Introduction-

 

 When I arrived in Oaxaca, I immediately noticed all the differences in the kinds of foods that people were eating here, as opposed to what people eat in New England. Tortillas are a necessary component to the meals, as well as beans, salsas, and very frequently CHEESE. As a vegetarian, I am always thinking about sources of protein in my diet, so I was, and still am, eating a lot of cheese.  I saw that the cheeses here are different, and there seemed to be a few that I would see on a regular basis. What were they? I eat a lot of cheese, and know a fair amount about American and European varieties, so I thought that it would be interesting to learn more about the cheeses that are being produced in consumed here in Oaxaca. I came up with some questions that I wanted to find out about the cheeses in Oaxaca, and even more questions during the course of my explorations about cheese in Oaxaca. I had no specific order of finding information about cheese. One discovery lead me to another.

 

Questions- Working backwards from table to farm:

 

How do Oaxacans eat/prepare cheese?

 

What kinds of cheeses are people buying in Oaxaca, and from what stores and markets?

 

Where is cheese produced that is being sold?

 

What are the basics of cheese making for quesillo and queso fresco?

 

Carrying out my research-

 

I started out doing internet research and looking for articles about cheese in Oaxaca and Mexico. I next visited a number of stores and markets where people bought and sold cheeses. I wanted to see all the types of cheeses that are available for people to buy in Oaxaca. I was able to conduct several interviews with cheese vendors and makers with Chris' very necessary translation help. In relation to how people eat cheese, I kept track of what meals and dishes I ate with cheeses, as well as looked in cookbooks to find cheese recipes.

 

Specific research dates-

 

19 March- Friday Llano Market

20 March- 20 de Noviembre Market and Soriana

26 March- Interview with Chef Juan Pablo Luna at Los Danzantes

28 March- Soriana Market 

3 April- Interviewed several cheese mongers at 20 de Noviembre, and went to Pitico to see what is being sold there.

6 April- Etla adventure

 

8 April- Project Done

16 April- Presentation

 

Background Information and answering my questions-

 

Cheese history in Oaxaca: 

 

Dairy culture was brought to Mexico by the Spanish in the 1500s. Meat and dairy were very important in the Spanish diet, so cows, sheep, and goats were brought to the New World, along with other European farm animals. These animals were primarily used for meat however. Because of the climate in Mexico, it was difficult for cows to produce milk year round. It used to be that only milking could occur in the rainy season when grasses were abundant. It is uncertain when people started consuming and making a lot of cheese in Mexico and Oaxaca, as it is not well documented. I wanted to learn about when people first started making quesillo in Oaxaca, and I could find no conclusive answers. It was thought that quesillo was first made in Reyes de Etla, and that the process was discovered by a young boy by accident. This sounds pretty unlikely. Another speculation is that quesillo making did not occur until after the 1950s, when an influx of Italian immigrants came to Oaxaca, who would have brought knowledge of making mozzarella cheese, because the two cheeses are made using the same method, known as Pasta Filata. However, it also seems as though quesillo was being made before the 1950s. So, my conclusions are that no one really knows the origins of this cheese. It is also suggested that milk and cheese production on a large scale did not start until the beginning of the 20th century, and that using cheese in Mexican cooking did not occur widely until around this time. (Lauden, 2008).

 

Lauden, R. (2008). Rachel Lauden: A Historian's take on food and food Politics. Accessed from <www.rachellauden.com>.

 

 

How do Oaxacans eat and prepare cheese?

 

I found Zarela Martinez’ cookbook,  The Food and Life of Oaxaca, to be helpful in looking up recipes for ways that cheeses are used in Oaxacan cooking, in conjuction with my daily experiences eating cheeses in dishes.

 

Some dishes that I found in the book include:

 

Chileajo is a snack that is a mixture of fried vegetables. Queso fresco or queso anejo are crumbled or grated, and used for a topping just before serving.

 

Chiles Verdes Rellenos , queso fresco is crumbled and used as a main ingredient in the filled for the chile.

 

Bocaditos de papa uses queso cotija. It is mixed in with an egg, potato mash, and is used to add more salt taste to the dish.

 

Queso en Salsa de Epazote uses quesillo Oaxaca to melt. Queso fresco can be used, but its melting properties are not the same. It doesn’t melt as much. The queso is added to a mixer of heated epazote and chile and water. It is allowed to boil and then cheese is added which thickens the sauce.

 

Tlayudas- quesillo Oaxaca is shredded onto this giant tortilla. The cheese melting is how you know the tlayuda is done cooking. This is very important.

 

Empanadas de Amarillo uses quesillo Oaxaca as a filler, along with mole Amarillo and shredded chicken, which is folded into a tortilla and cooked on a comal or skillet.

 

Tamales de Huitlacoche uses quesillo Oaxaca in the tamale filling, along with the huitlacoches, onions and chiles. I need to find one of theses.

 

Enchiladas Zapotecos use crumbled queso fresco or shredded quesillo as a topper for the rolled up tortilla.

 

Enfrijoladas  are tortillas cooked in bean  paste and are always topped with crumbled queso fresco.

 

Chilaquiles are tortillas cooked in salsa roja, and are topped with crumbled queso fresco.

 

There are a lot of uses from cheese in Oaxaca cooking. I have eaten a lot of dishes with cheese in my time here. From these recipes, I have a better understanding of when it is appropriate to use different cheese. Queso fresco seems to be a good topping for snacks and appetizers, and even main dishes. It can also be cooked in foods. I think that it holds its form better when it is cooked in things. Queso fresco in chile rellenos because retains its shape for the most part. Sometimes when it is cooked it has a bit of a squeaky texture when you chew it. I have also had queso fresco fried and/or cooked in salsa. This is a pretty good dish, though it is heavy on cheese. I have also has quesadillas with quesco fresco, which are much different than with quesillo. I have it for breakfast a lot in the city. Eggs with crumbled queso fresco cooked in is also pretty good.  Queso fresco also goes into tortilla soups, which I eat fairly often. The cheese doesn’t really stretch after it is melted.

 

Quesillo is great for cooking with, and is also good as a topper just shredded onto things, like tostadas or on top of snacks. Quesillo  melts really well when it is cooked with, and that is why a lot of people like to use it. It is used in a lot of the recipes that are listed above. I have not tried all of those, but I think that trying to cook some of these recipes would be good. I have eaten chiles rellenos that has quesillo in them which were very delicious. It also doesn’t burn easily, which is another good cooking property. In many searches about cooking with quesillo, I have learned that it is becoming a popular cheese for pizza, because it melts more than mozerella.

 

There are a lot of ways to incorporate cheese into dishes. It is a very common  ingredient, and I think that I have it in some form daily. From my experiences with it in dished, it is a good way to add saltiness to dishes, as well as to cut the spiciness of dishes.

 

What kinds of cheeses are people buying in Oaxaca, where do people purchase cheese, and where does the cheese come from?

 

The most prevalent types of cheese that are produced and consumed in Oaxaca include queso fresco and quesillo, which is probably apparent from the recipes above.  Acording to Martinez, “The abundant grasses of the central Oaxaca valley produce wonderful, slightly heb-like flavored milk that yields delicious cheeses. In the last few years some commercial approximations of the main types have been made in the U.S.”

 

Queso Cotija is also discussed in the book, as an aged queso fresco: “Cotija or queso cotija is usually made in large blacks cut into pieces on request by the retail grocer. It is a harder, saltier cheese that queso fresco, firm enough to be grated.”

 

Queso ańejo “means an aged cheese, and cotija is included in this category.” I have not encountered these aged cheeses in my cooking.

 

Panela is a queso fresco that is not salted to heavily, which I have used.

 

Other cheeses are produced in Oaxaca, but are not so commonly used in cooking. There are also imported cheeses.

There are many places that people can buy cheese in and around the city. In Oaxaca, I have been to the 20 de Noviembre market, the Soriana, the organic market, and Friday Llano market, and  the Pitico on Reforma looking for cheese. Each have given me some insight on what kind of cheese  what people are buying.

 

 Soriana:

 

Part of the cheese island in the Soriana supermarket.

 

I went to the Soriana grocery store to look more closely at the selection of cheese that they sold. I observed that all the cheese sold is either prepackaged from a large company or Soriana brand. There was a fair amount of bulk cheese sold that was various brands.

 

Some background information on Soriana- (http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www1.soriana.com/)

 

There are 471 locations throughout Mexico. It is a Mexican owned chain. From what I can tell, it seems to operate kind of like Wal-mart by buying in bulk and selling things for cheaper. It is headquarters is in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Mexico, and has about 18 distribution centers throughout the country. So, this company is moving around a lot of dairy products.

 

Types of cheese being sold:

Queso Oaxaca, manchego, gouda, panela, queso Chihuahua, blue cheese (queso azul), American cheese, parmesan, cream cheese, goat cheese (most prevalent)

 

Bands of cheeses (most prevalent):

 

Soriana-  bulk manchego and chihuahua, queso Oaxaca

La Villita- manchego, queso Oaxaca, panela, Americano, Chihuahua

Bafar- manchego, gouda

Fud- manchego

Edam- Blue cheese, “bola campesina”- mystery cheese that looked aged, and Edam

Kraft- American, pre-grated parmesan, philidelphia cream cheese, cheese sauce

Lala-  queso Oaxaca, panela, fresco, cojito

Parma-  parmesan, grated parmesan,

El Ciervo- fundido Americano (liquid bag cheese),queso Oaxaca, manchego,  chihuahua

Burr-  manchego,

Nestle- manchego

Esmeralta- queso panela

Mariposa- queso Oaxaca, machego, shredded  mozzarella

Chalet- manchego, gouda

Lazarote- goat cheese

Bel Paese- parmesan  made in Uruguay

 

I am positive that I missed some things. However, I think that it is clear that this has many different types of cheeses and brands. I thought that the brands were more unique until I started researching them and discovering that they were part of the same large companies.

 

I decided to look further into the different companies that are selling the cheese. I found out that most of these brands are owned by the same company: Sigma Alimentos. This is the largest distributer of frozen foods and refridgerated processed foods in Mexico.  Its Products are sold in Mexico, the U.S. El Salvador, Costa Rice, Honduras, the D.R., Nicaragua and Guatemala. From what I can tell from its webpage, it has been buying up smaller companies throughout the 1990s and up until today.

 

The cheese/dairy companies under the umbrella of this company include FUD, Chen, Noche Buena, La Villita, Chalet, Franja, Euginia, Camelia, Normex, Country Valley, Laughing Cow (La vaca que reir), Del Prado, Norteno, Sosua, Liston Rojo, La Chona, and PlayerO.

(http://www.sigma-alimentos.com/)

 

I next found out that it is part of a larger Mexican group- Alfa. It is comprised of  “Alpek (petrochemicals), Nemak (high tech aluminum auto components), Sigma (refrigerated food) and Alestra (telecommunications)”.  This is an even larger company!  This is a multinational company.  “ALFA is Mexico’s leading producer of processed meats and cheese and one of the most important telecommunications services companies in Mexico.”

(http://www.alfa.com.mx/NC/profile.htm)

 

So, of the cheese listed above, there was FUD, Noche Buena, La Villita, Chalet, La vaca que reir. There may have been others that I missed. I think that it is pretty wild that all of these are being sold in the same store, and that each brand essentially is selling the same products.

 

Another larger processed food company is Grupo Bafar, which is also a Mexican company. It produces food with Mexican flavors and is about to start importing food into the United States.  It also focuses on the cheese, meats, and  frozen food area. The food brands that are part of Grupo Bafar include Bafar, Parma, Campestre, Sabori, Burr, Montebello, Pery, Tres Castillos, All American, BIF, Carne Mart, and Fres-ke-cito.

(http://www.grupobafar.com/)

 

So, I saw Bafar, Parma, Sabori, and Burr and the Soriana that I took note of.

 

Lala- Grupo Lala I found to be also very interesting. They sell a variety of cheeses, as well as other dairy products which you can find in the Soriana, as well as most tiendas and markets in Oaxaca. Looking at the company history, it began with as a kind of cooperative of a few dairy farmers in Mexico has been expanding and becoming more industrialized since then. It has also expanded  into the United States by acquiring National Dairy, which was one of the main dairy producers in the United States. You can now buy Lala products in the West and Southwestern areas of the U.S., some parts of the Mid-West.

(http://lala.com.mx/en/ubicacion/index.html)

 

Other large companies were Kraft and Nestle. I was surprised that Nestle makes cheese, but I guess that makes sense because it is a giant diary producing company. I couldn’t find out about where it sources milk for its cheese/Mexican products, but I would assume that it is not from local farmers. Looking at packages, it seems like “milk products,” not milk are main ingredients in cheese.  The general feeling that I got from looking at the cheese and the ingredients, is there were more ingredients that just milk and the necessary additives in these industrial cheese, such vegetable oils, milk solids, water…

 

I think that these types of cheeses from large corporations fits the Soriana model. By this I mean that Soriana is a large corporation, is found all over Mexico. I would think that it would be easier to distribute the same products, rather than to source more local products. Products from large corporations are more cost effective and easy to distribute, even thought the quality is probably lesser. People must be buying these cheeses, otherwise I do not see why there would be so many different varieties and brands. I wonder if these cheeses move quickly.

 

What I think is interesting  is the Mexico-U.S. milk/dairy/cheese exchange. It seems like the supply and products, at least on the large-scale industrial business level, are becoming more integrated. I think that it might be comforting for Mexican who migrate to the U.S. to be able to get products with Mexican flavors and textures (I emphasize the flavor part), which are familiar to them. This also brings up the question, are these the types of cheeses that people are used to eating. In my home stay, I will see American cheese hanging out in the fridge. I have seen it used once though. Generally we are eating quesillo from the market by our house or queso fresco, also from the market by our house. So, is this the same in other households? Also, people might get accustomed to eating cheeses that are commonly found in the United States and create some kind of market for them in Mexico.  I clearly have a lot more questions that I probably will not be able to find the answers to.

 

I am seeing a theme of consolidation in the milk/cheese supply in Oaxaca. Most of the local cheese (quesillo and queso fresco) come from Etla. This seems to be the main region of dairy production in Oaxaca. I don’t know how many small producers of cheese and dairy there are, or how many people are only eating dairy from local farms, if that is even possible.

 

What’s the Deal With Manchego?

 

I did some research and about Manchego cheese, because it though that it was interesting that Soriana was selling so much of it. A quick search on Wikipedia (sorry), told me that it is a region specific cheese that can only be made with milk from Manchego sheeps. The cheese has a hard brown casing and varies from color from whites to ivories. It can be sold at different ages, and depending on the age it has different uses and flavors and  hardness.  The manchego that I observed in the Soriana was a light yellowish color, and had no casings.

 

Mexican Manchego, I found, is much different than what it is in Spain. It is a cow milk cheese, rather than sheeps, and is more of a variety of semi-soft cheese (rather than semi-hard like its Spanish mother). It does not have a rind. For cooking, it is used for its melting properties. It was also compared to Monterey Jack cheese. I thought that this was interesting. I think that Mexico has taken European cheese styles and made them  their own, such as quesilla (similar to mozzarella or Labanese string cheese, or panela cheese being influenced by greek cheeses.

(http://cheese.about.com/od/cheeseofmexico/p/mexican_manchego.htm)

 

Pitico

 

There was less of a cheese selection here. The Piticos I have seen around have seemed to be like “Cumberland Farms.” The cheeses that were being sold here included mostly pre-sliced Americna style cheeses from Kraft and Chalet brands. There was also a Kraft  sauce in the same case by the meat section. In a smaller cooler they were selling Lala panela style cheese, a queso fresco and quesillo from Etla (Guadalajara). There was a second type of quesillo from Etla and I could not find the name of the farm on the label. Because the Pitico seems to be more a convenient store, it would make sense that they would not be selling a lot of cheese or products that do not have a long shelf life. The majority of the store is non-perishable items.

 

20 de Noviembre

 

This market is one of the largest in the city. They sell food, clothing, toys, bags, pets- almost anything you could think of. Of course, there are a lot of cheese mongers in this market.

 

Stands Selling cheese that I have seen: La Gloria, La Especial, Las 7 Regiones,  La Economica, Cremeria Mary, Cremeria Almita, El Parvenir, Queseria Oaxaqueńa, Queseria Oaxaqueńita, Milagrosa, Tonita, as well as several women with tables set up near enterances selling only cheese. With Chris’ help, I spoke with women from Queseria Faby, Norma, and Angelita.

 

What is interesting about most of the vendors selling cheese, is that they need to diversify their products. Most have expanded their inventory to include all products from Oaxaca: chocolate, mezcal, packaged tortillas, dried spices, mole paste, and some canned goods among other items. These cheese vendors were only selling qesillos and queso fresco. I saw a few places -Queserilla Oaxaqueńa and Tonita-  selling panela and panela botana which has epazote and chile. These places were larger and the majority of what was being sold was cheese and dairy products.

 

Interviews with Market Women (3 April 2011)

 

Sra. Norma from Queseria Norma:

 

Sra. Norma has been working at the same stall in 20 de Noviembre for 15 years. The cheeses that she was selling included quesillo  and queso fresco. She buys the cheese that she sells from a man in Narzareno Etla. This is a smaller part of Etla. The cheeses that are produced in Etla are produced in the smaller Pueblos around Etla. The other parts of Etla where cheese is produced includes Reyes and Guadelupe that she mentioned that are in the county of Etla. She was able to give us a contact to a cheese maker in Etla to a woman named Sra. Cruz. We also learned that her other family members are selling cheese s close to her in the market. We spoke with her niece prior, who was working at Queseria Faby. Because of this, she said that there was not a lot of competition selling cheeses in the Market.

 

Sra. Norma of Queseria Norma in 20 de Noviembre, selling some queso fresco.

 

Sra. Norma's quesillo, up close and personal!

 

Sra. Norma’s Niece at Queserilla Faby:

 

We asked about who produces the cheese. She said that she knew the son of the producer of the cheese, not the producer himself. She sells three types of quesillos- descremada (lower fat), cremosa, and doble crema. The way that the quesillo is sold to the vendor is in 6-7 kilo balls. From this, they vendor makes smaller balls in 0.25, 0.75 and 1.5 kilo balls. This is the same procedure at Queseria Norma. The cheese also comes from a region of Etla.

 

We next asked about the quality of quesillos. She answered that there are three qualities that she sold- descremada, cremosa, and doble crema. She said that the doble crema is the best. From what I interpreted, it seems like flavor and fat content dictates what makes quesillo good, because she said that the doble crema is the best. It has a mild, buttery flavor and has a high fat content.

 

We also learned some information about cheese prices. The price of cheeses made in Oaxaca recently increased. She told us that this was because there is less food and pasture of the cattle. The producers are likely having to buy in feed, so that would increase prices. Once the rainy season begins, she said that the prices would likely go down. She also told us that the government has the ability to control the prices of milk and other food items, such as mezcal.

 

We also learned a few things about keeping quesillo. Because it is in brine, it can be kept out of the fridge of about a week. After that, it will keep for up to a month in the refrigerator. Keeping cheese out of the refrigerator in the U.S. would absolutely be violating some food  safety law, so it is interesting to see the differences in food storage practices.

 

 

Niece of Sra. Norma, working at Queseria FABY in 20 de Noviembre.

 

 

Angela at Queseria Aneglita:

 

Angela has been working at the same stand in 20 de Noviembre for 60 years! She was not part of the same family as the previous vendors, and thus perceived a lot of competition between the vendors in the market. She has been selling the same Oaxacan products since she started working, with a more recent addition of mezcal.

 

We learned a little more about the process of making the cheeses. She says that cheese is made fresh daily and brought to her. The peoples who make the cheese, she said, work at night or very early in the morning because it takes many hours to make the cheese. If they work at 3 a.m., they can get it to the market around 7 a.m.  So, quesillo is a very fresh cheese that does not need to be aged. 

 

She also buy cheese in large balls of about 5 or 6 kilos. She buys these balls for about 90 pesos, and will sell 0.75 kilo balls of quesillo for about 30 or 40 pesos. These cheese vendors are making a pretty nice profit.

 

She told us that quesillo is very popular in other parts of Mexico, such as the North. Quesillo will get flown out to the North. It does not go to the United States.

 

Other types of cheeses get imported into Oaxaca. Doble Crema (not the same as the quesillo) is imported from Chiapas. Puebla also imports a type of cheese called Poblano, which she described as a pre-grated powdery cheese.

 

Sra. Angela of Queseria Angelita in 20 de Noviembre Market.

 

 Specialty cheeses found elsewhere?

 

I spoke with a woman who sells goat cheese at the Pochote market on Saturdays. The farm  is called “Las Cabrillas” and is located in San Juan Chilateca. She sells a variety of goat cheeses, including hard and soft cheese. The soft cheese is plain, with herbs, with nuts, or with chiles. She also sells goat milk and goat milk yogurt, as well as flavored cheese spreads. She is pretty diversified. I also saw some eggs that she was selling.

 

Daniel helped me translate a few questions that I had. I learned that she has been making cheese for 8 years, and she started because she had a bunch of goats and making cheese and other goat milk products seemed like something worthwhile to do.

 

Goat milk cheese is not a traditional cheese in Oaxaca. Cow milk is what is traditionally used. There is not a big market for goat cheese because it is not traditional and people are not used to it. There is however, a specialty market that is more geared towards tourists. This was pretty obvious looking around the market that we were at, which was mostly tourists. She also sells to restaurants and other specialty food stores.

 

Though goat cheese is not the main focus of my study, I think that this is pretty interesting information. I don’t think that too many Oaxacans are eating goat cheese. In my home-stay we really only eat queso fresco and quesillo, and sometimes queso de Chiapas. I have eaten a lot of goat cheese in restaurants, such as Biznaga, and have seen it on other menus of restaurants that cater for tourists mainly.

 

I also spoke with the head Chef at Los Danzantes, Juan Pablo Luna. He also uses goat cheese in several dishes in his menu, however he is getting it from another source. This tells me that multiple people are producing goat cheese in Oaxaca. He also has a special hard cheese that a man close to the coast produces for the restaurant. I have no really seen hard cheese, or heard of hard cheeses (other than the hard goat cheese) being produced and sold in Oaxaca.

 

Cheeses in Villages outside of Oaxaca city:

 

In Teotitlan

 

We ate four meals a day with our host families in Teotitlan. In this time we encountered a lot of cheese. What I noticed is that we only ate quesillo and queso fresco with our meals. They were both used more as toppings for our dishes. The only time is was used as a main ingredient was when we had chile rellenos for comida. Cheese was very much incorporated into the daily cooking of this family. From what I heard, it seemed like other homestays were eating a lot of cheese, in dishes for toppings, as well as quesadillas and chiles rellenos.

 

One day the group ventured into the main market in the morning, and I decided to scope out the cheese vendors. Walking around, there were a lot of places to buy cheese. The majority of the cheeses were traditional cheese. A few places were selling packaged cheeses that looked like pseudo-American cheeses. There were only a few places selling this, so I am guessing that there is not a high demand for this type of cheese. We never ate it, and I did not hear from anyone else staying in Teotitlan that they had eaten it.

 

I decided to ask our host mom about the cheese that she buys. She said that she buys cheese in the main market in town, and comes from either Etla or from Tule. She also told me that there was no cheese production in Teotitlan because there was no room for milk producing animals to graze. From what I observed, it seemed like adding more animals to the landscape would be very degrading to the land as well. It already suffered a lot from overuse. The cattle that I did see, I was told for meat consumption.

 

 In Apoala

 

Apoala was much different than Teotitlan for a number of reasons. Geographically, it is much more isolated. We had to drive a couple of hours on dirt mountain roads in order to get there. Dairy-wise, people don’t drink milk. It is not produced in this area. Because of this, cheese is not eaten either. No milk means no cheese. A lot of people in the community had animals, however. There were a lot of goats and sheep. The cows there were only for meat consumption, but this only happened for celebrations about once a year. The main foods, it seemed like, are corn, wheat and beans. The community was very much subsistence based, and it seemed that not a lot of food was being imported. To get food, they would have to drive to a market a few hours away. Cheese is just not part of the diet. It would not make sense for people to import it because the village is so isolated.

 

Someone raised the question about people starting to milk goats for milk consumption. Indigenous people have issues digesting cow milk, and goat milk has different properties that makes it easier to digest. Given what we learned, I don’t think that people would want to do this. From what we gathered about the vegetable production, it seemed that people were only producing vegetables to sell, and that they were not being eaten daily. People don’t want to bother learning how to cook them, I feel like it would be the same with milk unless it was turned into a value-added and export operation. Also, I think that people in Apoala had enough to do daily with their fields and animals.

               

How is quesillo and queso fresco produced?

 

Wild Adventures in Etla

 

After doing a lot of talking with people in the markets about where fresh cheeses are coming from, I decided to go to the source of local fresh cheeses- Etla! I went on their market day, which is every Wednesday, but I got the most help from the people who sell their cheeses in the daily market.

 

With translating help from Chirs, I spoke with Engrasia Genovea Carasco Dias, who sells queso fresco and milk daily at the market. Her stand is called “Leche y queso Dońa Bety”. She lives about 15 minutes outside of the center of Etla, in a pueblo called Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo. She keeps five Holstein cows at her house and they live inside. She said that she owns parcels of  land that are very spaced out, and taking her cows to these areas to graze is too difficult. This is why she keeps them at home. The cows are fed a diet of alfalfa, and a grain mix of corn, sorghum, and possibly some other grains. I asked her if she thought that the breed of cows or what the cows were eating affects the flavor of the cheese because there are a lot of place specific cheeses in Europe, such as Manchego, Mozzerella di bufala campana, Parmigiano, and Brie, to name a few out of hundreds. She said that she did not think that either affected the flavor of the cheese. She has had 42 years of experience milking and making cheese, where she has had different types of cows and has been feeding them different things. Other types of cows give you different qualities of milk. For example, Jersey cows don’t produce as much milk as a Holstein, but the milk is more desirable for cheese making because it has a higher fat content. She said that people have Jersey cows, and some with hybrids of dairy cows with beef cattle, which produce milk. There are also some Brown Swiss cows.

 

Engrasia also talked about how she milks her cows by hand. She says because of this her cows do not get mastitis, which is a disease that affects the cow’s utters and is dangerous if it gets into milk. She says that there are some dairy farmers that have problems with this if they are using machines to milk their cows. No one has large machines though. The largest is about 4 cows at a time.  She also said that sometimes she will clean the cows utters with a mix of water and Clorox to reduce chance of infection . We asked if there were any very large dairies, and she responded that the larger ones are mostly in the pueblo of Reyes.

 

It seemed like Engrasia’s family was very involved with cheese making. She herself, did not make the cheese. Her sister was in charge of that, and she sometimes comes to the stand to help sells cheese. Her family had been involved in cheese making for generations- since before her grandparents, her mother’s side of the family has been  involved in producing cheese. From this, I think it would be safe to say that there has always been a tradition of dairy production in Etla county. Engrasia also said that she really likes her work, and that there is not a lot of competition with the other cheese vendors in the market. People choose their cheese vendors depending on the flavors of the cheese, who the vendor is, etc… We tried a little of the queso fresco that Engrasia was selling. It has a barnyard salty flavor when eating it and a buttery after taste. The texture was spongy and very moist.

 

From talking with Engrasia, I learned what type of cows people are using to milk, that there are not any very large dairy farms. It seems like people have cows at their houses and they milk them and either sell the milk or make cheese at home.

 

After speaking with Engrasia, she told us that we needed to go find out what “cuajo,” which she described as a necessary additive to milk during the cheese making process. She pointed us in the direction of people selling barbeque, or something to that effect.

 

On the table was a mass of salted grey matter. We learned from the people at the eatery, that people come here to buy guajo for making queso and quesillo. It makes to milk coagulate. We realized what we were looking at was rennet. The rennet that the cheese makers in Etla use comes from the cow stomach. The vendors described it as being towards the rear of the cow. We also learned that this is the natural way of making cheese. There is also a synthetic milk coagulant that a lot of cheese makers use.

 

Cuajo= rennet =cow stomach lining

 

Finding the Cheese makers:

 

We now decided that it would be a good idea to try to find someone who makes cheese to describe the process. We went to the pueblo of Nazareno, where a vendor in 20 de Noviembre says she gets her cheese from. We quickly that the mid-afternoon is the wrong time of day to learn about making cheese. Cheese is only made during the early morning or later at night. We did meet several people in town who made cheese, but were unwilling to explain. After wondering, asking, searching, and asking again, we finally found someone who was willing to explain the process of making quesillo to us!

 

According to Professor Arthur R. Hill at the University of Guelph,  “Cheese making can be described as the process of removing water, lactose and some minerals from milk to produce a concentrate of milk fat and protein. The essential ingredients of cheese are milk, coagulating enzyme (rennet), bacterial cultures and salt.” We met with Robert to learn how to do this. Roberto has been working for his father-in-law making cheese for about 7 or 8 years. The cheese gets sold in the markets in Etla and also in Oaxaca city. He was not specific about which markets, but 20 de Noviembre is a safe bet. To learn how to make the cheese, we went into a room that was the size of a large closet. Inside there was a trough of milk, a place for a pot to heat, and a strange metal funnel looking machine. Here Roberto described how you get from milk to cheese.

 

Here we have milk, waiting to coagulate to form cheese curds.

 

This is the synthetic rennet, or rennin, that was being used by the cheese maker.

 

 

The entire process takes about 11 hours. The first step, you put the milk into a large vat. Here, you add the rennet, and the milk will start to coagulate and float to the bottom of the trough, and the cream rises. This takes about 40 minutes. The rennet that Roberto showed us was a chemical coagulant. I thought this was interesting after learning about the natural cuajo that we saw at the market. “Rennet causes the milk proteins to aggregate and ultimately transform fluid milk to a semi-firm gel. When this gel is cut into small pieces (curds), the whey (mostly water and lactose) begins to separate from the curds. Acid production by bacterial cultures is essential to aid expulsion of whey from the curd and largely determines the final cheese moisture, flavour and texture”(Hill 2011). After the milk curdles, Roberto uses his hands and moves the curds to one side of the trough, to for a large ball. The ball is left on one side, and all of the liquid is removed from the vat. This is used to make crema. The metal funnel object (the descremadora) is used to process the excess liquid into cream. We were able to try some. It tasted like butter- delicious.

 

 

 

Roberto holding the cheese curds that have dropped to the bottom of the vat.

 

The next step is taking the ball of curds and letting it rest to ferment. This will be used for making cheese the next day because the curds need time to ferment a little. At this point, the cheese has not been salted. We the curd has settled enough after a day, it is put into a large pot, and heats it by adding boiling water. After it is heated, it turns into a gummy ball. After this step, more hot water is added to the pot, along with a little cold water. After this step, the ball of cheese is stretched into ribbons, and from here you can wrap it into a ball like you see in the markets. It takes about 10 liters of milk to make 1 kilo of quesillo. The process of heating the cheese curd is known as “pasta filata,” and is used for cheeses such as mozzarella and Labanese braided cheeses (Hill 2011).  

 

This is cheese curd that needs to sit overnight before it goes through the boiling and stretching process.

 

At the cheese maker we visited, they are making about 70 or 80 kilos of quesillo daily. You don’t need a large space to produce a lot of cheese I guess. For 1 kilo of quesillo, they are earning about 30 or 40 pesos. In the markets, quesillo is sold for about 20 pesos for a quarter of a kilo. The vendors are making quite a profit from this cheese, as I stated before. Roberto also said that a liter of milk is about 7 pesos- which I think is roughly 28 pesos for a gallon. This is pretty cheap as well.

 

What I found interesting was that the milk that is used to make the cheese at here, was purchased from a number of different farms around Etla. By farms, this probably means people’s homes how have 5 or 6 cows. I wondering where all the cows were when we got to Etla, and I am pretty certain that they are in just in people’s backyards. I also wondered about how many other cheese producers in the pueblos of Etla buy milk and only make the cheese as well. I still would like to find out if there are any larger dairies, or what are the largest dairies: how many cows, how much milk and cheese gets produced from them, etc… These questions have yet to be answered, and unfortunately, I do not have the time to explore this further.  I also think that it would be interesting to find out if dairy farmers and/or cheese makers organize themselves in anyway, like in the form of a union or cooperative, or if everyone is going there own things, making and selling cheese on their own?

 

Source: Hill, A. R. (2011) Department of Food Science at University of Guelph, Canada. Accessed from <http://www.foodscience.uoguelph.ca/cheese/sectiona.htm>. 

 

 

 

Reflection-

 

Clearly I have gathered a lot of information about the cheese in Oaxaca. Most of it was about quesillo, but I also found information about other types of cheese that people are buying from open air markets and supermarkets in the city, as well as learned a little about dairy culture in various villages. Cheese is a large part of the city diet, but out in the campo and mountains where there are less resources, animals are used for meat. I enjoyed doing an exploration of industrial produced cheeses at the supermarket as well. It was an eye-opening tangent that showed that Mexico has many of the same corporate consolidation models in their food system as the U.S. does.  I’ve also learned that cheese making is somewhat of a family practices, at least in the villages in Etla. The people we spoke with all seemed to have families with long cheese making histories. Despite this, I found it interesting that I was unable to find an exact history about when quesillo first started being produced in Oaxaca. However, tradition cheese making is also undergoing a change, as more people are using synthetic rennin to produce cheese, and some people are using industrial methods, as well as industrial methods being used to mass produce quesillo by companies such as LALA. I found a lot of unintended information, that I thought was exciting.

 

There were many highlights and challenges during the course of this project. The first challenge was actually choosing a topic that I wanted to do a project on and narrowing it down. What worked for me was having a flexible question that I could expand or shorten if need be. But, this did take quite a bit of time. I think the best parts of the project were being able to talk to cheese vendors and cheese makers about what they do and what they know about cheese. This was so exciting for me because I have never conducted research like this for a project. Overall, it made me less apprehensive about going up to people and asking questions. This was a learning and growing experience for me. Another simultaneous highlight and challenge was going to find cheese makers in Etla. It took probably over an hour in the extreme heat trying to find someone to help us find a cheese maker who would just explain to us the process. We finally found someone, I learned almost firsthand about how quesillo is made, which was exciting for me. A final challenge is not being able to find answers to the questions I have after my experiences. I find this a little frustrating until I look back at what I do know and what I have done.

 

 

 

        

A cheese maker selling her top-notch quesillo and queso fresco in the 20 de Noviembre Market.