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This is a salty, Spanish blue cheese with a sharp, strong, salty flavour. It is made from cow's milk, sometimes mixed with goat's or sheep's milk (cow's milk is available year round; the other two milks may be mixed in during the spring or summer when available). The milk can be raw or pasteurized. The cheese is a light ivory colour with veins of blue-green mould. The paste is a little gritty. It develops a thin rind that is yellow with a bit of grey on it.
It is sold wrapped either in aluminum paper or in chestnut leaves.
To make the cheese, rennet is added to milk and allowed to curdle between 1 and 2 hours at 82 to 90 F (28 to 32 C). While curdling, the Penicillium fungus is added. The curd is cut into 1/2 inch (1 cm) pieces, allowed to rest for about 15 minutes, then stirred while the whey is drained away. The curd is lightly packed into open-ended cylinder moulds, then both ends of the cheese are salted and have holes poked in them. It is ripened in humid rooms at temperatures between 41 and 50 F (5 and 10 C) for a minimum of two months if made from raw milk, 1 1/2 months if made from pasteurized milk. The resultant cheese has a fat content of 45%.
The cheese is made in Valdeón valley in Spain. It used to be ripened in caves, though now of course it is all done in special humidity controlled rooms. (These machine-controlled rooms surely must be the unique microclimate that the producers said, in their 2003 EU "Protected Designation of Origin" application, was essential for the cheese production.) It is sometimes called "Picón de Valdeón" ("picónes" meaning "sharp" cheeses.)
It is sometimes labelled "Cabrales" in the US, but Cabrales Cheese actually has an even sharper flavour and a more yellowish colour.
Equivalents
1 cup, crumbled = 1/4 pound = 115g
Storage
Store refrigerated for up to a month, wrapped tightly in tin foil. To freeze, wrap first in plastic wrap, then in tin foil.
Literature & Lore
"A poet's hope: to be, like some valley cheese, local, but prized elsewhere." -- W.H. Auden
Also called:  Queso de Valdeón (Spanish)
See Also
Protected Designation of Origin
Other entries for Blue Cheeses
Beenleigh Blue Cheese, Bleu d'Auvergne, Bleu d'Causses, Bleu de Basque, Bleu de Gex, Bleu de Termignon, Blue Wensleydale, Buffalo Blue Cheese, Byland Blue Cheese, Cabrales Blue Cheese, Cambozola Cheese, Canterbury Blue Cheese, Caradon Blue Cheese, Cashel Blue Cheese, Cornish Blue Cheese, Crème de Saint Agur Cheese, Danish Blue Cheese, Devon Blue Cheese, Dorset Blue Vinney, Dunsyre Blue Cheese, Exmoor Blue Cheese, Fourme d'Ambert Cheese, Fourme de Montbrison Cheese, Gorgonzola Cheese, Guler Cheese, Harbourne Blue Cheese, Lanark Blue Cheese, Maytag Blue Cheese, Mrs Bells Blue Cheese, Oxford Blue Cheese, Penicillium Glaucum, Penicillium Roqueforti, Point Reyes Blue Cheese, Roquefort Cheese, Saint Agur Cheese, Shropshire Blue, Somerset Blue Cheese, Stilton, Strathdon Blue Cheese, Troo Bloo You Cheese, Valdeón Cheese
Other entries for Semi-Firm Cheeses
Appenzeller Cheese (Quarter Fat), Ardrahan Cheese, Asadero Cheese, Botton Cheese, Brunost Cheese, Caerphilly Cheese, Cantal Cheese, Carrigaline Farmhouse Cheese, Cheshire Cheese, Chèvre, Chihuahua Cheese, Cotherstone Cheese, Criollo Cheese, Danbo Cheese, Danish Fontina Cheese, Edam Cheese, Farmer's Cheese, Fontal Cheese, Gaperon Cheese, Grimbister Cheese, Jalapeño Cheese, Leerdammer Cheese, Liederkranz Cheese, Livarot Cheese, Maasdam Cheese, Manchego Cheese (Mexican), Monterey Jack Cheese, Morbier Cheese, Mozzarella Cheese, Pavé d'Auge Cheese, Pavé d'Isigny Cheese, Pavé de Berry Cheese, Penyston Cheese, Quartirolo Cheese, Queso con Loroco, Ricotta Salata Cheese, Tetilla Cheese, Vacherin Fribourgeois, Wensleydale Cheese
Other entries for Cheese
Affinage, American Cheeses, Casu Marzu, Cheese Rinds, Creamery, Double/Triple-Cream Cheese, Extra-Hard Cheeses, Firm Cheeses, Goat's Milk Cheeses, Mexican Cheeses, Pate (of a Cheese), Processed Cheese, Queso Fundido, Rennet, Sheep's Milk Cheeses, Skim-Milk Cheeses, Smear-Ripened Cheeses, Soft Cheeses, Surface-Ripened Cheeses, Sweet Curd Cheeses, The Crumblies, Truckle, Washed-Curd Cheeses, Washed-Rind Cheeses, Yak Cheese, Yeel Cheese
Other entries for Dairy
Butterfat, Butter, Milk, Nondairy Topping
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