Portugal · Fermentation craft; Dairy craft; Portuguese heritage
Queijo da Serra da Estrela
The making of Queijo da Serra da Estrela — Portugal's oldest and most prestigious cheese, made from raw ewe's milk and coagulated not with animal rennet but with the dried flower of the cardoon thistle (Cynara cardunculus). This vegetable rennet produces a distinctive bitter-herbal note and an exceptionally soft, almost spoonable interior paste (amanteigado — buttery) when young, contrasting with a firmer aged version. The queijeira reads the cardo (cardoon) infusion strength by color and the curd set by a specific finger-press test unique to vegetable-rennet coagulation.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not listed; DOP Queijo Serra da Estrela 1996
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