Dick Dasterdly

One for the cheese connoisseurs.

Whilst curado can have a variety of definitions, precisely which definition applies to queso curado before it is allowed to be labelled as such in Spanish shops ?

As can be expected it is generally more expensive than cheese without the curado or even semi curado label, but has it been smoked, matured for a certain time, had preservatives added or gone through some other special process in order to obtain the curado label. ?

megmet

Quesos curados





Queso parmesano seco.
El curado de los quesos consiste en el añejamiento de los mismos, en un proceso en el que se secan y adicionalmente se aplican técnicas de conservación, como el salado o el ahumado. El tiempo necesario para considerar a un queso como curado puede variar de uno a otro, pero en general se requiere un mínimo de año y medio o dos años.

El proceso de curado hace que obtenga una textura bastante más dura y seca, así como que se incremente la intensidad de su sabor, propiedad muy deseada entre los amantes del queso. Sin embargo, muchas personas no toleran los sabores fuertes, por lo que es fácil encontrar distintas variantes de curado para un mismo queso, catalogándolos normalmente como tiernos, semicurados y curados.

Ejemplos de quesos curados pueden ser el queso manchego o el gouda. Sin embargo, el gouda se suele exportar con un curado aproximado de medio año, mientras que en la Holanda Meridional se puede encontrar más añejo, pudiendo llegar a los dos años.


Or to put it another way.....
Queso Curado is cured and aged for varying lengths of time, in order to obtain mild to very strong flavoured cheese.

Dick Dasterdly

Thanks for that megmet,though thats much the same as I already understand.
Cured cheese naturally attracts a premium, so I wondered exactly what regulations apply in order for it to be labeled as such.
For instance is their a minimum time period for it to be classed as curado ?
Is their a minimum time for it to be called semi-curado ?

What I'm saying is that without such regulation, then producers may label a cheese anyway the wish, even if its only been maturing a matter of weeks or maybe hardly at all and it may or may not have been smoked or have any preservatives added.

Rosemary

I have wondered about this too but decided that there cannot be hard and fast timings, smoking or preservatives because different cheeses mature in different ways. I presumed that the levels are dictated by what timing etc is suitable for that particular cheese. So one cheese may take two weeks for the lowest level, 4 weeks for middle level and 6 weeks for highest level whereas another may take months for each stage to be achieved.

No idea at all really.

Rosemary

agoreira

Certainly no cheese expert, but this webpage suggests that semicurado is 2-3 months, curado 4-7 months, and queso viejo above 7 months. But there are likely to be so many variables, perhaps that's why there don't seem any minimum times written in stone.

Dick Dasterdly

Thanks for that agoreira, it's something of a guide anyway.

I bought a chunk marked curado last week and it appeared to me that apart from not having a strong flavour it seemed too fresh and moist to come under that label, but I'm certainly no expert either and I have no way of proving for sure what its age range was.

Interesting to note also, that the older the cheese the less suitable it is for those on a diet as the moisture percentage declines and the fat percentage increases.

agoreira

...and the more expensive it normally is!

Dick Dasterdly

So it should be, as it normally has better flavour and is stronger than the same cheese uncured, whilst production costs will be higher and the cheese will have lost a certain amount of weight whilst curing.

johnnyone

This is no different to Cheddar cheese, the longer it's matured the stronger the taste.
The older the better.
I must say that I was surprised by the quality of Spanish cheese when we started coming over to Spain. I thought it would be tasteless, but some of it is great.
Cannot stand tasteless cheese.
Stiltons still the best though.

Dick Dasterdly

Manchego for me, though I've found it varies quite a lot,depending on the length of the ageing, maturing process I presume.

Back in the UK, Smoked Wensleydale goes down nicely, as also preferred by Wallace and Grommit.

johnnyone

Slightly off topic, but I did not realise the differing qualities and taste of olive oil until I started coming over to Spain regularly.
Some of it is fantastic.

megmet

We used to love Wensleydale cheese, in fact my husbands family farmed right alongside the place where it's produced.
Last year I got a friend to bring some over here for us, we were so looking forward to trying it once more but.....
What a disappointment it turned out to be, it's just far too salty for us now after years of being used to eating the delicious Manchego.