🌍 Latin America
Mexico, Central and South America: dulce de leche, cajeta, fresh white cheeses from cow's and goat's milk.
Latin America is the part of the Americas where mostly Spanish and Portuguese are spoken: Mexico, Central and South America. Before Europeans arrived, the Americas had no dairy animals; cows and goats were brought by the Spanish and Portuguese in the 16th century. Since then dairy products have become part of the cuisine from Mexico to Argentina, and most of the milk comes from cows. In dry areas, such as northern Mexico, goats play an important role.
The region’s best-known dairy treat is a thick caramel made from milk and sugar. In Argentina and Uruguay it is dulce de leche, in Brazil doce de leite, in Colombia arequipe, in Chile manjar, and in Mexico cajeta, made from goat’s milk. Fresh white cheeses are also widespread: Mexican queso fresco, stringy Oaxaca cheese and their many local relatives.
Many of the region’s cheeses are made by small family farms using skills passed down through generations, often from raw milk, so researchers pay attention to production hygiene.
What it includes
How it connects to milk
🌍 Latin America → kind of → 🌍 World regions → kind of → 🥛 Milk
Links
- Traditional products
- 🍯 Dulce de leche, 🍯 Cajeta, 🧀 Queso fresco, 🧶 Oaxaca cheese
- Peoples
- 🧑🤝🧑 Mexicans, 🧑🤝🧑 Argentines, 🧑🤝🧑 Uruguayans
- Traditions
- 🫒 Arauco
- Part of
- 🌍 World regions
Frequently asked questions
What is dulce de leche called in different countries?
In Brazil doce de leite, in Colombia arequipe, in Chile manjar; in Mexico a similar product made from goat’s milk is cajeta.
When did cows arrive in Latin America?
They were brought by the Spanish and Portuguese in the 16th century.
What cheeses are popular in Latin America?
Above all fresh white cheeses — queso fresco, Oaxaca cheese and their local variants.
What to read next
- 🧑🤝🧑 Mexicans — The people of Mexico in North America, with Spanish language and Indigenous traditions; their dairy staples are cajeta, queso fresco and Oaxaca cheese.
- 🧑🤝🧑 Argentines — The people of Argentina, a South American land of the pampas; their national pride is the milk caramel dulce de leche.
- 🧑🤝🧑 Uruguayans — The people of Uruguay, between Argentina and Brazil; like their neighbours, they count dulce de leche as their national treat.
Similar
🌍 West Africa · 🌍 Southern Africa · 🌍 Himalayas and Tibet · 🌍 Arctic and the North · 🌍 Carpathians · 🌍 Central Europe
Sources
- Isolation and Characterization of Melanoidins from Dulce de Leche, A Confectionary Dairy Product. Molecules, 2019
- Properties of Oaxaca Cheese Elaborated with Ultrasound-Treated Raw Milk. Foods, 2022
- A Brief Update on the Challenges and Prospects for Goat Production in Mexico. Animals, 2022