🧀 Queijo de Cabra Transmontano

Queijo de Cabra Transmontano is a ripened Portuguese cheese with a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), registered in the EU in 1996. According to the specification it is semi-hard to extra-hard, made from raw goat milk with animal rennet, and the curd is strained slowly. It is sold as Queijo de Cabra Transmontano and, since the 2013 amendment of the specification, also as Queijo de Cabra Transmontano Velho.

Milk and making. The milk must come from goats of the Serrana breed kept in the production area; they feed mainly on wild plants on pastures, common land and scrubland. The cheese is a short, flat cylinder in two sizes (diameter 6–12 cm or 12–19 cm). The plain cheese ripens for at least 60 days, the Velho for at least 90 days, at 5–12 °C and 70–85% humidity.

Look and taste. The plain cheese has a smooth, white, semi-hard rind and a white, closed paste with a few holes and little creaminess. In the Velho the rind is hard to extra-hard, white or paprika-red (it may be coated with a mixture of olive oil and paprika), and the paste is harder. The aroma is intense and pleasant, the taste clean, usually with a slight tang. Fat is 35–55% of dry matter.

Area and labelling. Milk production, cheesemaking and ripening all take place in 13 municipalities of the districts of Bragança and Vila Real in Trás-os-Montes (in Bragança municipality only 15 listed parishes). The label of each cheese or portion shows the name with DOP, the certification mark and the EU PDO logo.