Artisan Cheeses: Rondeño and Goat

Tasty dairy products with tradition throughout the province

Málaga cheese is a native product of the province that constitutes a valuable cultural and gastronomic heritage that appears in the latest cheese catalog published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment. It is a product made with pure goat milk, from goat farms in Malaga. Its traditional production area corresponds to the entire province of Malaga.

The Guarantee Mark and Denomination of Origin for this product are currently being processed. For this purpose, the Málaga Cheese Association was created in 2005, which also aims to enhance its quality, increase its consumption and market. There are more than 20 artisanal cheese factories in the province of Malaga (the main artisanal cheese activity in Andalusia), which combine cheesemaking tradition with new technologies following the most demanding hygienic-sanitary measures. They use milk from their own farms or from farms very close to their facilities, which ensures the daily transformation of the milk produced. These small and medium-sized companies are an important source of employment in our rural environment. To make a kilo of Malaga cheese, 6 liters of goat milk are needed. The most traditional cheese in Malaga is fresh goat cheese, but there are also other cheeses of great quality and recognition.

Products Currently, among Malaga or Rondeño cheeses there is a great diversity of types according to their curing or the treatment of their milk: Fresh, semi-cured and cured cheeses, in extra virgin olive oil, with paprika, with rosemary, with Pedro Ximénez wine , with thyme, with fine herbs, lactic and enzymatic curd, pasteurized milk and milk. These are normally natural rind cheeses, with only 30 percent fat. Other dairy products such as yogurts, desserts and ice creams demonstrate the potential of the processing sector. Despite the large amount of milk produced in Malaga, 70,000,000 liters per year, only 9% is transformed into cheese in the province. The rest is sold to national and international dairy industries. Today, the creation of artisanal cheese factories is promoted among its farmers with a pasteurized milk packaging plant in Casabermeja, with the aim of bringing freshly milked Malaga goat milk to consumers, restaurateurs, pastry chefs, and ice cream makers.