Cream Cheese from Cantabria . The cream cheese from Cantabria is a cheese made with whole Friesian cow’s milk , which is made in Cantabria , (Spain). It is a cheese with a protected designation of origin. It was previously known as Cantabrian cheese. It is a pressed pasta cheese. It is fatty, and contains a minimum of 45% fat in dry matter. It matures for at least seven days. Each unit weighs between 400 and 2,800 grams. The bark is soft, bone- colored . The paste is also off-white, usually devoid of eyes , solid and creamy texture. The milk clotting is effected with rennet animals or othercoagulating enzymes that are authorized by the Regulatory Council. The rennet comes from suckling calves from the Pintas de Cantabria cows themselves .
History
The first news about Cantabrian cheese is in the Cartulario de Santo Toribio de Liébana. On May 15 of the year 962 , and his nephew Vicente Matecia sell land to Savarico and his wife Vistrelli by a “marruana et cabrone and VII casios”. Using cheese as a substitute for currency was a common practice at this time to make sales in which some things were exchanged for others. As for the appearance of news of the Mountain cheese in the literature, it is also very old, and Rodrigo de Reinosa alludes in several verses to the cheese referring to the (recent) recental and distinguishing the peguial, the cottage cheeseIt even names the famous Quesada de Pas , which today is still a prestigious product. The two most important historical areas in terms of cheese making, Liébana and Pasiega villas, currently make little and only produce a few artisans who continue the cheese tradition, but without organized factories. On the contrary, in other parts of the region there is a flourishing dairy and cheese industry. It should be noted that today in America, there are Cantabrians with important cheese factories with manufacturing of types similar to those of the Mountain. The cheeses of the Cantabrian region are very numerous and can be classified (in relation to the animal milk used to make them) into: cow, sheep and goat cheeses. Cattle milk is said alluding to that available to the farmer on his farm when cheese is made from mixed milk, of which the best known example is picón cheese. Due to its traditional prestige, designations of origin for Cantabrian cheese began to be managed.
Appellation of origin
The recognition as a designation of origin dates from 1985 , with the name of “Queso de Cantabria” (Regulation approved by Order of October 29, 1985). It was registered as a Protected Designation of Origin in the Community Register by Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1107/96 of June 12, 1996, regarding the registration of geographical indications and designations of origin according to the procedure established in Article 17 of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2081/92 of July 14 , 1992 . By Order of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of February 13 , 2007 The name “Queso de Cantabria” has been changed to “Queso Nata de Cantabria”, more in keeping with the traditional tradition of this product.
