🧀 Queso Majorero

Queso Majorero is a pressed cheese with a Protected Designation of Origin from Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, made from the milk of Majorera goats. Cheeses meant for ripening may contain up to 15% Canarian sheep's milk. It is sold tierno, semicurado or curado, with a compact, creamy paste and a slightly acidic, mildly piquant taste. ³

Where it comes from. The area is the whole island: the municipalities of Antigua, Betancuria, La Oliva, Pájara, Puerto del Rosario and Tuineje. Fuerteventura covers about 1,659 km², is about 100 km long and lies less than 100 km from Africa. ³ Most of the island gets under 100 mm of rain a year and the heights up to 250 mm. The mean temperature is about 19 °C, and the land is covered in scrub of cardón, tabaiba and aulaga, with palm groves in the valleys. ³

The Majorera goat. The breed is hardy and highly specialised for milk. Its many coat types come from crossing pre-Hispanic goats, and droughts selected only the best animals. It can give 600 litres per lactation even in harsh conditions, and most kids are born from November to January. ³ Goat's milk must have at least 3.8% fat, 3.2% protein and 12.1% dry matter. Sheep's milk must have 5.5%, 5.3% and 17.1%. ³

How it is made. The milk is set at 28–32 °C for about an hour, preferably with rennet from dried kid stomachs. The curd is cut into grains of 5–15 mm: smaller for cheeses that will ripen, larger for tierno. It is then pre-pressed to drain. ³ It goes into palm-leaf or plastic moulds, or plastic and steel moulds that copy the woven palm-leaf pattern. The cheese is salted with sea salt, dry or in brine for up to 24 hours. ³

The old way. The specification describes the traditional method in detail. Warm milk from the milking bowl was poured into a larger pot with rennet and wrapped in a blanket. The rennet was made from kid stomachs full of curdled milk, dried and salted in the sun. ³ The curd was pressed by hand in a palm-leaf band, salted on both sides and weighted with a stone. On the third or fourth day it was washed with whey. It was cured with olive oil or with fat and moulds from earlier cheeses. ³

Look and types. The cheese is a cylinder 15–35 cm across, 6–9 cm high and weighing 1–6 kg, with the mould pattern on its sides. Tierno ripens 8–20 days, semicurado 20–60 days and curado more than 60. ³ The rind is white and almost absent on tierno, yellowish brown on curado, and may be rubbed with paprika, oil or gofio. The paste is white, turning ivory in curado, usually without eyes. Fat in dry matter rises from about 52% in tierno to 55.5% in curado. ³

History. The 15th-century chronicle Le Canarien counted 50,000–60,000 goats on the island and praised its very good cheeses made only from goat's milk: the first written mention of cheese on Fuerteventura. ³ Records of the Betancuria council from 1605 to 1780 mention cheese about 30 times; in 1610 taking cheese off the island was banned. In the 1880s René Verneau wrote that all the goats' milk was made into cheese and shipped to Gran Canaria. ³ The EU registered the name in 1999. ¹²

Figures. In 2023 the designation had 27,362 milking animals on 51 farms and 11 dairies. They made 548 tonnes of cheese from 1.8 million litres of milk. Of this, 266 tonnes were sold as PDO cheese, almost all of it in Spain, at an average of €11 per kg. ⁴

Queso Majorero or just any goat’s cheese? The protected name means more than the animal. It is a pressed cheese: the curd is cut into grains and pre-pressed, not simply drained like a fresh goat’s cheese. It comes only from Fuerteventura, from Majorera goats, and is sold in three stages, tierno, semicurado and curado, so one name covers a soft, mild cheese and a firm, stronger one. A goat’s cheese from elsewhere, even with a pattern on its rind, is not Queso Majorero.

Look for the words “Denominación de Origen Queso Majorero” and the EU PDO symbol (protected designation of origin) on the label. Each cheese has a numbered back label from the Regulatory Council that cannot be reused. Check the stage written on the pack: tierno, semicurado or curado. You will mostly meet it at a delicatessen or a supermarket cheese counter; little of it leaves Spain, so abroad the PDO symbol is the thing to check.

Why it matters to you. The label must say "Denominación de Origen Queso Majorero", and each cheese carries a numbered back label from the Regulatory Council that cannot be reused. ³ Choose by age: tierno is soft and mild, curado firmer and stronger, often with a paprika, oil or gofio rind. ³ Little of it is sold outside Spain, so abroad the PDO label is worth checking. ⁴