🧀 Queijo de Azeitão

Queijo de Azeitão is a Portuguese matured cheese with a protected designation of origin (PDO), registered in the EU in 1996. It is made from the raw milk of sheep bred and fed in the delimited area, curdled with a cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) preparation and salted to taste.

How it is made. The milk is kept below 4 °C and processed within 48 hours of milking. It is warmed to 30–32 °C and the cardoon preparation is added; coagulation takes 45–60 minutes at 30–40 °C. The curds drain slowly, are worked by hand and pressed by hand in small moulds. Ripening has two stages of 8–12 days each and lasts at least 16 days.

Look and taste. The cheese is a short, flat cylinder with bulging sides. The rind is smooth, fine, malleable and evenly yellow. The paste is close, buttery, creamy and unctuous, white or slightly yellow, with few or no eyes. The taste is slightly piquant, a mix of sharp and salty, with a mild, delicate aroma. The normal size weighs about 250 g (6–11 cm across, 3–5 cm high); the small size about 100 g (5–7 cm across, 2–4 cm high). Fat is over 45% and under 60% of dry matter.

Sheep and area. The sheep are fed only on pasture, hay and silage from the area; feed from elsewhere is allowed only in times of scarcity, at most 50% of dry matter a year. Milk production, cheesemaking and maturing all take place in the councils of Palmela, Setúbal and Sesimbra. Labels read ‘Queijo de Azeitão – Denominação de Origem Protegida’ or ‘Queijo de Azeitão DOP’.