🧀 Queso Tetilla

Queso Tetilla (Galician: Queixo Tetilla) is a soft Spanish cheese made from cow's milk in Galicia. Both forms of the name are protected in the EU as a PDO, registered in 1996 (eAmbrosia PDO-ES-0088).

According to the specification, the cheese is made from whole natural milk of Rubia Gallega, Friesian or Brown Alpine cows or their crosses from holdings in Galicia; the milk is not standardised. Production comprises coagulation, cutting, draining, optional washing of the curd, moulding, pressing, salting and maturation of at least 8 days, counted from the day after production. All steps take place in Galicia.

The cheese has a distinctive concave-convex shape like a breast, which gives it its name, and weighs 0.5-1.5 kg; height and base diameter are 90-150 mm. The rind is thin, elastic, under 3 mm, straw yellow, natural and without mould; it may carry a transparent colourless anti-mould coating. The paste is soft, uniform and creamy, yellowish ivory, with no holes or a few small ones. The flavour is milky, buttery, slightly acidic and slightly salty. Fat in dry matter is at least 45 %.

Each cheese bears a secondary label with a unique serial number and the logo of the designation, and the producer's label must show Denominación de Origen Protegida and the name Queso Tetilla or Queixo Tetilla. Cheeses over 0.7 kg may be sold in halves, each half with its own labels. The specification dates written references to the cheese in Galicia to the 18th century.