheese is made only in the municipalities of Cangas de Onís and Onís, partly in the Picos de Europa National Park. The traditional mention "Del Puerto" may be used for cheese made in small dairies in the high mountain pastures of these two municipalities, from a mix of at least two milks. Each cheese carries the PDO back label. The EU register gives 2003 as the protection date.