Cheese in Andalusia

Milk is set with animal or plant rennet. The curd is cut, drained, pressed or left fresh, salted, then eaten within days or aged for months. Some wheels go into olive oil. Some are rubbed with lard and rosemary. Some are smoked. Fresh goat cheese from Malaga province is white, mild and sold by the piece in any decent market. A Payoya or Pedroches wheel is a different visit.

Goat breeds that appear on a label: Malaguena, Murciano-Granadina, Payoya (from Villaluenga del Rosario, whose natives are called payoyos) and Florida. Blanca Andaluza and Negra Serrana are kept more for meat than for milk. Sheep: Merina, Segurena, and the Grazalema merino.

Villaluenga del Rosario, the smallest village in the province, is the practical capital of Andalusian goat cheese. The Payoya goat comes from this range. Dairies here — Payoyo is the name that turns up most often on prizes — make young and aged goat cheese, mixed goat-and-sheep wheels, and cheeses finished in rosemary and Iberian lard. Ubrique and the other Grazalema towns have sister dairies. This is the stop if you want one address. Province: Cadiz. Mountains: Sierra de Grazalema.

Fresh Malaga goat cheese is the everyday piece: little salt, a white paste, up to a couple of kilos. Antequera still sells that style. The Montes de Malaga make a firmer fresh cheese with a pale rind; Carrefour counters on the Costa often have it. Ronda and the Grazalema slope on the Malaga side age goat cheese until it is yellow, small-eyed and sharp. Cabraline and other small makers work that band. A city market and a drive inland are both valid. Province: Malaga. Town: Ronda.

Los Pedroches, in the north of the province, is sheep country. The traditional cheese is hard, with a grooved rind, raw merino milk and vegetable rennet — a shepherd’s recipe shared with the drove roads into Extremadura. It sits in Spain’s national cheese catalogue. It is not an EU cheese PDO. Do not confuse it with Los Pedroches ham, which already has that seal.

Zuheros, in the Subbetica hills, is goat country. Los Balanchares is the dairy older guides name; they and their neighbours make aged goat cheese and a blue-veined mixed cheese that is Andalusian, not Asturian. Village bars will cut you a board. Province: Cordoba.

Alpujarra — mixed or goat cheeses, usually mild and cylindrical, sold in hill towns on the south face of Sierra Nevada. Granada.

Southern hills of Jaen — small-batch goat cheese, farm to market, no single famous brand. Jaen.

Aracena — pungent goat cheese, eaten young or kept in olive oil. Pair it with the mountain ham if you are already there for Jabugo. Huelva.

The town covered market is the honest first stop. Ask for Malaga goat, Payoya, Pedroches or Zuheros by name. Vacuum packs travel. A board in a bar should name the village, not “selection of Spanish cheeses” with a slice of Cabrales in the middle.

On the Costa del Sol, large Carrefour stores often stock fresh goat cheese from the Montes de Malaga at the cheese counter. That is a supermarket piece, not a dairy visit, but it is the local fresh cheese you can buy without leaving the coast. Read the label; not every “goat cheese” in the fridge is from those hills.

Cafe-Bar La Cavea in Cordoba cuts Andalusian and other Spanish cheeses and is a reasonable sit-down if you are already in the city. Map. El Pimpi in Malaga is a well-known wine bar; order a local goat salad if that is what the menu says, not the baked brie. Hotel chains and beach bars serve whatever the warehouse sent. They are not a cheese route.